"Overthrow the present government and establish something else. Something that is fair and just and workable."

Let me just play along for a second, though.  "Overthrow the present government".  Explain how, C.  Tell me how that could be done.  Tell me how you foresee us all establishing "something else" after that is done.  And explain to me how it's all fair and just and workable, that overthrowing, and how anything that would come afterwards would be fair and just and workable.

You might be interested in this Grit TV interview with Chris Hedges on 'The Death of the Liberal Class'.  I really appreciated his focus and take on history.

http://www.grittv.org/2010/11/13/chris-hedges-the-death-of-the-liberal-class/

Interesting. But, taking over by force and then establishing a more humane form of government would eventually come down to you convincing 51% of the population that what you did was right, otherwise, you'd have to maintain your forcible control in order to ensure your more humane and fair government is established. But, then that wouldn't really be more humane and fair, except for the people who did the overthrowing.  It would just make the revolutionaries into more benevolent despots than the ones they overthrew.   So at some point your new and improved democracy will have to turn power back to 'the people', and God forbid, they vote against your revolution, return power to the previous regime, have you arrested for treason and beheaded.  Then you're screwed.  So, my first question to you would be, how do you ensure 51% of Americans will go along with you?  Or are you just willing to gamble? When rolling the Revolutionary dice, remember the odds are always with the House.

Sorry, dude.  Not takin' a ride in this Doomsmobile.

I hope Mr. Rall's book is successful and he makes enough money to keep him in typewriter paper for a long time, but if he was really serious about overthrowing the government, he'd give his how-to manual away for free.

The gloom masters of the world have exhausted me at last.

Oh boy ... Ted Rall?

Get a fricking grip... and grip it real tight.

A marginally successful political cartoonist and columnist who fed on the angst of the twentysomethings and Generation X of the 90's becomes the latest in a long line of writers throughout history who stand at the top of the ramparts egging the crowd on and then as the tumult rises he's last seen walking away with a fat sum for his scribblings?

I personally view with a jaundiced eye any individual who spent as much time as Rall spent traveling so freely back in the late 90's up into 2006-7 in China and Central Asia through the former areas of what was once the Soviet empire. And specifically his U.S. State Department-sponsored visit to Turkmenistan "teaching" the nature of free press in a democracy to students.

As Stymie in the Our Gang Comedies once said... OK Buckwheat!

I also personally view this screed as what I've referred to for almost five decades back to the days of the SDS as ...shaking the dissident tree.

You see, one never knows what subversive nuts will shake out of the foliage.

Hint hint ... Which side is he REALLY on?

That's why I say get a fricking grip...

Slowly back away from the cake.

~OGD~

.

At its inception and throughout our history, our system of governance has been predicated on the ability of "We, the People" to bring about change at the ballot box. And only a fool gives up on that in favor of a violent overthrow or putsch or coup d'etat. Ultimately, it would seem, you have faith in democracy, or you don't. And I haven't quite yet abandoned faith in our ability to self-govern to choose instead a desperate attempt to force righteous change upon the population.

Democracy is hard work. I'm reminded about Franklin's warning offered on the threshold of this experiment in governance when asked what form of government "We, the People" had just installed. "A Republic, if you can keep it," was the answer.

I completely understand c's frustration that lies at the root of his rant. But I disagree with the implication that perhaps its time to storm the barricades when we haven't first tried to actually engage the hard work of a democracy, which is the effective petitioning of the electorate with an alternative to our presently corrupted and compromised government.

At present, we essentially have but one political party. Both Dems and Repubs are in the pocket of the monied interests. Repubs, I understand. The oligarchs are their natural constituency. But the Dems? Herein lies the crux of the problem. The political party that should be carrying the water for the working stiffs and the poor is presently in the tank for the other side in all matters of importance. And this is becoming more of a problem than ever.

It seems to me that the answer to present problems is to commit the hard work of re-shaping the Dem Party into a vehicle that represents the proletariat in the CLass War being waged against us. And that will come about only if we first find a way to purge the Dem Party of the Obamas and the Blue Dogs and the DLC and the Clintons and the Emanuels and all rest who so wilfully play the game in accord with the script provided to them by their corporate owners. In its place, you establish real leadership capable of (and enabled to) present(ing) a message of strength and redemption to the middle class and the poor. Show me a poitical movement that is capable of knocking the monied interests on their ass, and I guarantee an overwhelming level of support from the masses in providing that movement with the authority to do so. The Dem Party could be - and must be! - that movement going forward.

But time is running out, which is something I become keenly aware of when considering Mr. Smith's prescription (rightly considered and advocated) posted in the comments above to "kill corporate money and influence" by affecting change in seating of Supreme Court Justices and campaign finance law, etc.

As it was once said by Justice William O. Douglas:

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air however slight lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

I fear the darkness that is nearly upon us. We can no longer abide the opportunity cost of supporting and electing these Palooka-Dems in a hope that "they won't do too much harm." Not even in 2012. Instead, while time remains in the twilight of this democracy, we need to raise the alarm loudly and hopefully stir within the population at last a willingness to fight back against oppression by providing them a vehicle both worthy and capable of making such an effort. The Dem Party could become such an oppositional force in Washington working on behalf of the peoople against their oppressors. Indeed, making a second party of the Democrats is, in my estimation, the best if not only real chance we have.

"A Republic, if you can keep it."

Keep the Faith. And then roll up your sleeves with me and others to commit the hard work to make it happen. It can be accomplished, but only if you first have faith in your fellow man sufficient to drive a wholesale and difficult effort to rescue democracy itself.

Carpe diem! At last, carpe diem.

The Soviet Union and United States comparisons are especially salient when you present two corresponding dilemmas: both ended up at a point of stalemate in which neither had the ability to profit any longer. Free trade has resulted in manufacturing taking off in India and China and declining in the US, with the apparently misguided notion by leaders that America could sustain as a consumer economy. For largely different reasons, the Soviet Union was not profitable and enjoyed the same end result that we seem headed towards. The Soviets and the Americans both did share endless wars, however, one of them even in the same country.

I would posit that the United States has been in many regards a phony union. Seattle, Washington, for instance, shares more in values and worldview with Vancouver, British Columbia than it does with Lexington, Kentucky or even the metropolises of the Northeast. People are better able to manage their lives and make personal political change at a local level than through a national government that often puts them at odds with people that have entirely different priorities and worldview.