It has been reported that more than 40% of registered Republicans think that, in the next few years, an armed insurrection will be required in order for Americans to protect their freedom. Except for the "armed" part, I agree, but my guess is me and the 40% are going to be on opposite sides since I'm pretty sure we are not talking about the same kind of "freedom". The country I hope we are evolving into - hell, the planet I hope we are evolving into - is as much freedom "from" things as it is "of" things.

For example, I hope for a world where black people are free from being, "niggers"; gay people from being "faggots", and Latinos from being "spics". Whatever the derogating names any race or tribe has for any other race or tribe need to all fade away into the dark ages of history. We will (probably) always break up into tribes, but that doesn't mean my tribe has to think of yours as being inferior or somehow less than human. "Niggers" and "faggots" are both descriptions I have overheard in the last 12 hours, and both from people who fall into the 40%. What ever it is they are going to protect with their armed insurrection, universal civil liberty certainly isn't included.

That same 40% appear to be mostly Christian with a kind of even split between Catholics and American Protestants. Their idea of "freedom of religion" is the freedom to impose one particular religious ideology on everyone else; an idea so utterly twisted up I'm not sure how they actually say it without cackling like mad people. How they work out between them which particular religious ideology gets the nod would be an ugly thing to watch, a second armed insurrection to figure out who really won the first one would be my guess. The best thing is to hope they never get the first one.

Given that the 40% are largely made of T-baggers, and T-baggers are largely (even the ones so stupid as to not realize it) serve at the pleasure of the Corporate elite, will they be fighting to protect a 40 hour work week, over-time pay, sick leave, workplace safety, and vacation time? I suspect they will be fighting to end those things in the name of "free enterprise" and "capitalism".  My hope is that a peaceful insurrection protects and expands all of these at the expense of corporate profiteering. As the drug and insurance corporations are making huge profits off the of the current health care system, I wouldn't guess the armed insurgents would be fighting for universal health care either.

These are also the folks who make up the anti-science, anti-education contingent of our floundering society. What is the chance they will be fighting for a quality education for every child, public financing for education through 4 years of collage, and to keep creationism out of the science class? If history shows us anything it is Stupid always teaches more stupid.

But it may be that something else is going on. A free society doesn't need, and in fact can't survive, the kind of robber baron capitalism currently dismantling the American economy. Nor can a free society exist with a government working against the vested interests of the majority. The armed insurrection the 40% of Republicans see coming may actually lead mostly to the dismantling of those crumbing foundations. The 40% may succeed in bringing down their masters to the benefit of all, then self destruct in a orgy of infighting. Catholics and Protestants, supply-side worshipers and working poor with guns and attitude; just being old (or late middle aged) white guys is not going to be enough to keep them from each other's throats.

But the chances of this actually happening are slim. Self described Republicans make up roughly 27% of Americans, 27 out of 100. Only 40% of that group is bat-shit crazy enough to dream of an armed revolution. So that 27 would round up to 11 whole people. Barely 11% think an armed insurrection might be necessary. How many of them would actually pick up a gun an aim it at a fellow American? I know they are fucked up, but are many of them that fucked up? The first people they will be shooting at are cops and military types ... and in that gun fight, (particularly with the military) they are sure to loose. So when the armed insurrection starts about 11 out of 100 are going to get mowed down pretty quickly, and for the most part those will be the bat-shit crazy fringe of the far right T-party nut cases. And they will have started it.

Sad, I know. Tragic even, the deluded lead to their demise by the likes of the Brothers Koch, Rush, Ted, Sarah, Glen, Michele, and the Fox News propaganda machine. How much do you want to bet on two things; 1) none of the aforementioned will actually be in the line of fire, and 2) Fox News finds that their access to the public airwaves has been revoked? After the gun smoke clears Rush and Co. are going to have a far smaller audience, Ted will be short some votes (assuming he isn't in jail for treason) and Glen will have surly lost what little remains of his mind and find himself in a institution getting the help he so desperately needs.

On the other hand 89% of Americans will have watched a corporate backed, right wing Christian insurgency open fire on cops and military boys and girls in order to restrict civil rights and force their brand of religion on a free nation. The backlash will be wonderful. Not only will civil rights and freedom FROM religion be at the top of the national consciousness but so will rational gun control (since all of the insurgents will look bat-shit crazy in the aftermath). And should corporate money be traced to backing the insurgency with the avowed attempt of bringing down a democracy? So much for crony capitalism...most of the cronies will end up behind bars. And really, who is it that thinks the military has not already hacked a copy of the NRA membership list? Once the shooting starts anyone on that list is likely to find themselves being treated as an "enemy combatant". (Another reality waiting for the bat-shit crazy? There are a lot of progressive people who actually do love freedom and democracy, who desire rational gun control, who own guns, and who wouldn't hesitate to shoot corporate insurgents bent on taking their freedoms from them. Surprise!)

An armed rebellion by the bat-shit crazy would be a truly horrible thing. Fortunately the odds of it happening appear to be vanishingly small. It isn't that I don't think they are stupid enough to try it. But stupid enough to try it needs to be coupled with brave enough to die for it.  And I doubt they are brave enough. Bullies and blow hards mostly, good at shooting targets and unarmed animals. Shooting at cops and military personnel with a pretty good chance of getting killed in return, and pretty quickly at that? I don't think they have it in them.

Which, I suspect, is something their corporate masters think as well.