THE REVOLUTION WILL BE BLOGGED

Owen of Boots & Sabers is feeling a little pessimistic about our country's future:

I truly believe that we will see a revolution in America within my lifetime, but probably at the end of it. The increasing pressures of the welfare state, the continued loss of liberty, the declining faith in government, and the rise of China will make the conditions ripe for revolution. A painful economic depression will be the spark.

He *is* right in a way. There WILL be a revolution in this country, but it will happen at the ballot box, every 2 years, just as it has for centuries.

The Founding Fathers were brilliant political historians, and they realized an important truth about governments: revolutions are inevitable. Sooner or later, even the most benevolent power structure will eventually become entrenched, corrupt, and interested more in its own enrichment than in protecting its citzenry. At this point it becomes

"the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"

The true genius of the Founders was that they devised a method whereby such alterations and abolitions could be done bloodlessly, without the need for open warfare. In America, when a sufficiently large majority of people think the government is doing a crappy job, they can disentrench the establishment with new representatives more in line with their own way of thinking. For example, in 1994, the nation's response to Clinton's promulgation of a socialized health care policy was to give Republicans a majority in the House.

However, such a voter revolt only becomes necessary when the government stops listening. Normally, the mere THREAT of such an action is a big enough cattle prod to keep the congresscritters in line. Up until a few years ago, though, it was sometimes hard to make that threat HEARD.

Feedback used to be limited to letters & phone calls, which are private, discreet, and ignorable. But now there are e-mail & blogs to contend with.

10 years ago, if Dick Durbin called US Soldiers "Nazis", it might've gotten 2 seconds in the press, only to be immediately forgotten, never to be brought up again and leaving him free to yell "Nazi" all he wanted.

But now, such a faux pas gets noticed, blogged about, e-mailed all over the place, and the conversation itself becomes newsworthy enough for the Mainstream Media to mention. Within a week, Durbin apologized, having received the feedback that such indiscreet commentary could get him fired.

So, thanks to blogs, I don't think there will ever be a violent revolution in America. When politicians start losing touch, bloggers will ramp up the volume on the discussion until the issue is too loud to ignore, raising the specter of electoral consequences.

Blogs are the shock collar on the pit bull of government - a first line of defense that keeps us from having to blow its damn head off if it turns on us.

But DO keep your powder dry, just in case I'm wrong about this.