This is posted in re Bigun's pic up in reply #19 above.
I'd like to present an excerpt from a book by William D. Middleton entitled "The Time Of The Trolley" (of all things!). It has to do with the streetcar business in corrupt Chicago some years' back:
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[Charles] Yerkes' devious financial methods created so bewildering a network of construction companies, operating companies, and holding companies that his street railway empire was known as the "Chicago traction tangle". Rival companies were ruthlessly dealt with, and Yerkes callously bought whatever politicians he needed to safeguard his interests. In the rough-and-tumble business and political world of turn-of-the-century Chicago, he probably had no alternative.
Yerkes finally met defeat in the late 1800's when he set out to safeguard his long-term interests by attempting to secure legislation extending his street railway franchises for 50 years. A compliant state legislature soon produced the Allen Law, which gave city councils the authority to extend the franchises; but by the time Chicago's so-called "boodle aldermen" met to vote Yerkes what he wanted, a thoroughly aroused public would have none of it. A mob carrying guns and nooses surrounded City Hall, the aldermen got the point, and the measure failed to pass. The following fall the state legislators who had voted for the Allen Law were booted out of office to a man and the law was promptly repealed. Despite the alleged expenditure of a million dollars in bribes, Yerkes had been soundly beaten.
(The Time Of The Trolley, c.1967, p.225-227)
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We all know about the politics of Chicago, as it has been ever-since-way-back-when.
Not all that much different than much of the politics going on in DC right now.
Earlier in this thread, I read a post by sinkspur:
[[ Yes they are, pal. You won't get a thousand people to this nonsense.
But I'm betting the bars will welcome all of you after you get your jollies, wasting your time. ]]
I'm wondering if that "mob" at Chicago City Hall was "wasting their time"?
Their presence certainly influenced the behavior of the poltiicians inside.
If ever there was a real-life example of Bigun's poster, this was it.
Another was the "Battle of Athens" (Tennessee) confrontation, back in 1946.
Just what will it take to make the government of The United States "reform itself"?
To fundamentally reverse the direction in which it's headed, and return to a form of government that actually reflects the concepts the Founders laid out originally?
Just how do you expect to make this happen?
Will elections do it? (Aside, how have they been working out recently?)
Or might it require more?
What if several hundred thousand angry citizens surrounded the U.S. Capitol, in the same manner that the citizens surrounded Chicago City Hall back then?
What then?
Would the people inside get the message?
