Monday saw another anti-health-reform protester show up at one of President Barack Obama’s town hall meetings with a gun — this time, a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.

The appearance was later described gleefully as “a publicity stunt” by its promoters. But not before they posted this video to YouTube, in which “Chris”, the man carrying the rifle, explains his worldview:

I was most struck by the moment that starts around 0:50 where “Chris” analogizes his glibertarianism with the American Revolution:

What do you think we did in the Revolution? The British weren’t stealing money from us for health care, they weren’t taxing us the way they are now. And what did we do? We forcefully kicked them out of our country. And we will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote. Just because you sic the government on people, doesn’t make it morally OK to steal money from people. Taxation is theft.

“Chris” may see himself as the modern equivalent of the revolutionaries of 1776. But what he’s advocating is the opposite of what they were fighting for.

The rallying cry that spurred the American Revolution was not, after all, “no taxation” — it was “no taxation without representation.” The colonists did not object to being taxed — they objected to having taxes laid upon them by bodies they could not participate in, namely the English Parliament, which included no representatives from the Colonies. They believed that taxes levied by such bodies were inherently unjust, since the people expected to pay the taxes had no chance to argue against them or influence their eventual shape. And it was one such tax levied by Parliament — the Stamp Act of 1765 — that provided the spark that would eventually ignite the firestorm of revolution.

Virginia firebrand Patrick Henry — the source of one of libertarianism’s favorite quotes, “Give me liberty or give me death!” — made this point forcefully in his 1765 legislative protest against the Stamp Act, known to history as the Virginia Resolutions:

Resolved, that the first adventurers and settlers of His Majesty’s colony and dominion of Virginia brought with them and transmitted to their posterity, and all other His Majesty’s subjects since inhabiting in this His Majesty’s said colony, all the liberties, privileges, franchises, and immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and possessed by the people of Great Britain.

Resolved, that by two royal charters, granted by King James I, the colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all liberties, privileges, and immunities of denizens and natural subjects to all intents and purposes as if they had been abiding and born within the Realm of England.

Resolved, that the taxation of the people by themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only know what taxes the people are able to bear, or the easiest method of raising them, and must themselves be affected by every tax laid on the people, is the only security against a burdensome taxation, and the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, without which the ancient constitution cannot exist.

Resolved, that His Majesty’s liege people of this his most ancient and loyal colony have without interruption enjoyed the inestimable right of being governed by such laws, respecting their internal policy and taxation, as are derived from their own consent, with the approbation of their sovereign, or his substitute; and that the same has never been forfeited or yielded up, but has been constantly recognized by the kings and people of Great Britain.

Resolved, therefor that the General Assembly of this Colony have the only and exclusive Right and Power to lay Taxes and Impositions upon the inhabitants of this Colony and that every Attempt to vest such Power in any person or persons whatsoever other than the General Assembly aforesaid has a manifest Tendency to destroy British as well as American Freedom.

(Emphasis mine)

Henry’s point is clear — that if a system is going to expect people to pay taxes, it owes them the right to political participation. And his solution is equally clear — “the General Assembly of this Colony” — Virginian leaders, elected by Virginians — “[has] the only and exclusive Right and Power to lay Taxes and Impositions upon the inhabitants of this Colony.”

(History nerds may argue in “Chris’” defense that Henry’s definition of “political participation” didn’t include the Federal government — he was an avowed believer in States’ Rights and later in life spoke eloquently against ratifying the Constitution on the grounds that it required the states to yield too much power to the new central government. But Henry believed that only the state of Virginia had the right to tax Virginians, not that no elected body, no matter how democratic its election, had the right to tax — the radical position “Chris” has staked out.)

This is the key point that “Chris” and his confederates have completely missed — the revolutionaries of 1776 were fighting for democracy. They strove to build a society where Americans had a voice in the selection of their leaders. And build it they did — a fact we affirm every two years when we go to the polls.

“Chris,” with his call to “forcefully resist” the decisions of “a majority with a vote,” isn’t fighting for democracy. He’s fighting against it. He’s fighting for anarchy — the brutal war of all against all, in which the strong survive by preying on the weak. His philosophy has no room for democratic action, no space in which citizens can work together to find common ground; it is simple winner-takes-all, with the winner being the one who can muster the most clubs or axes or rifles, and the rest living lives that are “nasty, brutish and short.”

That may sound like freedom to “Chris.” But I doubt most people would see it as such.