The following from Sara Robinson in Daily Kos (troutfishing's diary) about the xian militia's & other right wingnuts  attempts to implicitly undermine the nation's constitutional democracy. The Hutaree (huh?) Militia in Michigan was caught plotting to kill off a few cops. And you name it is on the march: Gingrich calling Obama 'the most radical prez in American history', the Fox whackos in full swing denouncing everything the Dems attempt. Norm Ornstein in WaPo wonders where this idea of the radical left taking over comes from in reality, when in fact much of what Obama has done and continues to do is as mainstream or centrist as many Republicans in recent decades would attest. But here's Robinson:

 

They're telling us that it's time to openly confront the fact that conservatives have spent the past 40 years systematically delegitimizing the very idea of constitutional democracy in America. When they're in power, they mismanage it and defund it. When they're out of power, they refuse to participate in running the country at all -- indeed, they throw all their energy into thwarting the democratic process any way they can. When they need to win an election, they use violent, polarizing, eliminationist language against their opponents to motivate their base. This is sedition in slow motion, a gradual corrosive undermining of the government's authority and capacity to run the country. And it's been at the core of their politics going all the way back to Goldwater.

This long assault has gone into overdrive since Obama's inauguration... We've reached the point where you can't go a week without hearing some prominent right wing leader calling for outright sedition -- an immediate and defiant populist uprising against some legitimate form of government authority.

Moderates and liberals are responding to this rising threat with feckless calls for "a return to civility," as if all that's needed to put things right again is a stern talking-to from Miss Manners. Though that couldn't hurt, the sad fact is that we're well past the point where it's just a matter of conservatives behaving like tantrum-throwing spoiled brats (which they are). When a mob is surrounding your house with torches and telling you they intend to burn it down, "civility" really isn't the issue any more.

Robinson makes two general points in her essay that we should bear in mind. First, there's a quite specific legal definition of what illegal sedition is. Speech calling for the undermining or overthrow of the government is not illegal. It is constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. Sedition crosses the line when it involves actually planning and preparation for acts aimed at undermining or overthrowing the government. The arrested Hutaree militia members allegedly planned to kill a Michigan police officer and then ambush police gathered for the ensuing funeral, in hopes of touching off a national revolt among militia groups. As Robinson suggests, that was likely over the line. But inciting such seditious behavior is constitutionally protected.

Rogue elephant Sarah Palin, media figures such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and attack-dog GOP politicians like Michelle Bachmann feed conspiracy theories that,

the fairly-elected President of the United States isn't even a citizen. He's a Muslim, and thus in treasonous league with terrorists. The main goal of his administration is to turn the country over to the One World Government. He's a socialist. He's a fascist. All of these are direct attacks on Obama's fundamental legitimacy and authority to lead the country -- and thus a deliberate incitement to revolt against his administration.

Among the results ? - Two armed marches on Washington are planned for this coming April 19th. As Robinson darkly warns,

Get used to seeing guns in the streets wherever the law allows -- because the conservatives have told their base explicitly that they need to be "exercising their rights" on this front to the fullest extent. Carrying guns in public is now an essential symbol of how the the right defines freedom. It also expresses just how afraid they are, and what they're planning to do about that fear.

Because there are no ready legal remedies to curtail such speech that seems designed to encourage seditious acts, Robinson suggests that exercising our constitutionally protected free speech rights, by calling out seditious talk as such, may be the best line of defense.

Dailykos 4-13-10