One of President Joe Biden’s periodic touchstones is to berate advocates of the Second Amendment, saying that they’d need F-16 fighter jets to take on the U.S. government.

Put aside for a moment the deeply disturbing thought that an American president would have recurring thoughts of using the most deadly weaponry in the history of the world against his own citizens. Put aside the equally disturbing thought that the true spirit of the Second Amendment as framed by the founders is lost on an American president.

President Biden’s own recent history as Commander in Chief provides evidence that even if you accept his bizarre premise, he is still wrong.

In August of 2021, Biden oversaw the most disastrous end to America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan by hastily withdrawing the country’s last remaining troops, getting 13 Marines killed in an airport overrun by panicked citizens trying to flee the bloodthirsty Taliban, and the Taliban itself. Not to mention an untold number of American civilians and others from the West who were caught off guard by the chaotic nature of the exit and left stranded without U.S. government support or protection as they tried to leave the country.

In the process, he gave the Taliban billions of dollars of state-of-the-art war technology and weaponry.

For many Americans, the images of a rag-tag group of minimally-trained (though battle-hardened) Taliban soldiers in beat-up Toyota pickup trucks with no more than the guns and ammo on their backs, driving out this world super power are impossible to forget.

By Biden’s own standards, the Taliban proved that if anyone is so inclined and committed, they can take on the U.S. government—particularly his administration—without F-16s and win.

Consent of the Governed

What President Biden ignores—or more likely forgets—is that you need the will of the people if you want to retain power. Kings and authoritarians throughout history have known this. The calculus is simple. From the King of England in the eighteenth century to the leader of the Third Reich, they have always known, “There are more of ‘them’ than of us.” Even dictators know they need to condition the masses to win hearts and minds.

Or, to put it in terms Biden may understand, you can’t govern by F-16. That’s an unsustainable domestic policy.

Joe Biden’s current ratings show 54 percent of all Americans disapprove of the job he is doing as president. Roughly 41 percent of all Americans approve of his performance. The majority of Americans are not happy with this administration.

Conventional thinking in political circles is that when a president can’t boost his approval ratings beyond the low 40th percentile, he can’t get re-elected. Through a fair and peaceful democratic process, you are voted out without the need for the Second Amendment, guns, Toyota trucks, or, for that matter, F-16s.

American democracy is completely reliant on the consent of the governed. Even beyond this country, the will of the people ultimately determines whether any leader retains power, regardless of the tools of war at his disposal.

No One Is Talking About Taking Up Arms

Contrary to the myth and the fake narrative Biden is trying to create through his grossly inappropriate attacks on Second Amendment constitutionalists, no one is talking about taking up arms against their government or against the country they love. Instead, American patriots want to preserve the country for future generations.

The spirit and meaning of the Second Amendment centers on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. It’s not about the right to hunt or shoot guns for sport. It’s completely focused on the God-given right to preserve your own life, to self-defense, regardless of where the threat may originate. It’s the right that protects all your other rights in the most physical sense.

In the future, before the president makes veiled threats on the potential use of military-grade weapons against his own people, there are some things he needs to consider. He was put there non-violently through at least a shadow of the American democratic process that once was. Not with tanks stationed outside the presidential palace.

He sits in the White House at the will of the people through the consent of the governed. And if somewhere in his peculiar fascinations, he imagines using F-16s on his own citizens, he need only remember what happened in Afghanistan. He need only remember that if the people don’t want him to lead them, they can and will find a non-violent way to put him out on the street.