It's taking a very long time, however slowly but surely (some) people are beginning to finally understand the totality of the existing system. Up until the formation of the USA, not a single civilization in the annals of history ever afforded the common man with one iota of freedom or liberty. If you didn't want to live as a serf or slave, and either escaped or chose to live outside of government/clan protection, then you were simply subject to outlaws and roving bands of marauders.
It's important to understand this context in order to comprehend just how unique the USA republic was at inception. But, there were two factors working against it from the very beginning: (a) every design or system always - including governments - have at least one weakness that can be exploited; and (b) 1-2% of any given population are psychopaths obsessed with acquiring and exercising power and control over others is a constant throughout human evolution.
What we have today is the result of the inherent, built-in weaknesses of republican forms of government transitioning to a fully formed corrupt security state merely by expanding the franchise to reach maximum representation of lowest IQ citizens. Then, add to that shameless and self-serving omnivorous sociopaths that exploit the inherent greed, naivete, and/or lack of understanding from the expanded constituency.
The result is that the ENTIRE system, including all branches of government, all factions (political parties), all bureaucracies and all military/security apparatus are fully committed to exploiting the system for PERSONAL gain. Now, this isn't necessarily an indictment on a personal level, but it does acknowledge that everyone, regardless of professed fealty & duty, is a self-serving economic actor. Btw, this includes ambitious officers who love nothing better than playing global cop with the newest weapons systems vs actually defending US borders.
The system as originally constructed recognized these hard truths, and so created the divisions of power. But, as noted above, all it took was a dedicated, intentional drive to destroy the franchise, and the result would be incredibly realized riches, power and prestige. And that is what we have today. Now, as so many others have noted, there is only one way out of this box, one that Jefferson advised towards 200 years ago.
And so we sit, wondering if Trump's last stand will tip the scales towards victory. Or, will we merely resume the status quo that was cemented into place over 30 years ago, to which only some are waking up to discover the war of independence was lost a generation ago.
When you consider Marbury v. Madison occurred a mere six years into the experiment, it’s been a steady march almost from the word go.
Great observations.
IQ matters!