Because it consists of…people?
For those that declare that the government is the enemy, sometimes they are their own enemy.
- We did it.
I have doubts about it occuring today, but then look at all the SDMBers here freaked out about the possibility that those fat cowardly MAGAs will rise up in armed revolt should trump not win.
Because the people who work for the government are the public, and they might object to shooting at their own people.
Look at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Block. Did those revolutions happen through force of arms? No. The people protested, and the army and police looked at the protestors and said, “Fuck it - I’m on their side.” Virtually every successful revolution in history has worked that way.
Believe me, dictatorships care very much about public opinion. That’s why they work so hard to shape it.
That wasn’t the populace, that was the colonies. It was one level of government fighting against the other.
The post-1919 revolution in Ireland was pretty much people with guns, and nothing else (forget about the 1916 trial run, which was somewhat abortive). No foreign sponsor egging them on.
How long did it take, and what was the outcome?