Do Americans KNOW how to have a revolution?

[Dover]

WE should be tossing these bozos out on their asses! Besides some planning, all it really takes is numbers.

[Unforgiven]

1. Is

this going to be a peaceful revolution or a violent one? I'm up for either.

[alittlelark]

5. Whichever....

it's all good.

[Dover]

6. Well, I guess that would depend on the level of resistance.

We've asked them nicely to leave our White House. We've yelled and screamed. If we can't count on the media to be our voice, or voting machines to truthfully record our votes, then I guess we have to show up in person, and in numbers that make our desires indisputable.

The military know all about the merits of 'overwhelming force'.

We can call it operation "shock and awesome"!

[jeff30997]

2. I heard about that little thing that happened in 1776...

But since then...:shrug:

[evlbstrd]

3. We made the attempt in the Sixties.

You heard it in the music and the underground newspapers, the cinema, in the air.
Are people too fat and lazy, overcome by consumption culture now?
I fear that may be the case. But, I teach my children.

[shadowknows69]

16. teach your children well ;O)

[MrModerate]

4. And a willingness to shred the social fabric into tatters . . .

And risk destroying the entire country.

"But when you talk about destruction/don't you know that you can count me out"

Fixing the broken election system, transplanting courage in the democratic party and the MSM, and a relentless pounding of the immoral and incompetent pubbies is the only way to get our country back.

Civil War is not a prospect we should take lightly.

[Dover]

8. I don't think the neocons have the numbers for a civil war.

[Unforgiven]

10. And

risk destroying the entire country. Better look around. How much more is there going on that we aren't aware of?


Last resort to be sure, but it may be the only viable alternative to rest control of this country back to those it truly belongs to.

[MrModerate]

11. Expand your imagination. Think Bosnia . . .

That's the sort of thing I have nightmares about when contemplating "destroying the entire country."

And unsurprisingly, the breakup of Yugoslavia was manufactured by leading apparatchiks fomenting culture war precisely to garner power for themselves.

Sound familiar?

[The Traveler]

7. A revolution is a war

Do you want the horrors of Baghdad on our own streets? The blood of your brothers and sisters on our hands? No, friend, it is too early for that. We must attempt and exhaust all other means possible before that horror can be seriously contemplated.

For a popular attempt to remove these bastards from office by force will not go unanswered. Good people will stand and die on either side of the issue. Better to go through the process.

In any event, the tide is turning. Can't ya feel it?

[Dover]

12. Wrong. The neocons have led an internal revolution

some would call it a bloodless coup (though there was certainly selective murder involved).

One definition of Revolution:

A complete or drastic change of government and the rules by which government is conducted.
www.nmlites.org/standards/socialstudies/glossary.html

It is our right and our duty.

The definition doesn't suggest just HOW that drastic change comes about. If several million people descended on the White House and threatened to oust the vermin, we might see some violence or....our sheer numbers might end it right on the spot.

I'm not sure at what point you can declare that you've exhausted all other options. How would you define that?

[The Traveler]

13. Sorry

Thinking in the context of Revolutionary War. Also, I do not expect these ghouls to go gently into that good night. Also, it has weighed on my mind lately, this question: At what point does resistance become morally obligatory?

I agree with you in this ... we have come to the brink of falling into totalitarian rule. The coup was not entirely bloodless, but it so appears on the surface. People are beginning to wake up and notice. At this point, the questions become a) will people continue to awaken and b) if they do, will the neocons allow a legal transfer of power when they start to lose elections.

All this presumes the voting machine mess can be straightened out, etc.

Things have the potential for turning really yucky really fast. Thus, whenever I see the word "revolution", I urge caution. Though, obviously, it is a matter that weighs on my mind.

[Karenina]

25. Power concedes NOTHING voluntarily.

[baron j]

9. Civil Rights, and Women's Equality were pretty

revolutionary, too. I'm afraid contemporary people suffer from the distance-of-the-past disease, where such things become mythic, legendary, and untouchable. Have to fight that urge to put resistance, passive or otherwise, in a subjective museum.

[Dover]

17. I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore!

Well, I think there is plenty of angst and knowledge about what's happening out there, but no unifying leadership or method for dealing with the problem. The revolutions you mention were done when the country's institutions were still viable, and politicians were accountable (they actually had to be responsive to their constituency or risk being voted out).

The GOP has managed to get hold of every level of government and shut it down. They feel no pressure to adhere to the laws of this land.

[tmorelli415]

14. liberals are not good at violence and subverting our institutions

goes against our basic belief in the goodness of man, and belief in reforming our institutions to achieve a more just and free society where everyone can live up to their potential. time and knowledge are dynamic so liberals tinker with our institutions to ensure the machinery continues to work. we love our institutions too much to destroy them.

i think you're looking for the communists or maybe the neo-con fascists. they like blood and lots of drama.

