The response to Adam Kokesh's spectactularly insane idea for an armed march on Washington, DC has been moderately successful, leaping from 1,000 on May 6 to over 5,000 in three weeks' time. I suppose that success has bred the latest idea, which is to abandon the armed march on the nation's capitol and instead march on state capitols in order to demand dissolution of the federal government.

In the press release, Kokesh called for "A new American revolution" where "the American Revolutionary Army will march on each state capital to demand that the governors of these 50 states immediately initiate the process of an orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property." Kokesh also gave the federal government a one-year deadline to comply with his demands before possibly taking violent action, writing, "Should one whole year from this July 4th pass while the crimes of this government are allowed to continue, we may have passed the point at which non-violent revolution becomes impossible."

Describing the change in plans, Kokesh told listeners who planned to openly carry firearms into the nation's capital in defiance of local firearms laws to not come to Washington, D.C., but to instead organize armed marches or other events at state capitols nationwide. He also explained to Santilli that such an "orderly peaceful dissolution" would be a way to avoid a "chaotic collapse" of government and that it is the "last chance to do it the easy way." After Santilli suggested that "we can't wait for a couple of more elections in order to purge the system," Kokesh chastised him for giving credence to the notion that "elections can have a positive impact," adding, "that's clearly not the case anymore."

The "Santilli" that he's talking to there is my old pal Pete Santilli, who made violent threats against Hillary Clinton just a couple of weeks ago and doubled down on them last week.

This isn't coincidence, and I doubt Santilli and Kokesh are acting on pure ideology, either. My guess, though I can't prove it, is that they're being supported by the likes of Gun Owners of America and the NRA in order to scare the hell out of people who might otherwise support things like background checks.

This doesn't mean they aren't True Believers. They certainly are. But they come at their targets with a level of insanity that would require their dismissal, were they not being reinforced by corporate interests who want to destroy any effort at reasonable gun legislation.

I have a couple of questions for both of them. I couldn't find any record of either host calling for the dissolution of the federal government when George W. Bush was president, despite Kokesh's self-professed hatred of the wars begun by the Bush-Cheney partnership. Would the extreme approach they recommend now have any relationship to the re-election of a black guy for president? My own personal interactions with Santilli revealed his racism. How about Kokesh?

Second, at what point does their call to arms shift from protected speech under the First Amendment to sedition?

It is time for some self-moderation. It's one thing to oppose and even hate the government in power, and another to be sending out calls to arms on radio -- Internet and otherwise -- for armed uprisings over ginned-up conspiracy theories and gun paranoia.

Update: TPM reports that Kokesh is in a federal jail in Philadelphia for allegedly assaulting a police officer.