Is a Peaceful Rebellion Against Tyranny Possible?

Thomas Jefferson’s great quote about the “tree of liberty” remains one of the most important summations of the pivotal role of freedom in America’s national character and its centrality in political life.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” wrote Jefferson over 200 years ago.

Clearly, Americans today are living in an age of tyranny. When the government has control over nearly every facet of human life and dissenters are arrested, financially wrecked, or destroyed in the courts, it is readily apparent that the nation has strayed far from what the generation involved in the War of Independence would ever have tolerated. 

Under such circumstances, it is common for patriots to repeat the Jefferson quote, suggesting that now is the time for the tree of liberty to be refreshed. But is there a peaceful road to independence?

The fallout from January 6, 2021 highlighted the Deep State’s power to legally persecute and imprison those who challenge the legitimacy of the state. On that day, which the mainstream media has labeled an “insurrection,” American patriots gathered at the U.S. Capitol to draw attention to what evidence suggests was a fraudulent election.

If the election was indeed fraudulent, then the authority and legitimacy of the entire federal government is called into question. Did concerned American citizens not have every right to make their voices heard?

Such questioning posed a threat to the entire federal power structure, which is why the rally at the Capitol was hijacked by Deep State actors to create the appearance of a violent insurrection. Of course, if it was an insurrection, it was the poorest insurrection in world history, with light trespassing and a few arrests for unruly behavior taking the place of the armed warfare one would normally expect from a real insurrection.

But the facts did not and have not mattered to the political establishment; over a thousand individuals have been charged for the events of January 6; hundreds have gone to jail, lives have been destroyed — all over a false narrative. 

Imagine what the response and fallout would be if a true armed uprising occurred. Washington would be all too happy for the excuse to unleash the full weight of the military and alphabet agencies on conservative America.

Contrary to what many conservatives would like to believe, there would be plenty of uniformed members of the military and law enforcement agencies who would unquestioningly carry out any orders given them — no matter how unconstitutional. The Left, particularly under Joe Biden, has been working for years to ensure the military is free of true patriots and stacked primarily with persons who have no qualms about shooting at American citizens.

The situation patriots of today face is different from that of the Founding Fathers. While they were also involved in a fight for freedom, theirs was a war against a foreign power. Given that the state governments of the day were united (perhaps not initially, but eventually most of them eventually declared independence) against Great Britain, it was a matter of a nation fighting off an occupying power — a type of conflict that typically works in favor for the rebels, not the occupiers.

Today, however, is a different story. It is the people versus their own government. And when the entire force of the government and most of society’s major institutions are arrayed against the people, some deep contemplation about strategy and tactics is warranted to ensure the freedom movement follows a path that will truly lead to success — not annihilation. 

This is why it is worth asking whether peaceful means of rebellion can be efficacious. 

In turning to history for the answer to that question, the annals of ages past show that changes can, and often are, made incrementally over time outside of major conflict. 

The case of Britain and its gradual bequeathal of political rights to the masses is informative to the American situation. Like many European kingdoms in the Medieval ages, British society was once feudalistic; power was concentrated in the hands of the nobility. The common man did not have political representation.

This changed over the course of centuries as the common man began growing in influence, largely through the growth of cities, the merchant class, and trade guilds. Commoners now could demand a seat at the table due to their growing wealth. Their economic power preceded the bequeathal of structural political power in the form of the House of Commons.

The rise of the leftist-dominated establishment, thanks to social engineering and major psyops like the ‘60s counterculture, also proves the effectiveness of incremental, peaceful means of revolution. Conservatives widely recognize that the Left took time to enact its march through the institutions because the Marxists knew they would not be successful in trying to conquer America violently, as the Bolsheviks did in Russia.

With this knowledge, the Right should realize that the techniques the Left used can be adopted by the freedom movement as well. The Chinese are pioneering the art of “unrestricted warfare,” war and conquest through peaceable means. They, like America’s domestic communists, are using these tactics to great effect.

Why should America’s enemies be the only ones leveraging these principles for their political aims? Constitutionalists should learn how to fight like the other side, and wage a war against globalist tyranny on all societal fronts.