[rlmorel]

Our only hope going forward is to fix the electoral process. That is the foundation. If that cannot be fixed, we are well and truly done as a Republic. And that is because if the electoral process works, the other main issue, of government officials living by their own set of laws, may be addressed.

For we as citizens to consent to being governed, and the government to be accepted, legitimate, and functional, two major requirements must be met:

1. To consent to being governed, we must be able to choose who governs us in free and fair elections.
   
   
2. To consent to being governed, those we elect must be subject to the same laws that we as citizens are governed under.

Those two things build the foundation of our constitutional republic and create a sacred covenant w agree to be governed under.

If either or both of those two things are not true, then the government is not accepted, it is illegitimate, and it is not functional.

And at this time, we do not have fair and free elections, and the people we elect are not having the laws applied to them as they apply them to us.

[joma89]

Buy weapons and ammo, folks. Just do it.

[Jim Noble]

To consent to being governed, we must be able to choose who governs us in free and fair elections

There are ways to establish popular consent besides the election fetish, which appears to be at a dead end.

[flamberge]

If either or both of those two things are not true, then the government is not accepted, it is illegitimate, and it is not functional.

The government we have today is accepted. It would be replaced otherwise. But that would require too much effort and too much careful thought. It might also require organized force of arms and a risk of terrible losses.

The government we have today is increasingly non-functional. That is because it is not actually directing efforts towards the nominal goals of a peaceful civil society. The real goals are quite different.

The government we have today is illegitimate - at least to some of us. That is because it has devolved into an organized criminal enterprise which is looting most of the population for the benefit of various minority factions. There is no real upper limit to the demands for more swag, except the impending collapse of the national economy under such predation. "Things that cannot continue, don't".

A significant plurality of the population wants a government that they believe they can use to force "others" to do what they want them to do. Or they want a government that will give them "free stuff" - taken by force from unspecified "others".

The government we have right now is perfectly acceptable to them. They refuse to believe they might ever be targeted as part of the "others" that are subject to oppression and looting at their whims. It is a disastrous mistake, but they will never learn or change. You can bet your life on that - and you are.

Leaders chosen by free elections and life under a uniform rule of laws are most definitely not what they want. That is the root of our problems. How that conflict can be settled is an open question.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." (Walt Kelly, Pogo Comic Strip, 1970)