There are two types of change. There is systemic change: change that occurs because of the political pressures within the system. Then there is anti-systemic change: change that occurs in opposition to the system in power, in other words pushback. An example of this would be when King Geoge III wanted to tax retail exchanges by means of the Stamp Act. This was only one of the taxes he tried imperiously to impose upon us to pay for our protection during the French and Indian war. This was seen by many revolutionaries in America back then as what we would call in our modern times, protection money.

Systemic change almost always occurs in the same way. I remember a long time ago in middle school part of a film, Future Shock, was shown to my eighth-grade class. In the film, two men kissed in a marriage ceremony. The entire class laughed boisterously at the absurdity and the impossibility of this event ever occurring. Now, as we know, Mitt Romney, a Republican, and the Congress of the United States have codified marriage equity into law, forever changing the relationships between men and women. How this happened was through constant pressure, over time, from a power source that finally wore down the American people and forced us to accept this change. This change was almost certain to occur because power was behind it; hence, what the book Future Shock was all about.

But what was the power that caused that change and virtually every other change in America? Permanent institutions and the elites they create. Permanent power -- or so we are supposed to believe. Yet the Founders of this nation did not believe that the British Empire and King George III were so powerful they could not be defeated in a revolutionary war. The Founders believed the people should have some say in how their lives were governed: No taxation without representation.

Now virtually everything that can be done to strip away the political power of the American people is being done. This is what is beneath the intense political friction that permeates our society. The legacy press will acknowledge the deep divisions, but it will never address the real causes -- the elephant in the room. Instead, Fox News, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, and PBS News will use their vast communication power to convince us that something else is occurring. Fake news.

And then there is Donald Trump. We are a nation of laws, the press and the Washington establishment say again and again. Yet Trump has stood against the permanent elites, the permanent establishment, the permanent institutions. This is why they hate him so. He has provided a voice to many who have believed for a very long time that the system is rigged. We don’t have voice. We don’t have say. It’s all an insider deal. The swamp.

Now Trump is expected to pay almost half a billion dollars in fines because he supposedly overvalued the worth of his properties. He has said this would never have happened to him if he hadn’t been running for President, and, of course, he is right. However, this is just another example of an institution, a permanent power structure and the elites within it, trying to undermine the will of the people, rig the election, obliterate anyone outside the system from representing the average Allan and average Anne, who feel they no longer have representation within the system.

Image: Public Domain