Clarity and Inspiration
the solution must be inspiring and clear
Yesterday I met up with some folks who claimed to be, what to call them, sovereign citizens? state nationals? true constitutionalists? These are the sorts that say you don’t need a driver’s license or license plate or a passport, all taxes are illegal, voting means nothing, the republic was officially abolished in 1861, a counterfeit constitution was established in 1873, etc. Because I had two interviews yesterday, I couldn’t attend the main meeting earlier in the day so I missed out on a lot and only got the condensed version of what they stand for at the restaurant. There was probably talk of common law, natural law, and maritime law, the illegality of the federal government and much more. The theory is, I presume, that if you have a correct understanding of the true law, you can outfox the government and the cops, declare yourself sovereign and establish your own, constitutionally sound government that will replace the current phony government and reestablish our nation as a constitutional federation of states, and we’ll abolish the fraudulent federal corporation that owns us and treats us like chattel slaves. The first step in Montana is apparently getting 15 counties to place people in positions of governance in the provisional authority, which will mean we become a de jure government and can abolish the fake government pretending to rule us now.
I feel a little squeamish when confronted with such folks. It’s not that I think they’re wrong. As far as I know, they are spot on in their interpretation of the law and the history of our descent and distancing from the true constitutional republic as intended by the founders. What makes me squeamish is that I know that their success depends on more than just being right; they have to appear as being right to a significant minority of citizens to have any luck. And I know that joining such a movement requires a leap of faith that goes something like this, “I know we are in the right and have the correct interpretation of the law and God will assure us victory.” Since I’m not ready to make that leap of faith, I feel like my doubts and questions can only be a hindrance to the success of such a movement, hence the squeamishness among these people. I’m an oddball in such a group, a skeptic among true believers and my presence just throws water on their party. I’m surrounded by folks who are cock sure they are correct and I’m the schmuck from James 1, verse 6-10, who spoils everything with my skepticism.
But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
At one point in the meeting, Bart Lambert, who had invited me, said something to the tune of “that situation always reminds me of the old saying, ‘intent is 9/10ths of the law’”. Or maybe he said ‘possession is 9/10 of the law’. I can’t remember, but I do remember that it caused me to have this thought, “The law is effectively 9/10 perception and 1/10 actual letter or spirit.” Meaning, whatever the law was originally intended to mean in letter or spirit, what really matters is perception or grasp or understanding. A sovereign citizen can claim that paper fiat money is worthless and stamping the phrase ‘legal tender’ on it doesn’t change that fact, but if the populace perceives that $20 bills indeed have value, then I can indeed buy myself a caesar salad and bowl of enchilada soup with these ‘worthless’ notes (In fact, to the amazement of the sovereign citizens present, I demonstrated this miracle of trading worthlessness for value at the restaurant where we met). A sovereign citizen can crumple up a traffic ticket and say it’s meaningless but if the cop, the judge, the clerk and 99.783% of the population perceive the ticket to have meaning, then I might consider paying the fine or face a whole lot of trouble.
In any case, the out-of-town expert in the group, John Scully, gave me the opportunity to not feel too bad about being less than fully supportive of his group’s efforts when he pulled out the Trump card. On the one hand, I didn’t want to embarrass Bart, who introduced me to the group, but on the other, I didn’t want to hide my skepticism toward any movement counting on Trump to lead or help them. John talked about white hats setting things straight. He asked me if I knew of the ten days of darkness, when all would go quiet as Trump sent the white hats in with their indictments and gathered up all the bad actors and jailed them (and then hung them I presume). Then a glorious, rip-roaring period of truth, opportunity and prosperity would follow. It was a dream straight out of some not-censored-but-promoted by Youtube channel pumping out a constant stream of MAGA hope porn and soporific, Q-tard, inaction-plan videos.
“I’m sorry, but I have to interject here,” I said. “I think I should tell you that I’m of the opinion that any movement counting on Trump to save the day is really on the wrong track. I simply can’t understand how anyone can continue to believe in Trump after the covid debacle. Whoever witnessed and understood the colossal fraud that was the fake pandemic, and all the death and damage that the official reaction to that fraud caused and is still causing, and the fact that Trump was 100% on board with the fraud, as evidenced by his fathering of the whole warp-speed project and the death shot, which he still touts, and he’s keen on continuing in the form of mRNA vaccines for every sort of illness, pitched by his new side kick ogre Larry Ellison…well, I can’t see how you can continue to support this guy.”
I mentioned a few other things that disqualify Trump for me and the three sovereign citizens didn’t have any counter arguments except for this, “Well, it’s not really Trump you know. It’s forces behind him.”
