A funny thing has happened to the Revolution on steroids that was supposed to take us by storm. The complaints that would define us turned out to be lukewarm after all (seems whites in flyover country were less than worried about jobs, and the need for free education hasn't been dominating the front pages (yet?), while others like $12/$15 minimum wage are less than likely to get a national listening under current government).

But several issues have gained traction - some old, some new, some red, some blue... #MeToo may be receiving some deflection, but it appears it's real beyond pink pussyhats and the casting couches of Hollywood. Even Fox had a heretic on its CPAC review, and tried quickly to veer off into "poor accused men", before going viral.

#RussiaGate is now in full scandal mode with domestic and foreign indictments, full charges against Manafort, Gates in full confessional flip mode, and the Nunes Memo now rebutted and exploded all over GOP faces.

#BlackLivesMatter is a thing - the smear job against black athletes has finally failed, and worries about blacks' security and well-being have gained prominence over traditional canards about the troops and the needs of sport fans, while Michael Steele just blew the racist club out of the CPAC water.

#SandyHook has grown up to be #StonemanShooting, and the all-powerful NRA has its yarbles shrivelling up faster than a Yeti's in permafrost. For the first time in generations, the need for real security has trumped that of blessing the 2nd Amendment - #BoycottNRA has taken hold. And this time it threatens to bring out a whole cohort of first-time teen voters to express their rage - something that hasn't happened since McGovern's campaign in the twilight of Vietnam after the 26th Amendment passed.

And yes, worry about immigration is still there even as #Dreamers have proven to be a unifying issue - Americans still seem to have a sense of fair play about kids dragged to another country, and similar to guns, it's likely to be a youth issue especially.

But don't confuse first-timers with a small isolated group - there's a lot of shared communication and interests among high school students and recent grads, with about 16 million public & private high school students, and 24 million 16-24 year-olds registered in school (not counting those working). So each year, nearly 4 million new graduates exit high school, and about 4 million new 18-year-olds eligible to vote - over 50% minority - or about 2.5% total registered voters, or 2.8% those who voted. Combine that with a good Rock the Vote effort and issues that attract, and that more than compensates for recent vote depression in swing states.

But combine disgruntlement on several fronts - harassment of women, mistreatment of blacks, using millions of poor innocent Hispanic kids as bargaining chips, and the validation that yes, Republicans have both been gerrymandering the vote and colluding/conspiring with Russia to overthrow the election - well, there's enough on the table to sway multiple large demographics (including the majority female cohort) and rock the population at large. While typically national issues may not affect good local candidates, when it gets too much, the "throw the bums out" spirit takes sway. And with the Parkland shooting & surrounding immoral influence, more and more male leaders found abusing their positions of power towards women, a general treasonous leaning towards Russia spreading from the White House through the House of Representatives to various supporting organizations, and now a bizarre claim that high schoolers shouldn't even be safe from attack in school, it's leading towards a perfect storm.

[And expect this flippant attitude towards homeland security and real lives7 to affect traditional support for our troops abroad - once people see how unserious you are about matters close at hand, they start to guess the real situation in the field.]

More, one of the charges against Manafort is getting EU officials to anonymously lobby US politicians. There's little doubt this will at some point extend to various figures in the media and other domestic supposedly independent figures actually being on the GOP payroll (possibly Russian at the same time) - it's already happened with the NRA, it's highly suspected of Sean Hannity, it's been guessed that Lindsay Graham is being blackmailed and Dana Rohrenbacher is in someone's pocket. Wikileaks is discredited, Greenwald is suspect. But most of these are little surprise. Who's next?

Looking forward to the next scandal, on and on into November this year and further into 2020 - there's a lot of momentum, more scandal than you can follow or shake a stick at, and a lot of new consituents to win over. Except they'll choose the issues they want, not necessarily what we offer. Bring on the Revolution - or as many as it takes.