On 2/2/2015 12:13 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 01 Feb 2015 22:53:25 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Considering the number of conservative southerners and westerners who
are actually the ones to join the military, why would you think they
would fight the citizens if the government became tyrannical?
You would be more likely to have a military coup.


I agree a few thousand guys in a compound somewhere will not stand
much of a chance but a million well armed guys could cause some
serious problems. Particularity if the military was less than
enthusiastic in quelling them.
Our military is yet to win a single "asymmetric" war even when they
were motivated to do it..


I think your hypotheticals originate in la-la land. By it's nature and
governmental structure it is impossible to even imagine a military
"coup" in the USA today and we aren't going to have another Civil War.

===

Hopefully all of that is hypothetical and a determined electorate
could eventually vote the rascals out. That's the fundamental
premise of democracy. If all else failed however I would not
underestimate the power of a determined group of people to set things
right, nor would I underestimate the possibility of the military
helping out. It has happened many times in many different places.

Of course all of that would be accompanied by massive civil
insurrection, and whether or not you called it a civil war or not is
mostly a matter of semantics. I hope it never happens but I don't
think you can rule it out. People in the hinterlands are really fed
up with the Washington power elite. What if the farmers decided to
withhold their output, burn the wheat fields and kill the cattle? The
city folk would starve in no time at all and they would quickly learn
that food does not come from the grocery store.



I really think (or at least hope) that as a civilization we are far more
advanced to think that kind of thing can happen. A farmer can't survive
in today's world without a market for his crops. He needs the benefits
of other industries and businesses to live and he needs the revenues
received for his produce. There might be temporary holdouts as a form
of demonstration but it can't last for forever.

One thing nice about a competitive, capitalistic society. If one group
or business gets too demanding or greedy there are others ready to grab
a bigger share of the market.