He should have prefaced this with the word 'idealistically'.. In fact this is so idealistic as to be ineffectual. 'We the people' have spoken out unanimously against several things the government has done lately and to no effect. "We give the government privileges and we can take those privileges away anytime we the people have the courage to do so." ?? Give me a break. The only power to influence government we have outside of the vote is freedom to assemble, (protest), and the media keeps that from having any effect. The Iraq war has spurned the largest protest marches in our country's history and most Americans don't know they even happened.

You can only go back to basics so far, and this guy is asking us to go back to cave dwelling so to speak.

I find it rather troubling that this is viewed as overly "idealistic". This is after all, the law, and the only basis for it in the United Stated of not Mexico.

You suggest that citizens have no power while disregarding his reference to armed rebellion, and disregarding civil disobedience(not just gathering for cameras, but actual obstruction). We also have tax refusal and various methods of taking over the political system, such as have been used by Christian-theocracy wing of the GOP to have an inordinate voice in political matters. All these options take many man-hours and courage.

I can understand if you want to argue we are too comfortable to reign in our own government, but we certainly have options.

Oh I'm all about the obstruction and tax evasion way etc, but any true effectual protest would automatically fall under the vaguely defined category of terrorism, (or waco-ism if you will?) and be quashed with military precision before it ever caught wing. Comfort is definitely a precursor to most inaction, but even the majority of the fringe are not brave enough to try anything rash with the threat of heavily armed federal forces on call today. Even a large scale peaceful obstruction would be infiltrated and changed to violent in a very short order. There are people being trained to do just that.

I do believe people will ultimately rise to the occasion, but it will have to get much much worse - perhaps even near 1984 - before that would happen. The only true caveat I could dream of would be states seceding. That would, (of course), require the absence of national pride though, so not any time soon.

For a movement to be effectual today, it could no longer be at the civil level as it could in days past, like the Chartists in early 40's England who could stop the income of whole towns by their inaction. That same MO would be countered with ease by the mobility of the corporate world today. The next true grass roots rebellion needs to be on a level we have yet to imagine I think.

Sounds to me like your looking for a quick change. History has shown us it takes a long time before a revolution happens. Europeans had been in the US since 1492. It wasn't until 1776 when a grassroots revolution started. That's a bit less then 250 years it took for the people to finally say; "enough is enough." If your looking for change the most you can do is to be patient. Change is always inevitible but it's also the last thing, generally speaking, people want to do.

Very good point. Sudden changes are so 3rd world.