Yes, the Constitution IS optional. What are you going to do about it? Elect more Blue Dogs like last time? Well, that sounds like a plan, doesn't it? Go right ahead. Yes, the Rule of Law DOES apply only to the Little People, and then only to some of them based on race and gender. What are you going to do about it? Elect more pseudo-Progressives and Blue Dogs? Go right ahead. They're begging you to.

Yes, the Presidency has been turned into a competitve monarchy, and yes it can operate very effectively as an Autocracy. What are you going to do about it? Call and fax and write stern letters? Elect more Blue Dogs? Please! By all means! Have at it!

They see their job as protecting and defending The Government, not the Constitution. And they think they're doing a pretty good job. Too bad radical extremists don't appreciate the job they're doing.

Your job, in fact the job of all ordinary Americans, is to keep on consuming the economic, political, and social products they believe you deserve. -- Ché Pasa

The manner in which movements build, and in which these kinds of direct actions occur is not as simple as it appears.

Yeah, especially when you aren't even willing to entertain the thought.

It is an organic process, and it requires enough people (a lot of them) feeling oppressed enough (for ex: US citizens under Jim Crow, or Indian citizens under British colonial rule...) to follow a tested charismatic leader (i.e., MLK or Ghandi, both of whom served time in jail).

Thanks for the unneeded history lesson you condescending prick. No one knows what you know do they?

Hey how bout we not wait around for those worst possible conditions before we act? It might be worth considering that people also respond to action. There would be those that were just waiting for some leadership. There would be those that would wonder what all the hub-bub was about and become engaged. The masses need to be moved? Why not try to move them proactively rather than wait for some negative (eg. a draft) to be the impetus? Why wait? The loss of civil liberties and the "two tiered" system of justice that Glenn keeps referring to are not enough? Maybe the problem isn't that there aren't enough negative motivations but rather that no one is willing to lead.

These conditions do not pertain today.

So it isn't really all that bad what is happening then eh? The loss of the 4th amendment isn't really that big a deal... or are you in the camp that believes we haven't actually lost it? 4000+ dead and tens of thousands of wounded/maimed along with potentially one million+ dead Iraqis all because of lies isn't enough? We don't want to bring attention to the issues with direct action in order to spur debate and educate people? The UT and its comments section already does that on a wide enough scale?

Maybe the apparently incipient economic crisis will precipitate that kind of movement. Maybe. When our government starts disappearing us and our loved ones all kinds of hell-raising might break loose. [I express myself poorly.] But ya can't make it happen perched by a keyboard or by direct mail appeals.

That is exactly right. We can't bring about anything perched by a keyboard. We are changing nothing here. My guess is that "the right time" will never come as far as most UT commenters are concerned. What is the average income of a UT commenter do you suppose? What's the average sq. ft. per home? Average net worth? How about racial diversity? I have always been fairly confident that I don't belong here. This is a place for those that can afford to open their wallets. "300 dollar men" and women. I am only guessing here and I could be way off but, if I am correct, most of you might want to start praying that "economic crisis" doesn't come. If it does, you might find yourself on the wrong side of what will follow.

If you have a better idea,... -- Gordon

I do have what I think is a better idea and have expressed it more than a few times here. You and yours just haven't been listening because you don't want to hear it. You are comfortable enough with it all. It's nothing that electing a few more democrats won't cure.

I'm not hopeful...and I'm not yet ready to die to bring back the rule of law.

Are you? -- grcorre

I am. You make a great post and then.... where is the nobility in not being ready? How are you any different then?

I agree there will be some bloodshed (the government will make sure of that) but that doesn't mean we have to initiate it and it won't happen on a grand scale. We cannot let our fears prevent us from doing what we know is right. What we know will work. There is no nobility in that.