Opinion: A Modest Proposal for the Anti-Government Crowd

(April 19) -- Anger with government is the theme on the right these days, with anguished cries by tea partiers, militia members and other government haters of "We're taking our country back."

This is quite amusing, as it would be curious to find out: From whom do they think they are recapturing "their" country? And what are they going to do with it when they get it? (Well, we know the answer to that: The last time they had it, they ruined it.) It would seem the only group who has the right to say they're taking the country back would be Native Americans. After all, it was Whitey who stole it from them in the first place.

Daniel Almond is leading an anti-government rally on the Potomac this week because he and his group, Restore the Constitution, are angry with the government and they want to assert their rights to carry guns in national parks. They are protesting against the feared minimizing of gun rights, when it was the Obama administration and its Democratic allies in Congress that expanded those rights by permitting carriage in national parks.

Similarly Mike Vanderboegh, the Alabama militia leader who speaks out against the government and who encourages people to throw bricks through windows at Democratic office buildings, survives because he's on disability and gets health care through his wife's health plan.

Sixty-two percent of tea partiers, according to a recent New York Times/CBS poll, don't want to tamper with Social Security or Medicare while they're busy protesting against large government expenditures and entitlements, carrying signs about how Obama has made us into a socialist nation. Pretty swift work for a guy who's been in office just more than a year.

So I'll make you a deal, you anti-government protesters:

You hate the government and despise that your taxes go to people and causes you don't like? I'll round up all the liberals like me who believe paying taxes is patriotic, and we'll all throw in. You don't have to anymore.

But you can't use our roads; you can't send your kids to public schools; if your house catches fire or you need a cop, don't bother dialing 911. And God forbid we're ever attacked. I will have gladly paid for the military that defends you, and you will have been missing in action.

You claim to love your country. Prove it.

Alan Colmes is host of the syndicated "Alan Colmes Show," contributor to Fox News and founder of Alan.com.

To submit an op-ed or letter to the editor, write to opinion@aolnews.com.

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