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January 05, 2016 04:57 PM UTC

Rep. Gordon "Dr. Chaps" Klingenschmitt Joins The Militia

  • 11 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt.
Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt.

Right Wing Watch, we’ll admit that even we were a little surprised by this one:

It seems that at least one more GOP lawmaker has come out in favor of the seizure of a federal building by Ammon Bundy’s makeshift militia in protest of the resentencing of Steven and Dwight Hammond for arson on federal property.

And of course it’s Gordon Klingenschmitt.

Klingenschmitt, the Colorado state representative/televangelist/demon-hunter/exorcist/conspiracy theorist, shared a post on his Facebook page suggesting that the judge presiding over the Hammons’ case is guilty of treason and should therefore be hanged.

Here’s the Facebook post from GOP Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt in question, and the description above sounds pretty disturbingly accurate:

chapsmilitia1 chapsmilitia2

And here’s the key passage from the above post:

ALL JUDGES who do not allow Constitutional law to be cited to the Jury needs to be PROSECUTED for Title 18 U.S. Code section 2381 Capital Felony Treason

Title 18 U.S. Code section 2381
When in the presence of two witnesses to the same overt act or in an open court of law if you fail to timely move to protect and defend the constitution of the United States and honor your oath of office you are subject to the charge of capital felony treason, and upon conviction you will be taken by the posse to the nearest busy intersection and at high noon hung by the neck until dead…The body to remain in state till dusk as an example to anyone who takes his oath of office lightly. [Pols emphasis]

Now obviously, this text is not a verbatim quote of the federal law governing treason. Although treason is technically a capital offense, the law makes no mention of “two witnesses,” a “posse” meting out judgment, or hanging public officials by the neck “at high noon” and leaving the body hanging “in state till dusk as an example.” That sounds like a bunch of crackpot militia gobbledegook to us–like the license plates and “money” some of those groups print up for themselves and occasionally try to pass off on the rest of society.

Unfortunately, though, this was posted by a sitting Republican lawmaker in the Colorado General Assembly.

And that means we are obliged to take it a little more, you know, seriously.

Comments

11 thoughts on “Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt Joins The Militia

  1. My mother was thirteen when Austria surrendered to the third Reich, almost 14 when Krystallnacht happened, when the windows on the family business were broken along with hundreds of others in Vienna. As a young ethnically Jewish but practicing secular / Christian woman, her family had discussed Hitler and the growing madness. She said that they had trouble taking it seriously – "What a madman, what a joke! Surely the German people will not fall in behind this nonsense." The family kept saying that until their home was invaded by Hitler youth, their friends and customers stopped talking to them, until they had to liquidate everything quickly and flee the country.

    When will Representative Klingenschmitt's colleagues, or the voters in his district, shut him down?

    I had two fifteen year old boys in a class today talking about "White Pride around the world," in a class where almost half the students are various shades of Latino.  I shut that down pretty quickly, free speech be damned, but it gave me chills.

    We have to take this shit seriously, and we have to shut them down. They can still advocate  for their crazy ideas in the public sphere, but they don't need a fawning media, they don't need a billionaire real-estate candidate spokesman, they don't need to get free lights and power and wifi and entitlement funds from the very institutions they despise.

    1. You are correct. We need to take this seriously. First of all, as pointed out by Coloradopols, the cite to 18 U.S.C. 2381 on the Facebook page isn't a correct statement of the statute but I suspect the people who have that Facebook page want people to believe its a correct quote of that statute. It isn't . . . not even close. That section of the United State code deals with treason against the United States which means against the government. It says nothing about defending someones constitutional rights in court.

      Far more importantly, these kind of groups, now led by Mr. Trump's campaign, are attacking and using the charade of political correctness as a means to allow the very worst in the American character to reemerge as acceptable attitudes and behavior. Anyone who has studied WWII, especially the European theater, and lived in the 1950's before the emergence of the civil rights movement knows there were wrongs that needed to be made right whether it was doing our part to destroy Hitler and the Nazis, or reform and change how we treated each other in our own country.

