Calling for a Color Revolution

Doctor Rathbun doesn't use the term of art, but it's what he means. The Asheville Citizen-Times published this opinion piece:

The normal course of the disintegration of government follows when the economic elites become swollen to the point that their wealth seems insufficient to them when compared to the competition. There follows an uprising in which one elite group plays on the resentments of the working class to mobilize them in open rebellion. What follows may be an armed uprising, with the elimination of the concept of human rights. Unfortunately, those naturally well-equipped to rise up in violent revolution are rarely well-suited as leaders in times of peace, causing the crowds to change sides readily as we move from one unstable government to another.

Just how a society can escape this nastiness is the subject of many books, of which my favorite is "Civil Resistance" by Erica Chenoweth, an academic expert on how nonviolent mobs can overthrow dictators. This author's research indicates that nonviolent resistance works better than the alternatives. The book explores the history of nonviolent resistance with the intention of laying out a detailed discussion of methods, some of which work much better than others.

I think we might have different definitions of "nonviolent," but this sort of thing has happened regularly in recent decades. What the good doctor may not realize is that such movements are not usually organic, but are nurtured by foreign powers. The People's Republic of China resents our usage of this technique, and has been trying to explain it to Americans through their embassy here. It's not exactly a big secret; NED had a series of panel discussions including of "the role of international actors in shaping the regional contexts for democratic transitions."

I suspect that we already did have our color revolution in the "fortified" election of 2020, and that the forces that might have come to his aid are already spent. If they could have done it again last year they would have. It'll be harder without the money laundering from USAID.

That reminds me, though, of how hysterical this same crowd was about the protest/riot of January 6th. That was said to be an insurrection; this is actually a call for an insurrection. Mostly peaceful, of course. A "nonviolent" overthrowing of the government.