What will it take for Americans to truly fix their government, and how bad will it have to get to motivate them?
Quick answer: the same as last time
No matter what side of the political aisle you're on, something in America needs fixing. The real question is how do we go about it?
Because a government is made up of people, it can never be perfect and thus will always need to be in a state of improvement. But how to improve it is the problem, as there are many ways people want to fix the government. Some say reduce government, others say we need more of it. History has a tendency to repeat itself, so let's examine it.
The United States was founded upon revolution. England told us what to do from across the ocean, raised taxes, and pushed their government upon us without fair representation. "Taxation without representation."
But you already knew that, in fact most Americans know this small, basic part of our history. The rub is that the American Revolutionary War was also our first civil war. While many Americans wanted nothing to do with England and King George, plenty of other Americans were happy with the crown and didn't want to be separated from England. Not only were Americans fighting the British for our independence, Americans were fighting Americans.
It all happened very slowly, really. We didn't just decide to break from England because of one infraction. There were several, as is written in the Declaration of Independence, and they happened over time. England was interfering with our rights, the rights we thought we deserved to have. And over time, we got fed up with them telling us what to do. Americans won't be bullied, with plenty of proof throughout history.
Then we cracked. We got fed up. Enough is enough. So we asked for our independence nicely. Representatives went to England to beg for independence. But we didn't get it. Fine. We asked again. Still, we were not given independence. Okay, that's just great. So half of America decided to go to war with England and the other half of America for independence. The rest, as they say, is history.
There are many parallels today. A large percentage of Americans are fed up with what the government is telling us to do, or what we have to do, or what we have to accept. Another large percentage of Americans want the government to do more, to raise more taxes, to implement government healthcare, to increase spending for global warming and so forth.
Right now the country's pendulum is tilting toward the left. Taxes are high, spending is high, global warming is a phrase used more than any other. The media is increasingly showing a leftist bias. In point of fact, many institutions are leaning to the left, including the education system.
And here's what's starting to happen. People are getting fed up. Enough is enough. Questions are being asked: when will it stop? When will we say this is enough?
People are already saying it. Revolution is coming. The pendulum needs to swing back the other way. Americans don't like being told how to live their lives, how much money they HAVE to give to the government, what they should "tolerate," that they're guilty for the earth's rising temperature, that they must accept ideas they don't agree with in the name of open-mindedness, that they must take government healthcare because a small minority of Americans don't have it, that it's too bad we aren't shutting down the borders because it's too big of a task to build a wall, that we're going to make you buy a certain light bulb because we want you to, to improve the environment, and so on.
In other words, they have to keep pushing us. History has shown which side will win. America was formed on revolution, so that we could be free FROM government. There will be a revolution again and it's coming. There are those who think that the reason America does not see eye to eye with idea of government expansion is because the idea is not being expressed clearly. Let me tell you that it's the opposite. We're hearing you loud and clear. So just keep going. Keep pushing us and see how much we can take before we snap.
It's going to get worse. It needs to get to the point where it's absolutely ridiculous. Where taxes are too high, when global warming hysteria has peaked, when national healthcare is close to fruition, when something nasty sneaks across the border. Then it will happen. The pendulum will drop.
