President Obama’s first name has been transmuted into a biting Twitter meme, and University of St. Thomas student Vladimir Davidiuk highlights the failure of the administration’s tactics to bar Americans from their national monuments.

In an effort to maximize the pain and inconvenience of the #ObamaShutdown of the Federal Government, the Obama Administration gave explicit instructions to its myriad minions, workers, goons and bureaucrats, to “make life as difficult for people as [they] can.” Instead of being cowed, however, citizens who define their patriotism by love of country – not love of government – chose to defy the despots in Washington and stormed their memorials, monuments and national parks in an act of civil disobedience.

Americans of every background have taken to the #Barrycades, most notably the heroic veterans of the Second World War who marched upon the World War II memorial almost immediately after the shutdown began.

Chris Cox bought an old lawn mower and leaf blower in order to get to work on the lawn of the Lincoln Memorial.

Truckers brought traffic on Washington’s Beltway to a grinding halt, and students massed together to clean the Pearl Harbor memorial.

All of these individual acts of patriotic initiative culminated in the “Million Vets March” which stormed Washington today, as citizens joined together “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” and to peacefully protest against the tyrannical tactics their country’s government has employed to coerce their obedience.