Is America on the Verge of Revolution?

Here’s something to think about. Are all the homeland security measures in this nation meant to keep out terrorists or to prevent the American people from staging a revolution and overthrowing our current form of government?
People of all political persuasions are fed up with this form of government and many view their legislators as cartoon-type figures with the integrity of used car salesmen, ready to be paid off by whatever lobbyist that comes along. The Tea Party people are mad as, well as Conservatives and Liberals.
In the realm of Homeland Security, there seem to be cameras at many traffic intersections, full body X-Ray machines at airports they display every inch of your body, GPS tracking in all our cell phones and the likelihood the federal government is still listening to our phone calls and reading our emails.
Check the Web and you find a number of groups calling for a revolution, even Sarah Palin. One group has drawn attention, the Oath Keepers. According to a story in the Las Vegas Review Journal written by Alan Maimon, the group is asking “police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful.”
Oath Keepers said its membership is made up of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution by pledging “to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities.” Oath Keepers are worried about a dictatorship here.
The Southern Poverty Law Center prepared a report for law enforcement personnel across the nation last year that warned to look for potential terrorists among the following: returning veterans and “those who oppose abortion, oppose same-sex marriage, oppose restrictions on firearms, oppose President Obama’s policies on immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs, oppose continuation of free trade agreements, are suspect of foreign regimes, fear Communist regimes, oppose a “one world” government, bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world, and are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India,” according to a story by Bob Unruh of WorldNetDaily. In other words, all of us could be suspect.
The Department of Homeland Security prepared a report last year looking at “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
That report noted that it had no specific information that right-wing terrorists were planning specifics acts of violence but right-wing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears of economic downturn and the election of the first African-American president.
In 1962, James C. Davies, a Caltech sociologist published a work outlining what causes a revolution, somewhat based on the work of Crane Brinton, who studied the cause of the French, American and Russian revolutions.
In an article written by Sara Robinson for Campaign for America’s Future, she outlined the conditions Davies found present before violent revolutions began:
1. Soaring, Then Crashing: a long period of rising living standards that comes to a quick halt.
2. A class war: distrust between poor and rich with the rich taking advantage of the less fortunate.
3. Unhappy intellectuals: dissatisfied poor and middle class workers align with professionals and intellectuals who become the leaders of a revolution.
4. Incompetent government: bad economic and social conditions produce a hostile response from citizens who blame their leaders.
5. Gutless wonders in the ruling class: leaders who don’t lead are in office, many of which are in denial of bad conditions. They are leaders who lack the skills and vision to make good decisions.
6. Fiscal irresponsibility: revolutions happen when a nation is deep in debt or the currency collapses.
7. Inept and inconsistent use of force: Using force against citizenry, surveillance, silencing critics with law enforcement, sending the military where it does not belong with maimed and out-of-work soldiers returning home.
There are plenty of dissatisfied people in this nation. Never have so many homes been in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure. We have a large population of well-educated folks between the ages of 40 to 60 who can’t even get a job in a Target Store, and chances are most of their retirement savings have been depleted.
We have millions of twenty-somethings fresh out of college with no employment prospects and poor prospects of ever owning their own home.
We have a large segment of the African-American and Hispanic population unemployed well above the national average.
Meanwhile, CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reported on Oct. 22 that tickets for the opulent new ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth, sold out in 29 minutes for its maiden voyage.
He also reported Jaguar car sales are up 42 percent and a Picasso painting recently sold at an art auction in New York for $106 million.