Tea Party voters in my town are pretty sick of the Tea Party.

[socialist_n_TN]

23. The only reason this "worked" in the past was because.....

the ENTIRE system of "private property" and capitalism itself was under a serious threat. The capitalists felt they had to make those concessions to save the system. And as soon as the immediate threat settled down (the late 30s and 40s or so) and everybody became distracted by the war against the fascists, they started the campaign to claw back EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THOSE CONCESSIONS! It eventually worked and here we are. Do you really think that the rulers will give up the tools they use to rule unless there is a threat?

And as a thought experiment, this about this. A threat comes along that actually DOES cause these reforms to happen. What will stop them from trying to claw them back AGAIN in the next generation or two? This is actually the third time this push towards classic, unregulated capitalism has happened. Do we really want our grandchildren to be fighting this same fight in another 50 years? I don't. So if a credible threat comes along this time, I say smash the system and try something new.