Varying shades of hatred for Washington that drove Timothy McVeigh to commit the Oklahoma City bombing 15 years ago are on parade again in the streets. McVeigh's deranged dream of inciting a national insurrection against Washington by bombing a federal building failed in 1995 and has no chance of succeeding today.
Pathetic protestors promoting the moronic mission of "taking back our country" through mob power are up against impregnable forces, the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
They forget or never learned the bedrock principle of U.S. citizenship—that "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America."
So, it's "we the people" who for 223 years through a democratic system have elected government now being assailed as too big, too overbearing and too costly, and defiled by the likes of crackpot Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann as a "gangster government."
Standing by as allies to take on the feds are featherbrained "militia" warriors playacting in the woods with smoke bombs and painted faces.
The anti-government crowd comes in several shapes—racists who detest a black president, opportunists such as Sarah Palin who has conned $12 million from adoring suckers, privileged protesters who don't understand the costs or benefits of government, TV hate-mongers and a few budding Timothy McVeighs.
During eight years of President George W. Bush, they didn't raise a ruckus about the largest federal spending and government expansion in history (except World War II), illegal wiretaps, no-bid contracts for corrupt cronies or a war based on lies.
Where would this swaggering pack now cut government that's "too big?" End Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (more than 50 percent of federal spending)? Yank troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan? Kill the space program? End farm subsidies? Nix aid to Israel? Eliminate research on cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease? Suspend crackdowns on polluters and Wall Street crime?
Truth is, they would only cut programs that benefit "the other guy," but not programs that they demand for themselves.
Instead of filling the air with bellicose threats, they should try "taking back our country" the customary American way—finding and electing candidates who share their sappy ideas.
If they can.