[Dover]

15. What I'm describing is, essentially a Boston Tea Party

on the White House lawn. If that's not YOUR cup of tea......to each his/her own. But calling anyone who suggests Revolution a fascist or communist is laughable.
Were the American revolutionaries communists? LOL!

IF several million people descended on the White House to make perfectly clear their desires...well, that's just a direct form of 'communinication' when all other avenues to voice our desires have been taken away. I'm not suggesting violence, but it can't be ruled out either as a possible outcome... I don't know if you've been paying attention, but this is no longer a viable democracy.

[tmorelli415]

18. i wasn't calling you fascist or communist - sarcasm was implied

and no, the american revolutionaries were not communists. they were not revolutionaries either. mostly pretty conservative rich guys and promiscuous liberal socialites who didn't want their cushy lives bothered with taxes, a whacked out king who liked to wear womens clothes, or soldiers friendly to the savages.

i like the tea party idea concept, though. we could dump a bunch of nuns into boston harbor maybe?

[Dover]

19. Blasphemy.........you have just described the neocons and their

corporate buddies.

Conservative Rich guys......(check)
Tax avoidance (check)
Promiscuous socialites...(check)
Rousing the poor to fight their battles... (check)
Cross-dressing...(check)
Run through the streets shouting "the liberals are coming, the liberals are coming!"....(check)

BTW, sarcasm noted (sometimes hard to distinguish sarcasm online).

Perhaps the argument for "revolution" is even greater now because there is much more at stake than taxes. The cross-dressing "king" has actually moved into our HOUSE.

[sweetheart]

20. Its rotten fruit

Let it rot, take care of your own.

Large empires do not have revolutions, they have slave revolts and
these are always put down. The slaves, if they were true to their
purpose, would simply sit down on the ground and come what may, not
move. A sit-out, would be the ultimate revolution, but people are too
fat and defeated to do the heroic thing.

It leaves the only other option, and that is the denial of food to the
animal, so that it gets humbled. All it takes is numbers, like
1 yen == 1 dollar, and 5 dollars for 1 pound sterling, and 10 dollars
per 1 euro. The collapse of a corporate empire can only be observed
by its relative pulse, and this will shift in a relative world soon
enough that there is no superpower left, just a sad nationalist state
of sick men encamped upon a beautiful land.

[Dover]

21. Didn't Gandhi manage to lead a "sit out" ?

So perhaps leadership is what's missing rather than motivation.

True...people are feeling fat and defeated. They also might worry that a sit-out would deprive them of food for their table. But the alternative is looking even more grim, so it's relative.

[sweetheart]

22. Food on the table

You're right, as i myself do not get on a flight to washington DC and
spend the next 3 years sitting on the washington mall. I really think
that what it will take is people doing exactly that, yet i'm not there,
so i've an excuse, like so many others... and maybe there are no leaders
but rather simply a leading-edge... and whomever starts sitting out
will be the leader(s).

Just i believe it is as futile as self-immolation... a media flame for
a moment, maybe some motivated persons look on, but the machine will
simply eat those people, throw them in prison for vagrancy and move
on with more war. I can't say whether that rationalization is my
excuse for not doing a sit-out myself, or whether it is the truth that
all resistance by sit-out is futile.

I would have to give up showers, good food, home, family and all, yet
that is nothing next to the lives of dead soldiers and so much criminal
abuse... so i'm a panzy chatterbox liberal who won't put my life
where my ideals are? Dover would you joint me for a sit out on the
wasthington mall? and why not?

[Dover]

24. Oh brother....I'll go with you on ONE condition.

If you promise we don't have to sit together, Eeyore! Talk about "fat and defeated"!

[sweetheart]

26. Clearly

I don't talk about politics in person... and how serious are you?
On posting that, i thought about what it would take. Firstly, i don't
know, if I went and sat in the mall, how long before i'd have to leave,
to use a loo if nothing else.

Could i not bathe and sit-in, and not eat and sit-in? What kind of
sign would i have, if any? I figured a "no" sign would be the comment.
Just "no". How long would i stay rooted to one place on the ground
before i would get up for food. If i was dead, like 1700 soldiers,
surely i'd stay sitting and not get up for anything... so to honour
them, certainly the idea of a sit-in is not to simply demonstrate 1
day, but to become a fixture in front of the capital building, that
a camp of sitting-in persons form, that the protest gain momentum.

The ultimate protest, to stop everything, even protesting, is such that
i'd not want to explain myself, even to a reporter, rather a sign or
something. Perhaps best to print a flyer for the curious to explain
the protest, and to otherwise run a vigil of non-doing on the mall.

You don't have to sit in silence near me, piglet. How would you go about
such a protest?

[Kipling]

23. You need a good slogan

No offense, but "No Taxation Without Representation" was a bit wordy. Something a bit shorter and snapper, preferably with a better rhythm. Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite was a winner.