For months now people all over social media have talked about being ready to go to war. That we are already in a sort of Civil War and they can't wait for the shooting to start. And I'm sure we've all felt that way. We are definitely angry.
But everybody's idea of civil war is colored by our own Civil War.
It's not the same situation now. That war was a war of regions. This conflict isn't. Sure, there are some states more conservative than others. But part of Pennsylvania is more conservative than other parts. Part of Maryland is more conservative than other parts. Major cities of Texas are liberal, but not the entire state. The eastern parts of California, Oregon, and Washington are more conservative than the coasts. This isn't a situation where a state legislature is going to vote to leave the Union and take its state troops with them. It might be brother against brother, but it's not South Carolina against Massachusetts.
And let's say groups do gather with intent to fight. Fight who? The police? Have you seen how they are armed when they get serious? The National Guard? They may only train on weekends and they probably don't have the same level of equipment regular troops have, but they have more than most regular citizens are going to have. And then there's the regular troops. While we would like to think that all police and all military would be on the same page in indignation and a desire to restore liberty to this country, they won't be. A fair proportion will follow orders. And, yes, a rag tag, under-armed bunch of farmers beat the best military on earth a couple hundred years ago but that was a little before combat planes and tanks. And the military, when ordered, has attacked American citizens in the past. MacArthur and Patton may be legendary, but they cleared the Bonus Army out when told to do so. And Billy Mitchell may have only used his planes for recon during the 1921 mining protests and battles in West Virginia but the U.S. military did not interfere when the privately hired planes bombed miners.
We love the Minuteman image. But it's a very different world now.
So what, in reality, do we do?
