The smartest way to overthrow a government is recruit college kids. It's smart, because college kids are at that age when they believe they are immortal.
They believe they can change the world.
They are always looking for a cause.
And when the cause also involves missing classes ... so much the better.
They are young, and everyone likes youth. They are articulate. .
There is one more huge reason why college kids make the best protesters, but I'll come back to that in a minute.
So when I watch the Wall Street Protests that are spreading to a big city near you, and I hear the organizers pushing for college kids to not only join in but, at one point, even organize a class walk-out to show support for the movement, I can't be surprised.
Hey, I was young once. And rebellion is in the historical blood line of America.
When I was in college, I made a point of memorizing the Declaration of Independence -- some of which I still remember to this day! And of course one of the great lines you rarely hear quoted is the one about "... when ever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it ..."
That has always been that part of the system of checks and balances that our founding fathers so believed in that has been the people's threat (for lack of a better word) over the establishment.
However ... there is another line in that same document that is not quoted enough, either. It goes "...Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ..."
Meaning we don't overthrow governments on a whim, or without first experiencing a "long train of abuses and usurpations ..." And the truth is, this great experiment in government that is the United States of America is not so broke that the system, as designed by the founders, can't fix it. I honestly believe that.
But it will take a revolution.
Here is what we sometimes forget about our country: every four to eight years, we actualy undergo a revolution. The ruling head of the government is removed from office by the will of the people, only without guns but with the ballot box. And sometimes I think it is easy to forget, in the entire history of the world, how rare such a peaceful regular revolution is.
But back to what I'm hearing from these Wall Street Protesters.
The more I listen, the more I find myself thinking that so many of what these protesters are against are the same things conservatives are against:
They protest Wall Street bankers from getting preferential treatment from the Government, major corporations who benefit from huge tax breaks, the lack of opportunity for the poor.
So do most Conservatives.
The difference, of course, is that Conservatives (generally speaking) believe it was government that gave preferential treatment to Wall Street through bail-out money that most citizens opposed, that those major corporations that were "bailed out'' by the government then didn't have to pay taxes on that money; and that opportunity for the poor doesn't come from government taking care of the poor but from the free market allowing for the encouragement of creating businesses that need to hire more and more workers to meet growing demands.
The protesters, for all their protest of the government, seem to believe the answer is more government because governments are created to look after people and should therefore force some brand of equality - which is what socialism, in theory, is supposed to do.
And in a perfect world, socialism would work. However, what history tells us is that this is far from a perfect world, and when there is a limit to what people are allowed to accomplish when creativity and ambition are stifled.
As for the belief that government should somehow "level the playing field," I wonder if they understand that government makes money by forcing people to use its services, or by taxation?
Not that I complain. But it's true. And that is an interesting debate in itself.
I heard a guy the other day who, reflecting upon the passing of Steve Jobs, wondered how many of those Wall Street protesters carrying Apple products understood how those gadgets came to exist.
Do they realize that what started out as two men in a garage with ideas and passion would have been nothing more than two guys in a garage with ideas and passion had it not been for an IPO on Dec. 12, 1980, when Apple went public at $22 per share?
And that 'Big Bad Wall Street' raised $101 million that enabled Jobs to expand his ideas, create jobs and revolutionize the landscape of technology?
How ironic that the next time one of these Wall Street protesters makes, say, an iTune purchase, it can be traced back to some Big Bad Banker’s belief in Mr. Jobs and his company!
But the absolute best reason to use college kids when you're protesting the government?Eventually, college kids go back to school.
And when they leave, what they leave behind is a power vacuum. And who will be ready to step in and fill that vacuum?
That's the real question, isn't it?
There is no question we're getting ready, in 2012, for a revolution. Either the current administration will be removed, or it will withstand the challenge and remain in power.
(There is a third option, of course, of an actual over-throw of the government, but as reprehensible as that idea is, it should never be "unthinkable." We have to always be guarding against that possibility until, as the Founders said, it seems unavoidable to protect our "future security.").
Like Hermain Cain, I wonder why these protesters aren't surrounding the White House or the Capitol Building.
They might find a lot of other people willing to support them if they did.
And a government might finally feel compelled to listen.
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