Whatever happened to civil disobedience?
When I was quite young, there was much talk about the uses of civil disobedience to influence culture and policy. Rosa Parks was often (and justifiably so) held up as an example of civil disobedience in defiance of an unfair and arbitrary policy – forcing black Americans to sit in the rear of buses and to give up seats to white Americans. Now we have another example, that of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who cites the Constitution as justification for his defiance of the Biden administration. Governor Abbott has rightly said on behalf of Texas, “I will not comply.”
See Related: Joe Biden Gives an Ultimatum to Greg Abbott, 'Pound Sand' Is the Proper Answer
So when will conservatives and libertarians adopt the time-tested tactic of civil disobedience en masse? My recommendation is to employ four words in one clear, concise, and intuitive statement:
“I will not comply.”
When our kids were in (Colorado) schools, for example, those schools were not immune to the “zero-tolerance” insanity that was then sweeping the nation. There were elementary school children suspended or expelled for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a firearm. So what, do you suppose, would have happened if parents, in response to such stupidity, just refused to accept the suspension? What if they said, “I will not comply,” and marched their child back into school the next day, down the hall, into the classroom, and to their desk? Perhaps with a news crew at their back? What if ten, twenty, or fifty other parents march in at their backs?
Agents of the government might arrest one parent, or two, or five. But fifty?
Our daughters are no longer secure in their school locker rooms and restrooms. What happens when parents physically block entrances to girls’ locker rooms and restrooms and refuse to let men in? What happens when parents say, “We will not comply,” and refuse to allow the “trans-women” entry? Or if they simply pull their daughters out of every sports program in the schools, leaving one or two “trans-women” to compete against each other?
See Related: Republican Ohio Senate Overrides DeWine Veto, Bans 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Minors
We no longer have freedom of association in this country. For example: It is now policy that bakers who object morally to gay marriage or the transgender agenda are nevertheless forced to make cakes for such weddings or gender transitions or face government retaliation in the form of ruinous fines and gag orders. (For the record, I don’t care much about how anyone lives, but I am staunchly in favor of the First Amendment.) What happens when these bakers state, “I will not comply,” refuse to pay the fines, begin offering interviews, speak far and wide about the destruction of their business, and still refuse to bake the cakes?
We are no longer secure in our property. The Supreme Court has said (unthinkably) that local municipalities can condemn private property in the name of eminent domain, not to build roads or rail lines but to hand the properties over to developers to build higher-revenue businesses in the place of lower-revenue private homes. What happens when the homeowners state, “I will not comply,” and refuse to vacate their homes? What happens when the homeowners sit in lawn chairs in their front yards and say, “Come on, you sons of b****es; you’ll have to bulldoze me to get me off my property.” Will the government use force to remove them? Likely so. What, however, if an entire neighborhood joins in the defiance? What if hundreds are refusing to comply?
See Related: Rural Georgia at Crossroads: Rail Expansion Tests Limits of Eminent Domain
I could easily come up with a dozen more examples.
These are four powerful words, possibly the most powerful words one can use in social or political discourse:
I. Will. Not. Comply.
Some years back, Washington State gun owners, following the passage in that state of some anti-Second Amendment legislation, employed the tactic. The Washington gun owners even called it the “I Will Not Comply” movement. It’s not a difficult concept, nor is it difficult to employ, but there’s a catch: Isolated incidents of this are generally less than effective. For the “I will not comply” tactic to work, it must be widespread – a rebellion of non-compliance, as it were. Agents of the government can arrest one, or two, or five of us. But a hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand?
We are either a free people or we are not. Today, we are no longer a free people. Increasingly, the government is pushing us away from liberty; our nation's borders are thrown open to hordes of unknowns, we are no longer allowed to associate with or disassociate with whom we please, we are no longer allowed to solicit or refuse business as we desire, and our property is no longer our own.
There is only one response to egregious acts of government overreach, and that is “I will not comply; screw you and the horse you rode in on, but I will not comply.”
