by Sixstrings » Wed 24 Dec 2014, 22:15:57
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Withnail', 'R')ight now it seems like the protestors don't know how to do it.
Things have been very quiet in the USA, protest movement wise, since the 60s.
Whereas Europe and other places have kept it up -- my theory on it is that socialism was taken down in the US, and labor unions.
So you are right in that protesters in the US "don't know how to do it." Should they figure that out one day, then that's okay, our Constitution and system is flexible and can bend when push finally comes to shove -- rather than break.
We are not a dictatorship. If the People ever get worked up enough again, and upset enough, and take the streets, then a US president and Congress would finally give in, unlike Yanu in Ukraine. That was the whole problem with him, the man had lost all support and power base yet wouldn't give in or resign. At the time, he told the Ukrainian people that he could not give in, that Moscow threatened to do too much.
So in the end he wound up flying off to Moscow in the night, in his helicopter.
See that couldn't happen in the US. If a US president finally loses all support like that, then party leaders would come to him and tell him he's got to resign or else impeachment and removal will go forward. Our Constitution has many safety valves like that, and it's why we're the oldest continuous constitutional democracy and we've done so well for centuries now. We have the founding fathers to thank for our Constitution.
Anyhow you're right though, things are heating up a bit lately. But that's okay, it's been so quiet for a long time now -- most of my life -- there were never any truly massive riots again since the LA riots in the 90s. It'll be okay, and will work out, as it always has.
I'm 100% against any kind of violence, and if anti-police protests get to the point like in NYC where cops are getting killed, then that's when I'm off the protest sympathy bandwagon. Generally though, the step these protesters need to take is to link it to economic issues -- that's the root of it, they need to be protesting for a living wage etc.