Where is Thomas Jefferson when you need him?

[robinturner]

I know I am getting a reputation on LJ as a Europhile anti-American pundit, but please allow me one more question.

Given that a large number of Americans are strongly opposed to their government's Middle-East bloodlust;

Given that a large number of Americans believe with good reason that the last presidential election was fraudulent;

Given that the current American government exists largely to promote the interest of the few against the many, believes in the principle of one dollar, one vote, and is a quagmire of corruption and nepotism comparable to the England of George III;

Where is the revolution?

I see many demonstrations of popular dissent, and I welcome them, like most people in the free world. But I see no strikes, no civil disobedience, no calls to arms. The current protests are a dim reflection of what we saw in the 1960s. Please read once more your Declaration of Independence. Call a strike. Boycott American goods instead of French goods. Destroy government property. Invade military bases. Physically harass a congressman. You used to be able to do it.

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.

Comments

[circumambulate.livejournal.com]

Nah, we never did. Aside from a few long-past state v.s. fed issues, the last revolution in this country was against your government, not ours. Americans, as with most people, will protest an issue up to the point of jeopardizing their own well-being.

Additionally, those who are protesting loudest are those who preach peace above all else - not very good stock among which to breed revolutionaries.

[solri.livejournal.com]

those who are protesting loudest are those who preach peace above all else - not very good stock among which to breed revolutionaries.

But that didn't used to be the case. The protests and revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 70s came out of the peace movement.

Hey Hanoi Jane! If you haven't sunk between the weight of your aerobics books, get onto the street! Huey Newton, are you still alive and kicking? Eldrige Cleaver, get out of your soul food restaurant!* Jerry Rubin, are you happy being a yuppie or would you rather go back to being a yippie? Timothy Leary - oh sorry, you're dead, man, so I can't criticise - you did OK. Malcolm X - rest in peace. You not only fought for what you thought was right, you listened to others and realised you got some things wrong and admitted it; you were truly great. And Martin Luther King? Where is anyone who even approaches him?

* actually Cleaver was always an asshole, so that doesn't count.

[circumambulate.livejournal.com]

There's a critical difference, though. The Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights movement were both domestic issues - The Iraqi conflict, at least until wounded soldiers start coming home - is a foreign policy issue. If mainstream Americans cared about US foreign policy, or were even informed about what really goes on abroad, in their name, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.