      Many Americans have had a hard time over the past 15 years, especially economically. Real income has stagnated and with it the American ideal of progress. In response to that, the Republicans have stirred the fear of the other . . . its "their fault," . . . "they have the privileged place in America," and its the governments fault. With the assessment of fault comes the impetus to take action against the other kind of people, first by eliminating any public institutions that could stand in the way. That is accomplished by warping the meaning of our foundational documents . . . the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution . . . into servants of fear and as justifications to act upon that fear.

      What should be done? Lets look at why we are in this stagnate period. At the end of WWII the United States of America produced 52% of the gross domestic product of the entire world. Europe and Japan were badly damaged and the remainder of the world was more or less what we call today the Third World, or part of the Communist world cut off from the rest of us by their dictatorships. That gave us the opportunity to all but completely dominate the world economy and gave us a level of prosperity unseen before in history. If someone wanted to buy something, they had to come to the United States.

      But, in the end, there was simply no way our advantage could be maintained. We rebuilt Europe and Japan and when communism disintegrated those nations which had also, at least to a great extent rebuilt after the war, entered the world market, as did communist China with cheap labor and eventually competitive products.Overall, the surge of economic activity overseas reduced our share of the World's GDP to around 25% today.

      Instead of making us fear each other, which will never make us competitive or successful, we should rejoice that we remain the largest economy, with the greatest and best colleges and universities on the planet, and regardless of our racial, religious or ethnic backgrounds we should look at the challenges facing us from outside whether its ISIS, economic competition or any other. Fear may win an election but it never solves problems. To continue, fear must always find new enemies to blame. It leads to ruin and a dead end. We need to demand that those who want to lead us light the way to the future.  

       

       

  2. This man is a very good example of the many sicknesses in our society. He exemplifies religious zealotry, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, unwillingness to compromise, lack of civic virtue, and arrogance. These character flaws, all too common in politicians, are quickly leading this great nation to ruin. To govern is to hold the public's trust, yes, but it is also to think. It is a pity that Mr. Klingenschmitt seems so unwilling, or incapable, of that. We all suffer as a result.

  3. So are there people who read this and think it's a quote from some US code? Despite the lousy grammar ("judges" and "needs" do not agree for starters)? They think some official US code includes stuff about a posse and hanging without trial at an intersection (guess he thought it sounded more official than "crossroads') at high noon? And who gets to decide what's consistent with the constitution besides judges? Any two self appointed experts off the street? Two eye witnesses are often required for finding a person guilty of a crime in the Old Testament. Maybe that's where that bit came from. 

    Never mind. That was all rhetorical. Clearly this poisonous nut's followers are sufficiently ignorant to believe this insanity.

    Very, very scary.

    The Colorado GOP needs to take some disciplinary action. Surely they can't consider it acceptable to have one of their members of the State Legislature promoting this abhorrent trash. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from all consequences of one's speech.  

    No decent person in Colorado should support any candidate or elected official connected with the GOP until the GOP makes clear by taking some disciplinary action that Klingenschmitt's unhinged poison will not be tolerated.

    1. Plus, whatever the U.S. Code says, the Constitution directly addresses the crime of treason in Article III, including providing that "No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."  So there's that, which is why we don't see a lot of treason prosecutions.

    1. Which is, of course, almost a word-for-word restatement of the US Constitution:

      Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

      One might ask whether he thinks his own statements, in opposition to the clear words of the Constitution, are also deserving of severe penalties…

    2. So nothing about being dragged by a posse to the nearest crossroads at high noon, hanged by the neck and left on display until sundown? And that souded so plausible!

  4. Here's what the statute actually says:

    18 U.S. Code § 2381 – Treason

    Current through Pub. L. 114-38. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

    § 2381.

    Treason

    Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

    (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 807; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(2)(J), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2148.)

    I rather like Dr. Chaps interpretation.  Maybe now we can get all those right-wing nuts off the bench and "hang them at noon."  Those bozos violate the constitution all the time.  Even the US Supreme Court says so, every time they overrule a court on Constitutional grounds.

     

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