The Guns & Ammo Network

Keep Calm and Carry On

by Robert W. Hunnicutt • September 26, 2012 • 20 comments

My father-in-law is prone to watch a popular right-wing commentator and author who recently predicted that, should Barack Obama be reelected, the USA would see civil war within six months.

I don’t personally guarantee many things, but I will personally guarantee there won’t be a civil war, in six months or six years. We tried that between 1861 and 1865, and it didn’t work out. We’re not going to try it again.

I don’t doubt that sort of apocalyptic talk is good for radio and TV ratings and sells books, but ultimately, I find it unhistorical, unpatriotic, and unworthy of Americans as a people.

It’s unhistorical because it implies that today’s problems are somehow unprecedented, as if we hadn’t previously endured Shays’ Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Bank of the United States crisis, the Panic of 1873, the Battle of Homestead,  the Panic of 1907, the Red Scare of 1919, the Great Depression, World War II, the hydrogen bomb, Vietnam, platform shoes and hip-hop. Our country has survived those and many more, and will survive the outcome of this election and many more in the future.

It’s unpatriotic because it implies there is some sort of end point to the American experiment. If things don’t go your way, assume everything goes up in flames. That spares you the hard work of planning and executing a program to make things go your way when the next election comes around in two years. Politics has zigged and zagged throughout our history, and at every stage, demagogues have predicted doom should their enemies win. Hasn’t happened yet; not going to happen.

Finally, it implies that Americans are the moral equivalent of Sunnis and Shiites or Serbs and Kosovars or Hutus and Tutsis. We are not. Not yet, at least. Are you really going to slaughter your neighbor and his wife and children because an election doesn’t go your way? You are not, and no one else is going to, either.

I have spent almost 40 years in a business where anything that sells papers or gets TV ratings is good, and I don’t begrudge anyone making a good living peddling any alarmist claptrap he can sell to an unwitting public. That’s capitalism, and capitalism is what I prefer.

But America has been around for 236 years, and my money’s on it being around another 236. Betting the other way is a wager for suckers.

In Culture & Politics • Tagged ,
  • bob23

    thank you, it is nice to finally here someone actually make rational statements about our country and not make outrageous ungrounded comments. Hand claps for you sir!

    • http://twitter.com/judithalamance @judithalamance

      There's no longer the MONEY to keep the "American experiment" – a democratic welfare state – going for much longer; look at "Quantitative Easing 3." That's much closer to the economic collapse of the Confederacy after its government began printing paper money like mad to pay its bills in late 1864 as its tax base collapsed with loss of citizens as the war went against it than it is to America's prior disputes over the Vietnam War or during the Whiskey Rebellion.
      It's not "unpatriotic" to say the obvious and undeniable.

      • SeanC

        "When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." Benjamin Franklin

        • http://twitter.com/judithalamance @judithalamance

          Especially if the percentage of residents of any society not paying income taxes is about 50% – while those people are allowed to vote the same as those funding the welfare state.

  • http://twitter.com/judithalamance @judithalamance

    America's long-term odds of staying together are nil. What does anyone think the future of any nation governed by a wealthy faraway tiny region, with wildly differing values than the overwhelming majority it rules, is? And that issue – the immense wealth of metro D.C., compared to the rest of America – was a New York Times syndicated column by Ross Douthat this week.

  • Billjo Bags

    What's wrong with hip-hop and platform shoes???

  • http://twitter.com/judithalamance @judithalamance

    Greece and Spain were stable and calm – five years ago. Not today. Greece now is in social as well as political collapse – with a huge, growing "we won't pay" movement refusing to pay taxes and fees. Spaniards protesting against tax hikes and welfare-state cuts just had a hellish riot this week.
    That's what happens when a welfare state runs out of money.

  • AD-RtR/OS!

    Any gun-owner who doesn't vote for Romney/Ryan, deserves the loss of his weapons when Obama's Civilian Security Corps comes to collect them.

  • Heretic

    I find the ignorance of this author appalling. A war may be fought against this government, not because the people wish to change the country into something else, but to restore the Constitution. It is in fact this "government" that is attempting to create something our founders would not recognize. It is this government that is acting un-American. The author is apparently one of those duds that cry "if you don't like it, vote them out". If we could vote them out, voting would be illegal. Elections are rigged. Anyone watching can see this.

  • joe

    Listen to your father-in-law. He's smarter than you.

  • Jim

    While I am in agreement with most of what you wrote, you forget that what will piss people off enough to strike out against government and anyone who supports it is not a declining economy, but a government that passes laws to eliminate your rights, your abilities and your privacies. But rest secure in this adventure because with this American public, the vast majority will accept it with glee as long as they can watch Snookie, MTV and get high. After all, just ask the recipients of entitlements. The government will take care of them. If you think I'm wrong, explain how.