…As in, forces behind him are going to be directing the cleaning up of this nation. Trump is just a figurehead. I said I understood that Trump is just the face and whenever I refer to him and his plans I’m referring to his handlers’ plans. Same for Biden, Obama, Bush etc. When I say ‘Biden’ I mean ‘Biden’s handlers’ of course. They nodded and John Scully picked up the conversation and moved it forward before I could say that Trump’s handlers are actually tasked with destroying the nation, not cleaning it up and if there is a ten days of darkness and bad-guy roundup they had better watch out, because in a tyrannical, globalist crackdown, the patriots will be the bad guys, not Larry Ellison and Jeffrey Epstien (currently in Tel Aviv I presume, waiting for his villa to be built over the beachside bone piles in Gaza.)
Another thing that made me hesitant to jump on board the state-sovereign bandwagon- there are no youth involved. Whatever movement we adopt to bring back sane government and freedom to our nation has got to appeal to more than the geriatric crowd. I asked, “How many young people are at your meetings?”
“Well, pretty much everyone is a gray-hair.”
I remember being skeptical at some of the claims John made. The one that stands out the most is his estimation of the total number current sovereign citizens across the nation. “I was talking to Bill down at a conference in Texas. This was a big one; I think we had about fifteen hundred attendees. I asked Bill about our total numbers across the nation and he estimated it at 40 million. Now that’s impressive but I would put it at more like 70 million.” Phwaaat? 70 million sovereign citizen, state national rebels ready to abolish the system and return the nation to righteousness?! That’s 20% of the country! Remove children and you have at least 1 in 4 people ready to lock and load and clean house. Come on! Earlier in the meeting Jerry, a longtime member, had said, “you only need two percent to achieve your ends.” Well, if we’re at 70 million, why aren’t we already living in Shangri-La Constitutionville?
The thing is, what I want and what these old-timers want is probably almost identical- smaller government; low taxes; states rights; rule of law; government by, of and for the people; a culture of humility, honesty, morality, peace; etc. But to get there, I think something more convincing and appealing, with charismatic, younger leadership has to emerge. I’m not sure the sovereign-citizen movement fits that bill, but I’ll keep listening and reporting, if they invite me back.
Can we just go to a restaurant where a bowl of soup costs less than 9 dollars?
"...you don’t need a driver’s license or license plate..."
Yes, I know them as well and their argument, which is compelling.
https://wearechange.org/U-S-SUPREME-COURT-SAYS-NO-LICENSE-NECESSARY-TO-DRIVE-AUTOMOBILE-ON-PUBLIC-HIGHWAYSSTREETS/
Who owns the roads? Either the State owns the roads, builds the roads, maintains the roads, and imposes gas taxes to pay for them OR a private entity, for-profit business does the same. There could be some blending of these two options, neither public nor private, but a government/business merger, more commonly known as fascism, which benefits those private citizens who are fortunate enough to be rich and powerful enough to get State cooperation in their money-making and power-mongering ambitions.
There are no other choices. Either public or private. Either you pay gas taxes or you pay a user fee. Your license plate and driver's license does nothing more than to declare that you have permission to use the roads on which you drive. Would anything be substantially different if all the roads in America were owned by non-public entities? In my opinion, I doubt it, as everyone who drove on the roads would be required to contribute towards their construction and upkeep.
Try driving on a road which is not owned and maintained by anyone. From experience, I can say that, while you can navigate from one point to another, it is often a gut-wrenching drive and not conducive to smooth transit. Would I prefer to have a monthly invoice sent to my email which is linked to the ID which is attached to my car? So long as I can see the benefit in good, well-maintained roads, you betcha!
How does this fit into the whole "sovereign" movement? Well, we all have to get along with each other. None of us has all the answers. In order to get what we want and need, we have to acknowledge that others must be recognized and their efforts compensated for. If this means that we have to pay a gas tax or a user fee to drive on someone's road, well, so be it.
I get the "sovereign" thing. I am there myself. However, I also understand that I am no better than anyone else and that everyone must benefit from The System or it will fail. The best way to do this is to (literally) pay someone for what they do best and to hire someone else to do the rest. None of us are perfect. None of us can do everything. The distribution of labor MUST be spread out over society so that those who are good at making roads are allowed to build roads and everyone else recognizes that reality by buying into it, a.k.a., paying for the privilege of driving on said roads.
Gas taxes imposed by government? User fees imposed by contractors? What else is there? Until flying cars become ubiquitous, we are going to have pavement and someone is going to pay for it.
When I lived in Pinellas county Florida, the local paper ran an article saying that 40,000 people had sent affidavits to the local court declaring their sovereignty.