DESPERATE TO FEEL EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED

Right-leaners are feeling existentially threatened again -- though when aren't they?

From an NPR story about libertarians from the Free State Project who try to do charity work in New Hampshire according to their political principles:

On a recent day, about 50 people gathered in a converted office space with $6,000 worth of food and a list of needy families....

[Mike] Ruff, a 40-year-old mediator and blacksmith, helped organize the event. He carries an M1911 pistol strapped to his waist because he says he doesn't trust tax-funded policemen to protect him. For all the same reasons, he doesn't trust the government to help the needy either....

Like Ruff, [Amanda] Bouldin moved to New Hampshire to join the Free State Project. She says she doesn't blame anyone who uses food stamps or public housing, and she knows her $6,000 is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to ending hunger. But, she says, forcing the public to pay taxes to solve social problems is immoral.

"If you stick a gun to somebody's head and say, 'Give me $20 to feed this guy that's dying of starvation on the street right now, or I'll kill you,' have you done something charitable? No," she says. "You've committed a crime." ...

From a post at National Review's Corner titled "On Not Cooperating with Obamacare":

The Hill has an interesting story reporting on Republican governors refusing to set up state exchanges under Obamacare....

... it does seem now that utter legal non cooperation is the only way remaining to impede the Leviathan. Here’s another suggestion: Senate Republicans should filibuster confirmation of the soon-to-be-nominated members of the Independent Payment Advisory Board. No board, no IPAB autocracy. Of course, the president might then make a non-recess recess appointment, but that opens any action taken by IPAB to legal attack.

So, stalwart Obamacare opponents, time for some good old fashioned passive resistance. Go limp.

From a story at Rupert Murdoch's Daily about churches that are offering concealed weapons training: (link now dead for non-subscribers, cached article here):

In Texas, where it's legal to carry guns into any church without a specific no-firearms policy, Heights Baptist in remote San Angelo began offering concealed carry classes in June. The class was a response to security concerns among congregants.

"We're about 150 miles from the border with Mexico and we're very unsure about our insecure borders -- about what's coming into our cities," Pastor James Miller told NRA News. "Personally, I feel more secure that should our worship time be interrupted by a life-threatening intrusion, that we would at least stand some kind of a chance in stopping either a mass killing or terrorizing experience."

To me, the common thread here is the perception that, if you lean right, pretty much everything in life that doesn't seem to be going your way politically or culturally -- the existence of illegal immigration, say, or the existence of government -- is an existential threat justifying a Red Dawn response, or at least a lot of self-important swagger, preferably with a gun on your hip.

The gun-on-your-hip thing hasn't migrated to the realm of pure politics quite yet -- yes, Republicans in the U.S. Senate are implying that filibuster reform by the Democratic majority might lead to a shutdown of the Senate, but they don't seem to be talking about pulling weapons on Harry Reid -- but isn't that the logical next step? Armed resistance to Obamacare? The gunfight in the well of the Senate?