    • http://twitter.com/undefined @undefined

      Wrong. People will tolerate a lot of abuse – as long as they're bought off by superficial affluence. But – when that superficial affluence collapses – all hell breaks loose; look at Spain and Greece today for obvious examples – or England's mass riots a couple years ago over tuition tripling for college students, which brought tens of thousands of rioters into the street to do the long-unthinkable (attack Prince Charles and his wife Camilla physically in their limo). It wasn't the EU's soft fascism that brought about those revolts – but the collapse of affluence among the middle class.

  • old vet

    A revolution does not always mean "manning the barricades", look at what happened to the Soviet Union. If the vast majority of the working population just says no, there is not much that can be done. WW2 lasted as long as it did because the Axis citizens kept going 'til the bitter end. If the people had folded, it would have been over.

    • Jim

      Very true. I should have used the term rebellion instead of describing physical action against our government. I pray daily that the American public will elect people who believe in our nation and the documents that set rules to allow the people to make this nation the greatest on Earth, but I believe that the greed of the average person has resurrected the Marxist beliefs that the Democrats supported between WWI and WWII, which is the reason for my beliefs of this society being too passive to stand up for itself.

  • CAIN

    No mention of what may happen in the event of an opposite election result… which may be every bit as destructive. Their hero vanquished, the sheeple may decide to stir a stink.

  • Howard Grizzle

    The people will only tolerate a limited amount of power grab by any chief executive. We have seen Obama negate the fourth , fifth amendments . He has given himself authority to arrest without warrant and hold without trial anyone he chooses. The press has mostly abandoned the first amendment, the second is under fire by anti gun members of this administration. Lots of factors are in place to cause unrest. We will not see a civil war but severe protest and uprisings could well happen.

    • Robert Strydio

      The media hasn't abandoned the first amendment; in fact they cling to it more than ever to prompt liberal propaganda. What they have completely abandoned is journalistic integrity by allowing themselves to be used as the propaganda arm of the liberal establishment. In so doing they no longer need to engage their brains before activating their word processors. All that is required is an ability to copy and paste the latest liberal establishment press releases.
      The conservative media MAY be paranoid, as the author suggests, but not without good reason since the Democrats continue to demonstrate their proclivity to trample on the Constitution in the furtherance of their socialist and social justice agendas.
      I find it amazing that a group of individuals who would otherwise trounce on anyone who threatens the 2nd Amendment not appreciate the word-to-the-wise approach adopted by some conservative media commentators. Better to be alerted unnecessarily than to be caught unaware to avert a crisis. If they’re proven wrong the harm only falls on them; if they’re proven right then the harm falls on all of us.

  • Clint E

    Relax. If you do not win this election then win the next one. The Left feared that W would cancel elections, and impose martial law before he was re elected. FDR was supposed to be a commie that would destroy America. Did not happen. Both sides have their doomsday chicken littles. Do not panic organize politically

  • http://www.facebook.com/daniel.goss.714 Daniel Goss

    Just as you said in your article, I don't think there will be another civil war (at least in my life time). As you stated above…

    "Are you really going to slaughter your neighbor and his wife and children because an election doesn’t go your way?"

    I know I am not. But I will tell you that I believe in being prepared, whether it is to survive a natural disaster or who else knows what the future will bring. But if a civil war breaks out over the results of this election (which I seriouslly doubt will happen); then what does that say about us as Americans????

  • Matthew K Gallwas

    "Keep calm and carry on." That is good advice. I'll keep that in my hip pocket next to my "walk softly and carry a big stick" card. It is self restraint on the part of our citizens that will prevent a civil war. I for one do not see myself killing my neighbors, in addition, they know what to expect if they come for me. Over the last four years folks have been talking more about revolution. Radio, Blogs and protests. Right against Left. Conservative against Liberal. Who is going to fire the first shot and at what point do we have to reach before that happens? I have read and heard a great deal of talk, but have seen no action except for a bunch of protesters who have accomplished nothing but gaining notoriety of being a bunch of cretins. The USA is still the greatest country on earth. We have peaceful transition of power. Most citizens have shelter, food, some medical care and most important to some people, ENTERTAINMENT. At what point will the people who cry for civil war are going to pull down on their neighbor? When the comforts mentioned above have gone away? Tax revolts, protests and riots are minor disturbances compared to an all out civil war. If that comes I can guarantee most folks will wish for the good old days of "Remain calm and carry on."