Revolting?
 

This exchange was from another thread.

Do you think there could or would be an armed revolt in America?
Would the revolters be criminals?
Would it be better to make change within our current system?

Yes.

Some always are, even disregarding the fact that armed revolt is probably criminal in and of itself.

Of course.

1. No, not under the current conditions. But under conditions where there was a total collapse of central government it might be possible. Hopefully we would revert to each state becoming the central government in the absence of a national government. So, I could see where we may have periods of anarchy which would require so form of continual personal defense.
2. No, political opportunists maybe, but I think they are one in the same. :D
3. Change in the current system is, has, and will be very very difficult. Until we have a strong third party rise up and become so popular as to overwhelm the current electoral process with mass elections, things will plod along as usual. A third party could also make slow in-roads to the current process but who knows.

I don't see anything bad enough to rise to that level now, but we can't predict what happens in the future. We've had two in our country, and people still have long memories of the last one. Even Yankees.

Collapse of the Federal Government? Not a chance.
We've had "Constitutional Crises" screaming headlines and "Capitol Hill" so distracted they couldn't function. We've had fiscal years not funded in time and turmoil galore. But you know what? Those millions of government employees just chugged along like the vast juggernaut that it is. All those people are the government, not the relative handful of highly visible politicians.

The Declaration of Independence addresses this in the second paragraph:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, 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.

If a revolt happened in America it would come from the lower class (that doesn't mean they are criminals).

It would be crushed within hours if it did happen.

Hours?
What are you basing that on?

Haha, it was an overexaggeration.

The point is that it wouldn't last long.

I remain unconvinced by your argument.

Do you really think that an armed revolution could last for over 6 months? There may be little groups that would survive but the main force would be destroyed.

The only way to fight without a slaughter would be using guerilla tactics and that will not win a revolution but only put the country under martial law.

Riots are different because police are not using weapons that can kill.

At what point does a riot become an insurrection? When does an insurrection become a revolution? What's the difference between a revolution and a civil war?

Better ask Robert E. Lee and George III on those last two.

Guerilla conflicts are pretty easy to sustain if they have any popular support. Watch Iraq. The opposition is just waiting for us to leave. They live there, all they need to do is wait. The Feds couldn't hold the cities if they went ballistic more than one at a time. Then there is the small problem of Rednecus Americanus, lose him and you are toast.

I doubt we're headed in that direction though,.. although the stock market did just pass 1927 for irrational exuberance...

I really think the US armed forces have their hands full in country with just a small fraction of the area and population of the US. I wonder why you think their job would be so much easier here.

They wouldn't get me to hold up a cardboard sign that says I fuck goats and camels.