Cogitations

I'm reading a lot about what might happen if we wake up in November, and Pelosi is Speaker of the House. Gloom and doom prevails among conservative pundits.

Hey, Guys and Gals. Wake up! It ain't over till it's over, and even if the Dems take the House in November, it still ain't over. Yeah, a lot of Republican congress critters deserve to get fired, but that doesn't mean we have to forget why we're conservative in the first place. Lots of Democrats, especially from the South are conservative, though populist. I can't see that things will be much different with a Democrat House. Go vote. Do your part. Then whine and complain if you don't like the result.

The second cogitation has to do with a rumor I've been reading among my liberal friends. It goes something like this: George Bush and Co decide that they are Annointed By God to rule the United States. After the election they declare martial law and prevent the elected successor from taking office. The plot thickens in that, supposedly, this dastardly plot has all ready been hatched and compliant officers are being promoted to insure the success of the coup d'etat.

T'ain't about to happen, folks, for the simple reason that all of the officers of the Armed Forces of the United States are required to swear an oath that first requires the officer to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same." The enlisted oath is essentially the same. The military would immediately recognize a constitutional crisis and move to end it.

In the event of such a circumstance occurring, I would probably go to the nearest AmVets lodge and find out when the Old Farts brigade was leaving for the front. Even in retirement, I don't know of anything that releases me from my oath, and we all take that oath very seriously. So do the active duty officers of all branches, regardless of which party affiliation is typed on their voting card. The first obligation of a soldier is to support and defend the Constitution.

Any officers that supported a coup against the Constitution and survived the confrontation would be tried in a military Courts Martial, stripped of their commission, and probably hanged.

Then, of course, we'd find a judge, swear in the new President, and immediately begin telling him how bad he was screwing up.