Politics Is Mass Civil Disobedience Our Future? (USA)

[HisRoyalHighness]

Americans have a long history of breaching laws in the name of a higher law or God-given rights.

The patriots of Boston gathered an arsenal at Concord in defiance of the British. To protest a tea tax imposed by parliament, they dressed as American Indians and threw shiploads of imported tea into Boston Harbor.

Abolitionists supported the violation of fugitive slave laws, the enforcement of which Lincoln endorsed in his first inaugural as a national necessity to restore and preserve the Union.

A constitutional prohibition of the sale of beer, wine and liquor in the U.S., following the enactment of the 18th Amendment, led to massive civil disobedience in the Roaring '20s, before it was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

During Vietnam, burning draft cards was a regular feature of anti-war rallies.

Historians may describe the racial riots of the 1960s -- Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit, and 100 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., after King's assassination -- as popular uprisings, but many required National Guard and federal troops to stop the looting, shooting and arson.

In conservative states, restrictions imposed on abortion facilities have put some out of business. The legislators and governors who have done so believe the right to life trumps the Warren Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

Perhaps the greatest manifestation of civil disobedience today is the illegal presence of between 12 million and 20 million immigrants who broke into our country or are breaking the law by being here after their visas expired.

Their collaborators are the business owners who hire them and the public officials who refuse to treat them as lawbreakers.

"Sanctuary cities" have been created where local and state authorities refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Now, towns, cities and counties are creating "Second Amendment sanctuaries," where laws restricting gun rights will not be enforced.

If state and local police, themselves gun owners, stand with those who defy the new state laws on guns, who enforces the new laws?

For a republic to endure, there has to be a common consent on the rule of law and what constitutes a good society. But these seem to be at issue again in America.

Still, Americans seem to disagree with each other more and to dislike each other more than they have in the lifetime of most of us.

One wonders: How does it all stay together? And for how long?

Is Mass Civil Disobedience Our Future?

On the holiday set aside in 2020 to honor Martin Luther King, the premier advocate of nonviolent Gandhian civil disobedience, thousands of gun owners gathered in Richmond to petition peacefully for their rights.

www.rasmussenreports.com

I feel that this is going to keep happening in the United States, more will say piss off to the authorities and the power of the law will continue to crumble.

I foresee the future as a Balkanized America split between urban and rural where power has become de-centralized.

 

[Jake84]

Way to go Murica!

You guys got rid of the King just like we did (albeit in a more « sharp » manner), alas, King or not and 250 years later, the rural people are actually smarter than they look like and have well acknowledged that the World belongs to a tiny minority of billionaires, banks and oligarchs.

Widespread revolts have been seen in France, Lebanon, Iraq, Chile, Venezuela, Haiti and Hong Kong for the past year. Being defiant to a govt will always have my support and generally the support of the majority of a population.

 

[Flagg]

Meh.....

While America has a long history of protest, in the modern 20th/21st century context it has been almost entirely non-violent, with few exceptions.

The violence of Kent State was a very isolated incident.

The aggregate violence of the Civil Rights Movement was likely considerable, but individually isolated and uncoordinated.

Incidents like the Detroit riot of 1968 following assassination of MLK were largely overblown as death/destruction was pretty limited and it was random and uncoordinated.

Rodney King related violence and looting was random and uncoordinated.

Terrorist movements like SLA ended in their liquidation, however Weather Underground terrorists have been rehabilitated and welcomed Into academia.

A growing divide exists in America, and it cuts several different ways.

The “Left“ has much of academia, the “Right“ has much of Wall Street.

The “Left” has urban, the “Right“ has rural.

What’s interesting is that the aggregate protestations in the US have far less aggression/impact than in France.

The French push protest acceptability and invasiveness on day to day life much farther and faster.

If France isn’t devolving into civil war, what makes anyone think the US is close?

It’s pretty silly really.....although the growing divide certainly isn’t.

 

[HisRoyalHighness]

Armed revolt is highly unlikely, but civil revolt and mass disobedience is a sure thing if the country continues on the course it is.

 

[bfc1001]

Armed revolt is highly unlikely, but civil revolt and mass disobedience is a sure thing if the country continues on the course it is.

