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Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Insurrection) is standing tall. After his censure from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has come the entirely predictable response: Kelly has dug in, wrapping himself in the mantle of the First Amendment, despite never having shown any concern when the Biden regime trampled it into the dust and actively worked to censor and silence dissidents on social media. The media, meanwhile, and Kelly’s craven colleagues have all rallied around him, insisting that this is a case of Orange Man Bad, the incipient fascist dictator, cracking down on those who dare to criticize him.
Was that really what happened? In the video, the “Seditious Six,” six far-left lawmakers, including Kelly, made statements including “You must refuse illegal orders,” “No one has to carry out orders that violate the law,” “…Or our constitution.” It was very clear what they really meant. Legality had nothing to do with it. They were trying to induce military personnel to disobey orders from Trump of which leftists disapproved.
On January 5, Hegseth characterized this as “reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline.” He added that “as a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice. Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly, USN (Ret). The department has initiated retirement grade determination proceedings under 10 U.S.C. § 1370(f), with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay. To ensure this action, the Secretary of War has also issued a formal Letter of Censure, which outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.”
In response, Kelly sued, claiming that he was being attacked for his exercise of the freedom of speech. The suit says: “The First Amendment forbids the government and its officials from punishing disfavored expression or retaliating against protected speech. That prohibition applies with particular force to legislators speaking on matters of public policy.” Kelly himself added: “I’m a f**king US senator. I have, in theory — in theory — supercharged First Amendment speech rights under the Speech and Debate Clause, and they’re trampling on that.”
A darling of the leftist propaganda media, Kelly also said that he was thinking about running for president.
There are more than a few Mark Kellys in American history. One of them was Claiborne Fox Jackson, who was not a “f**king senator,” but was governor of Missouri at one of the key points in American history, the first seven months of 1861. Missouri was a tense border state with a large number of Confederate sympathizers, including Governor Jackson. When President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to put down the insurrection in the Southern states, Jackson (and many others) considered this an unconstitutional act of coercion. He insisted that Missouri’s citizens were “under no obligations whatever to obey the unconstitutional edicts of the military despotism which has introduced itself at Washington, nor submit to the infamous and degrading sway of its wicked minions in this State.”
Nowadays Kelly, or Tim Walz, or Gavin Newsom, or a host of others could take Jackson’s words and make them their own, maybe with a few “f**ks” thrown in to make it all sound modern. And maybe Pete Hegseth or President Trump would issue a counterstatement pointing out that state officials — like U.S. senators — had no right to judge whether a lawful command of the president of the United States was to be obeyed or not. They are indeed seditionists, just as was Claiborne Fox Jackson, whom Union troops ultimately forced to abandon the governor’s mansion and flee into Arkansas, where he died of pneumonia in 1862.
The United States is on the brink of another civil war, and just as in the first one, the people who are tearing the Union apart and advocating defiance of the president are those who are claiming to be the most loyal to the Constitution and the rule of law. It was a false claim then, and it is once again now. Mark Kelly will stand trial, and unless he encounters a leftist judge who gets him off the hook, justice will dictate that he be found guilty of sedition.
