Self-styled revolutionary patriots plan to converge on Washington, D.C., this week to drive President Barack Obama and disloyal lawmakers out of office. “We are calling for the removal of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, and Eric Holder as a start toward constitutional restoration,” said retired Army Col. Harry Riley, leader of the Operation American Spring protest group. “They have all abandoned the US Constitution, are unworthy to be retained in a position that calls for servant status.”
Operation American Spring aims to pressure those lawmakers who remain – or are replaced by officials of their own choosing – “to sponsor and pass very Constitutionally crafted State legislation to dissolve the size, powers, scope and spending of the U.S. Government by 2/3rds.”
The activists say they expect 10 million to 30 million like-minded Americans to join them Friday in the nation’s capital for a rally patterned after Occupy Wall Street and “Arab Spring” protests.
They also plan a sister event the same day in Bunkerville, Nevada, where militia groups have gathered to support scofflaw rancher Cliven Bundy in his dispute with the federal government.
Organizers also anticipate “incremental nullification” by state legislatures of “all withholding taxes, employment taxes, employer taxes, and income taxes.”
“This will effectively DOUBLE the size of ALL American Middle Class family weekly paychecks and cause our local city and town economies to boom,” the group promises on its Facebook page.
Tea Party Nation promoted Operation American Spring last month in an email to its members from founder Judson Phillips, who hinted at a violent response from the federal government, and sent invitations in January to the protest.
“There is no way a militia with small arms can defeat the kind of arms the U.S. government can bring to bear on such a battle, but one has to admire the courage of those people who showed up to confront them,” Phillips said, comparing the protest to the American Revolution. “That’s quintessentially American!”
Operation American Spring spokesman Terry Trussell told the “Patriot Nation” radio program that he feared Obama would order drone strikes on protesters, and host Mark Hoffman suggested participants bring emergency supplies and make other preparations in case of violence.
Riley told Before It’s News that his group does not want violence, but he admits that peaceful solutions have thus far proved ineffective.
“For more than five years, ‘we the people’ have been writing, calling, faxing Congress, the media, screaming in Town Halls, marching, rallying, demonstrating, petitioning, all to no avail,” Riley said. “Every branch of government looks at ‘we the people’ whom they have taken an oath to serve, as ‘pests,’ interfering with their political agenda, cramping their self-serving, greedy agendas. We have no faith in the ballot box any longer, as many believe this sacred secret box has been compromised.”
Previous attempts to drive Obama out of office by shutting down Washington, D.C., with massive protests or by encircling the “beltway” with semi-trucks have drawn far fewer participants than promised.
But Operation American Spring organizers say those ineffective protests helped pave the way for their own success.
“Every political persuasion, rich, poor, every color, all ages, men, women, liberal, conservative, independent, unemployed, et al, are now mobilizing to participate in this peaceful, non-violent, cause in the search for constitutional restoration for America,” Riley said. “We have well over 1 million militia members mobilizing; bikers, truckers, hunters, Tea Party groups — citizens across America. No, I don’t think 10 million (participants) is high at all.”
Or, as a blogger speculated at Before It’s News, the whole operation could be a false flag planted by the Obama administration to launch a civil war.
