By Dave Graves | Volga
I am 100% conservative and those who know me can attest that I am a pretty laid-back guy. However, I am livid over the recent happenings in Minneapolis.
A man is shot 10 times … in the back … after he was totally under the control of ICE agents. Then the ICE commander and our former (thankful for that) governor come to the media to portray this man as a domestic terrorist with the intention of killing law enforcement agents.
Watch the video. This wasn’t self-defense or preserving public safety. This was absolute murder by a couple thugs. There can be no other HONEST explanation.
I’m grieved by the death of an innocent protester. I’m appalled that Trump officials would justify such thuggery. And I’m angered that only a handful of Republicans have enough backbone to stand up and say this is WRONG. A man exercising his Second Amendment right to carry a concealed firearm while exercising his First Amendment right to address grievances with his government is slain like a drug runner caught by a rival gang.
This isn’t law enforcement and it besmirches all who do carry out legitimate law enforcement practices.
Dear South Dakota legislators Johnson, Thune and Rounds, why so silent? Let us be reminded of the words of famed man who lost his life while practicing civil disobedience: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jr.
I need to be able to look at myself in the mirror. I can be silent no longer.
John Basil Barnhill, who wrote more than 100 years ago, left us with an enduring truth:
A government that fears its people lives in liberty.
A people that fears its government lives in tyranny.
The actions of ICE, as directed by the Trump administration, push us toward a nation living in tyranny. If a people don’t consent to be governed, a government can only maintain control by tyranny like seen in North Korea and Iran. What we have seen in Minneapolis and other regions in recent months hasn’t been American government at its best. It’s been a terrifying glimpse of what government by tyranny looks like.
President Trump is rallying to keep Republicans in control of the House at the midterm elections. And there are certainly conservative victories to be maintained. However, if Trump wants to maintain a Republican majority, the best thing he could do is act like an American president and not a Third World dictator.
Wise Republicans will insist he do so. Otherwise, this fall’s midterm election will look like 1974.
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