America was born out of violent dissent. When the British colonists took up arms to protect what they saw as their God-given rights as human beings, it was to "assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them." For the first time in human history, ordinary people were willing to commit violent revolutionary acts to achieve that aim.
For them, the government had become overbearing and "tyrannical." After England stopped fighting, the new Americans set about creating a government that wouldn't require a revolution to maintain their hard-won liberty.
They set out to make their new government far less important in citizens' lives.
No longer would a king be able to meddle in their most private and intimate affairs. No longer would a parliament in which they had no representation be able to minutely control their commerce.
The new government would lay a gentle hand on the people and allow for maximum freedom.
But the Founders also recognized the grasping nature of human beings, who will always seek to aggrandize their power.
"You arm officials with the power to protect you; but those officials have the same fallen human nature as everyone else, so who is to say that they won't use that power to oppress you, as European governments had oppressed the colonists' forebears?" asks the Manhattan Institute.
Liberals have taken the opposite view. They see the exercise of government power, especially to effect "social change," as a positive good. Once you start down that road, there's no turning back. The government is seen as a weapon to be wielded for "justice" or "change."
When someone's idea of "justice" or "change" isn't forthcoming, government is seen as an existential threat. This has led to the uptick in political violence and the attempts on the life of the president.
Modern politicians don't even pretend to represent people who aren't their fervent supporters. In Virginia, where congressional votes split 51.4 percent for Democrats in 2024 and 47.6 percent for Republicans, resulting in six seats held by Democrats and five by the GOP, voters just approved a measure overtly intended to gerrymander districts in favor of the donkey party. The new map could give Democrats 10 of the state's 11 seats.
The Virginia vote follows on a similar effort in Texas to favor Republicans.
After anti-administration "No Kings" rallies across the country last October of the sort attended by alleged would-be assassin Allen, Trump shared an AI-generated video of him shit-bombing protesters. He said of attendees, "they're not representative of this country."
His rivals are equally dismissive of opposition. In 2022, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul directed Republicans to "just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong….Because you don't represent our values. You are not New Yorkers." That was about the time then-President Joe Biden lectured the country that "MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution."
"American politicians now treat government as a weapon to be used against opponents. Many members of the public perceive — correctly — that they're despised by those who wield the power of the state," writes J.D. Tuccille in Reason. Powerless people are fearful people.
"Democrats and Republicans are increasingly likely to dislike each other and to feel hostile toward members of the other political party," YouGov's Eli McKown-Dawson wrote of recent polls that the company conducted.
"Vote as if your life depends on it" was a hysterical get-out-the-vote campaign by Kamala Harris supporters in 2024. What must the Founders have thought about that?
Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and co-author Jane Nitze warned in a 2024 Atlantic essay, "If in this country law has always been king, its empire has never been so expansive. More than ever, we turn to the law to address any problem we perceive. More than ever, we are inclined to use national authorities to dictate a single answer for the whole country." Gorsuch and Nitze wrote Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law.
"Too much law," indeed. There are more than 180,000 pages of regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. Each and every regulation has the full force and effect of law. Ignorance of the law is not a legal defense.
People don't take shots at the president or look to beat up their political opponents over regulations or laws. They do it because social media as well as news and opinion media inundate them with dire warnings about the "end of America" or some other highly unlikely scenario coming to pass. Neither side is a threat to our liberties on its own, but both sides together will eventually destroy us, unless we find a way to disagree without trying to kill each other.
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