Quote: (03-07-2016 05:58 AM)Fast Eddie Wrote:
There would certainly not be any violent revolt. There is basically nothing that the government could do that would cause a violent revolt, as a matter of fact.
Let's say Bernie Sanders somehow won the Presidency and declared a state of emergency, followed by an executive order imposing a flat tax of 85% exclusively on white males while making all other groups exempt from all taxation.
What would happen the next day? Nothing. Dudes wouldn't walk out in the middle of the street and start shooting rifles in the air. There is no leadership or organization to make a violent rebellion possible. Everyone is completely fragmented and atomized. In order for an uprising to occur, there needs to be something to coalesce around, and no such thing exists at this point.
Some provincial leaders would refuse to implement the tax, especially southerners.
They might also obey without complying, taxing as ordered by the capital, but immediately disbursing the money back to the people in pork barrel projects.
Some people without existing leaders would refuse to volunteer the money, and the most outspoken would begin to assume the role of local leader.
Prohibition created gangs and corruption. Insane taxes would create the same.
Now, back to the plausible. A brokered convention; what might that produce?
Mass disillusionment. Both parties would effectively merge in the public view, which would mean the South and Midwest would feel as if they were being governed by hostile outsiders and their local quislings.
Voting suddenly seems irrelevant, but people need their pride and sense of autonomy.
Where would they find that? Brotherhoods, associations, secret societies, public marches, parades, riots - which would become race riots.
It would take time to incubate, of course, and it's hard to say how it would end. Random but picturesque events caught on camera can change the course of history these days - who can say where the cameras would be rolling, or who the footage would inspire, and in what way?