What would have to happen in order to cause the American people to violently revolt against the government? (I’m presuming that part of the army would have to break away for this to be possible.) Would a massive disaster such as a widespread food shortage be enough?
I don’t think it’s possible. Maybe slavery. And that’s a loose “maybe”.
- Honesty
How many are we talking about here? I’m pretty sure that about a hundred thousand would violently revolt if a basic liberty (such as speech, religion, voting, etc) were revoked blatantly.
En masse? If a hostile power invaded and set up a puppet government, or if we started to look like Nazi Germany. Otherwise, probably not.
It’s possible for any country to be overtaken by internal conflict, but for a place like the U.S. it would just take very extreme circumstances.
The banning of slavery in the western territories … ?
Red Dawn.
I’m sure it would be a lot more than 100,000.
An economic collapse.
People with full stomachs do not rise up.
I’m not sure that would be enough, at least not right away, if the government persuaded people that these actions were necessary. Civil liberties have already been seriously curtailed under the guise of national security and anyone who disagrees with this is ‘unpatriotic.’
Probably at least generation or so of massive oppression or widespread starvation; I say a generation because the majority of Americans alive now are such sheep that I don’t think anything could get them to revolt. Either years and years of trauma or a new, less sheeplike generation would be needed to change that.
I thought of a scenario.
If the President coordinates the assassination of all members of the Legislative and Judicial Branch and makes himself the supreme leader of America. I think if the Constitution were to be breached in that regard, the people would rise up and overthrow the government.
- Honesty
(Who just happened to just watch V for Vendetta)
It’s true- there’s this collective delusion that America is the most free country in the world because people have the ‘freedom’ to elect either the Republicans or the Democrats, when in fact they have no more power to change their governing institutions than people living under dictatorships.
Severe economic depression as in 1930-1933 almost resulted in pretty severe uprisings. Some market towns in the midwest were partially blockaded by farmers. The object was to reduce the amount of commodities sent to sell so as to attempt to raise the price. Bidders at farm forclosure sales were threatened in an attempt to prevent the auction from taking place. A mob of WWI veterans marched to Washington, D.C. and werescattered by Army troops led by Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur on horseback. He was ably assisted by Majors George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower.
I think recent events have shown that if you scare people enough with threats from outside, civil rights are way down the list of what they want to preserve - at least for others. However, reduce them to economic dispair and things get pretty rough.
I see Bosda beat me to it.
Sorry to disillusion you but just because people don’t agree with your political vision doesn’t make this a dictatorship. The majority of people in this country want the Democrats and Republicans to run the country and, this being a democracy, that’s what happens.
The worst economic collapse imaginable “almost” resulted in “pretty severe” uprisings.
That says it all. If the Great Depression didn’t make either socialism or revolution seem palatable to the American people, it’s beyond me what could.
Do you include yourself in this? Not being a jerk (well, no more than normal) but I know several people who say about the same thing “The sheeple will never understand, but I’m smarter than they are and I’m ready for the day!”
Granted, I tend to associate with people that are a little off-kilter, but easily 2% of the people I know would join in if someone else started the ball rolling. A charismatic spokesperson, a couple of the right kind of injustices, a mention or two of lizard aliens (seriously) or the dreaded New World Order, and they’d rise up.
Sanjaya being named THE American Idol?
Wolverines!
You could be right although the really bad times for low morale only lasted about a year and a half. When FDR was elected the mood changed. Hoover was apparently convinced that laissez faire would correct the economic situation and did nothing. It’s speculative what would have happened had that situation continued. It is exceedingly difficult to get a revolt organized in a country as large as the US but I don’t think the fact that it didn’t happen in 1932-33 proves it couldn’t happen. I happen to believe that FDR converted what could have been a violent outburst into a peaceful revolution. And make no mistake, the New Deal was a revolution in thinking as to the role of the federal government. It don’t think it was all that great as an economic cure for the great depression but it did change the morale drastically. Somebody was doing something so let’s get together and make this thing work became the attitude.
I’d be much more likely to try to leave the country. It’s more likely to succeed, and frankly I don’t like America enough to risk my life for it, or even put forth a major effort for it.
That’s fair. Just wondering, thanks