As feds attack freedom, where’s the right wing?

Photos are in every newspaper: Peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights (freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition) being pummeled by federal troops in American cities. Isn’t this the scenario for which the National Rifle Association of America and its supporters have been waiting decades? Isn’t this how U.S. citizens validate their collections of military-grade assault weapons? Isn’t defending states’ rights what tea party members advocate? Where are y’all now?

Our federal government has employed old-school military tactics on its citizens the past couple of years: amaze, dazzle and stun the population with an outrageously audacious action and just as a citizen may shake her head clear of what cannot possibly be, jump out of the melee and into the moral right, denying anything occurred. Should one fight? Nah, illegal and only causes great bodily pain. Flee? This choice causes problems for those family and loved ones left behind. OK then, freeze? This seems the go-to response of our citizenry and by the time we shake our head of the shock of what we see our federal government doing, the perpetrators bounce away from the scene, only to later pop-up elsewhere in the country in another guerrilla warfare tactic against its citizens.

But to the question of where our defenders of assault weapons and state rights are during this time of peaceful protest and vicious federal response: what say you? The lack of response in any manner suggests you to be all mouth and no heart. Or, perhaps you have followed into the fourth category of human response to adversity — assimilation by the entity trying to cause you harm.

Karan Northfield Santa Fe