It's the same everywhere HRH . Your struggling to find anywhere stable and content , certainly in " the west " . Too many systemic problems which vary from country to country which makes it hard to see what the overall problem is though all roads seem to lead in one direction ; how we are governed and exactly how much say does the average Joe have over the executive . Trump , Boris , macron , Merkel ......... It's not great and that in itself is a worry .

 

[Junglejim]

civil disobedience in terms of rallies and strikes, that a norm everywhere. Standing up to the government to push it back.... not blood likely. The more physicl fights against the government is old America. After W! and WW@ happened, everybody drank the Kool Aid in Americ being the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. You can see it in all walks of America.

From police heavy handedness without much pushback, more government in the daily lives, soldiers/ vets being virtually untouchable and praised, to the blind faith on the Armed Forces.

 

[HisRoyalHighness]

There are plenty of states, counties, and cities in the United States telling their state and federal government to piss off and they have been doing that for years through not enforcing laws nor cooperating with authorities.

 

[Junglejim]

Yes, Oklahoma for me is one example. However most of the battles are done through lawyers and politicians, but mass civil disobedience as dreamt off in that article is fantasy along the lines of "preppers"

 

[Mordoror]

Meh.....

While America has a long history of protest, in the modern 20th/21st century context it has been almost entirely non-violent, with few exceptions.

The violence of Kent State was a very isolated incident.

The aggregate violence of the Civil Rights Movement was likely considerable, but individually isolated and uncoordinated.

Incidents like the Detroit riot of 1968 following assassination of MLK were largely overblown as death/destruction was pretty limited and it was random and uncoordinated.

Rodney King related violence and looting was random and uncoordinated.

Terrorist movements like SLA ended in their liquidation, however Weather Underground terrorists have been rehabilitated and welcomed Into academia.

A growing divide exists in America, and it cuts several different ways.

The “Left“ has much of academia, the “Right“ has much of Wall Street.

The “Left” has urban, the “Right“ has rural.

What’s interesting is that the aggregate protestations in the US have far less aggression/impact than in France.

The French push protest acceptability and invasiveness on day to day life much farther and faster.

If France isn’t devolving into civil war, what makes anyone think the US is close?

It’s pretty silly really.....although the growing divide certainly isn’t.

That's a very good assessment of thing. I'd just mitigate it with the chaos factor. The US society is now so much nervous that a major incident may spirale out of control. Especially with tools that are blowing things out of proportion like social medias (see Arab Spring, all proportions kept)

A least localy it may turn ugly if something like Waco hadto happen again. I however don't believe in a general/national flare up.

 

[colin traveller]

I wonder if the Gov of Virgina will be voted out

 

[riderboy]

Oh Hell yes. It did not stop with old King What's-His-Nuts.

 

[Jake84]

I’m not seeing a full-blown civil war in America either in the foreseeable future to clarify my first post in this thread and not even in troubled Europe.

I wouldn’t go as far but civil unrest are a possibility on either side of the pond, clearly. Europe (EU or not) is more divided than ever with the Western part of it rather pro-EU — Macron, Merkel and the rest of central/Eastern Europe far more defiant to the authority of Brussels.

But since the topic is about the US. I totally agree with HisRoyalHighness assessment - the divide between rural and urban America which is already real (politically and on other traditional values) will definitely widens.

 

[bfc1001]

I’m not seeing a full-blown civil war in American either in the foreseeable future to clarify my first post in this thread and not even in troubled Europe.

I wouldn’t go as far but civil unrest are a possibility on either side of the pond, clearly. Europe (EU or not) is more divided than ever with the Western part of it rather pro-EU — Macron, Merkel and the rest of central/Eastern Europe far more defiant to the authority of Brussels.

But since the topic is about the US. I totally agree with HisRoyalHighness assessment - the divide between rural and urban America which is already real (politically and on other traditional values) will definitely widens.

I think there's a lot of similarities between what's happening both sides of the Atlantic , certainly in voting patterns . People maybe feel their been pulled in directions they don't want to go but are pulled in that direction regardless and vote / articulate accordingly . As for civil disobedience ; I think that ship sailed a long time ago , certainly in more conservative countries as the UK/US . A generation of individualism over collectivism has put paid to that ; there's simply no institutions left to attempt such an endeavour .