The sovereign citizen movement consists of a group of citizens that reject any sort of taxation. They will talk you to sleep about:
- How the federal and state governments have no real authority.
- Therefore, they are not really citizens.
- Hence, they don’t need to pay taxes.
Obviously, this group of greedy penny-pinchers are all Republican.
In their defense, I respect a sovereign citizen more than your typical Republican politician. At least sovereign citizens declare their refusal to pay taxes. Political Republicans, on the other hand, must mask their aversion to taxation. The easiest way for them to lower taxes for their wealthy friends is to sneak away benefits from me and you, and hand that extra money away.
In this elaborate justification for not paying taxes, sovereign citizens believe that the United States government is illegitimate. If you don’t think the government is real, then you don’t consider it’s currency or laws legitimate. If I can prove that I am not a citizen than by law, I don’t have to pay taxes.
But what about when these people, who hate government so much, and refuse to pay taxes, use up services that our taxes pay for. According to their grotesque logic, if they are using something that other people, but not them, pay for, wouldn’t that be considered theft?
If you refuse to pay taxes, how do you justify driving on our roads?
I found one article, Auburn Pub, in which a sovereign citizen attempts to justify this very question.
“Driving” is a legal term for using the roadways to transport goods or passengers for hire. “Traveling” is a lawful term for exercising the common right to use the roads as opposed to “for hire.” A driver or being a driver requires registering and licensing, while traveling does not.
Roads come from taxes paid through the purchase of gas, so the roads are owned and maintained by the populace. Going back into the history of this country, roads were installed for our purposes and not just the movement of the government.
I wonder how much acid the person who thought that one up was on. Wouldn’t that be cool, if all it took to change a law, was to redefine a word? But then, that assumes that I possess the power to define words. Citizens can not pick and choose which laws they want.
In 2010, Southern Poverty Law Center estimated that 100,000 Americans considered themselves sovereign citizens. Sovereign citizens are considered by law enforcement to be a greater risk of terrorism than Islamic extremism. MacNab, J.J. “‘Sovereign’ Citizen Kane”. Intelligence Report. Issue 139. Southern Poverty Law Center. Fall 2010.
The Bundy standoff from 2014, illustrates how violent sovereign citizens could get. The altercation started when Cliven Bundy refused to pay more than $1 million in withheld grazing fees for his use of federally owned land adjacent to his property. You could wrap up yesterday’s newspaper in the prettiest paper with the most colorful bow, but it is still just yesterday’s paper. Cliven Bundy could dress up like a patriot from 1760, and preach about how wicked our government, but in the end, he is just trying to evade taxes. Taxes that I and you have to pay.
At first, Republican politicians envisioned Bundy as some sort of hero. After all, his mission was the same as every Republican in Washington. As a result, he became a regular face on Fox News. Republicans all over the country defended Cliven Bundy. For a few weeks, every Republican considered Cliven Bundy an American hero. Isn’t that impressive? Fox news could make a patriotic hero out of someone refusing to pay their taxes!!! Fox News could probably even make Adolf Hitler or Donald Trump an American hero as well!
It was just a matter of time before those cheering Republicans regretted their school girl devotion to Cliven Bundy. Bundy said some typical republican racist comment, about how the negro should have remained a slave. And with those few sentences, Republican support faded like the atrocious scent of a fart.
Here is a great example of a sovereign citizen trying to use his twisted logic to contend that they are exempt from the laws of our land. The video is of David Hall in front of our Broward County Judge Hurley. Just watch it. Judge Hurley v. David Hall
Sovereign citizens really get far out in their attempt to avoid paying taxes. They believe that every US citizen has two identities. According to them, every person is composed of a strawman, created by a birth certificate, and their physical identity. Policone article
According to this theory, the moment you dismiss your “strawman” identity, your physical identity is not liable for “strawman’s” debts anymore. How convenient is that?
I wonder if that would work when I have to pay my bar tab tonight?
What would happen if everyone had a split strawman personality? Imagine that: every single person in America snuck out of paying their taxes. If no one paid taxes, America would instantly crumble into anarchy. Sovereign citizens are constantly committing fraud against American citizens as well as the American government. These crimes are another striking similarity between sovereign citizens and the Republican party.
If everyone was a sovereign citizen and there were no US citizens, what would our shrewd sovereign citizen do then? There would be no income tax to evade, no fraudulent promissory bonds to sell, no enforcement to intimidate, and no financial fraud schemes to perpetrate.
In other words, as much a sovereign citizen despises our government and our laws, without them, they would not exist. There would be no victims for them to scam.
