Ruminations on Revolution

...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

--The United States' Declaration of Independence

It has occurred to me on a number of occasions that it is perhaps time for us as a people (or, more likely, a select group of people deeming themselves representative of the greater faction of America) to rise and replace our government with something else. It seems at times that it would be the greater mercy to take the execution of our country into our own hands--do it quickly in a word--than allow her once-proud majesty to be trodden upon by the schmucks and lowlifes that seem to abound in our ruling class these days.

However, it also seems likely that such a noble endeavour would be doomed to fail from the very start. With the alarmist, panic-stricken culture of fear those who lead our country have so carefully and painstakingly induced in our society such that hot dogs are blown up in a baseball stadium for fear of "terrorist activities", this noble gesture of mercy would likely net nothing but sentences to Guantanamo Bay (or worse) for all its supporters, and even help perpetuate and strengthen the other side...

Even if such a cause and plot could be set up and guaranteed certain success if implemented (as it must, as there are no words to the effect of the above quote in the US Constitution, throwing all of any such plot firmly and irrevocably into the territory of treason, punishable by death), the issue comes down to what system to implement once in power. My thought is that our current system, with a few minor tweaks, should be workable for yet another two-hundred or more years, but the type of people I would enlist to support this endeavour would likely not approve of this system. The other issue is that, by implementing the same system, we run into the potential that it too will become bogged down in red tape and corruption, creating a scenario foretold in such wide-ranging media as George Orwell's Animal House and The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Other, more radical institutions would be proposed, and ever-more-detailed arguments for or against niggling details of the overall system would cause factions and bog down the endeavour to the point of internal implosion before it even begins to start.

Though this line of thinking is gloomy and not a little cynical, I do believe that there may be hope. It will not change everything that need be changed. It will not even begin to scratch the surface of the crust of slime and political detritus that cakes the face of Lady Liberty. It will however offer a ray of true, golden light where there is now but darkness. This hope, this one, solitary potential for hope, comes in the guise of the next national Presidential election. Though on one hand, we have a stiffly conservative old white guy with a running mate who has no control of her data signature, and on the other, we have an inexperienced senator trying to break a political pattern that has lasted almost a quarter of a millennium, I think that we may very well see the beginnings of change, for better or for worse, over the next four years.

Of course, there is always the option of moving to Canada. They seem sane enough up there still...though they have already stated their displeasure with the "American refugees" moving into their country...