“We’re talking about political change, not technological change. Political revolutions are almost always violent.”

I would encourage you to revisit the definition of “revolution”:

revolution

rev·​o·​lu·​tion | \ ˌre-və-ˈlü-shən

“a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revolution

I’m talking about a revolution in our minds, not in the streets.

And it doesn’t matter what “almost always” is or has been — especially now, when we wake up to the unprecedented on a daily basis. We have control over our minds, which means that we have control over the way change, i.e. revolution unfolds. I shudder to think how my ancestors could have possibly achieved civil rights if everyone thought, “Well, changing the way people treat people of color is a shift in the social paradigm. That sounds like it’s going to require a bloody revolution. I’m not on board with that.”

Don’t allow yourself to be defined by the way things have always happened in the past. History may rhyme, but it doesn’t have to repeat.

“Yes, you do. And if you do, Mr. Trump will enjoy another four years in office. That will pretty well destroy the American republic.”

If choosing to exercise our right to reject candidates who are clearly bought and sold by elite donors means that the American republic will be destroyed, then guess what? It’s already destroyed. The biggest problems we face started decades before Trump, and they’ll still be with us LONG after he leaves office if we continue to vote out of fear and always “settle” for the lesser of evils. That’s what desperate women do when they date. Doesn’t work out so well for them, and it won’t work out any better for us.

It boggles my mind that people can’t see that Trump is a symptom of a much greater problem. Getting rid of him is like giving a malaria patient Tylenol. “Congratulations! We’ve reduced your fever. But you’re still going to die in a few weeks…”

“Yes, if we all agreed to be nice and pursue the same political goals, then life would be simple. Unfortunately, people don’t agree on everything. On issues like guns, abortion, immigration, Israel, defense, Muslims, and a million other things, we disagree. Wishing away the disagreement doesn’t make it go away.”

I think you’re missing my point. A democratic republic is not premised on the assumption that all people will agree on all issues, especially hit-button niche issues that are calculated to divide us. However, this type of government works best when most people can agree on core issues.

I dare say that the vast majority of Americans don’t want a debt-based economy that enriches the elite as it impoverishes everyone else; or endless wars to protect the petrodollar; or a health care system that can’t be meaningfully changed because it’s owned by for-profit companies; or anti-trust laws that aren’t enforced by a DOJ that allows individual companies to own more than half of our media, travel, and other industries; or political hacks who receive unlimited campaign funds (courtesy of a corrupt SCOTUS opinion, e.g., “Citizens United”); or a Congress that “serves” us with no hint of term limits. I could go on, but I hope you get the idea. These are the “big picture” issues that Establishment parties don’t address, and they also happen to be ones that minions of the oligarchy (a/k/a politicians in the Democratic and Republic parties) will NEVER address. Coincidentally, they also happen to be issues that voters on ALL points of the political spectrum would readily embrace. These issues are never addressed because our political system is intended solely to divide and frighten people, sending them scurrying from on cancerous party to the other.

All of the above are the real threats to our democratic republic, my friend. In the face of these threats, Trump is white noise. Or a gnat of an elephant’s ass.

“No, irrationalism is the the reason why things are as bad as they are. Our only hope is that people treat our problems with greater education and reason. I’m not optimistic about our chances.”

People can be educated, but if they’re fearful and pessimistic, then education will fall on deaf ears and be meaningless. I witness this on a daily basis on Medium…