Broadly speaking, humanity can be divided into two groups: Those who see government as a parental figure that needs to micromanage our lives, however they see fit; and those who see government as at best a necessary evil to manage very specific, limited, enumerated matters. This divide is insurmountable, because the philosophies are fundamentally opposed.
Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.
—Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
The distinction between political action and civilization is consent. The end result of any political action is coercion, and this engenders the ever-increasing animosity we see. Calling for dignity and respect in political discourse overlooks this essential nature. Term limits, different voting processes, and other reforms are all just lipstick on a pig. In the end, even if we who desire liberty are willing to let the statists have their state, they will never reciprocate and allow us to remain outside it.
Political progress means more centralization to the political class, and this is why the label of progressive is embraced by the self-professed left wing in the USA. Conservatives present themselves as a bulwark against progressivism, but the only thing conserved is political power as the military-industrial complex grows and the domestic police state expands through enforcement of puritanical prohibitions. Compromise between the left and right also means more centralization, just at a slower pace. Our best hope is gridlock that delays centralization while partisans bicker and stir the passions of their respective bases by appealing to their emotions.
Every election pits two career political plunderers against one another, and they bicker vociferously over how government should micromanage your life in various ways while paying just enough lip service to restraint that people think their guy still somehow stands for freedom. Meanwhile, the government monopoly trends toward more and more power consolidation as we try to choose the lesser of two evils in a false choice ballot.
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The Karens and the Copsuckers truly hate us for our freedoms, and will stop at nothing to see us regulated into oblivion. This divide cannot be bridged. They take joy at our suffering when the agents of the state fine us, imprison us, or kill us. The response we have been taught to consider is violent revolution, but history shows a poor track record for this remedy. Marches in the streets and protest movements have a cathartic appeal, but those are quickly co-opted by ruffians and demagogues for their destructive ends as we saw this year with the George Floyd murder protests.
With any luck, the COVID-19 crisis will reveal the incompetence of politicians and how unnecessary their services really are. Do we need the DMV at all? This question has been floating around as people express frustration over restricted services and closed offices. Do we need public schools? Home education of various kinds is exploding in popularity, and those who don't receive state subsidies will begin to question their property tax bills. As the central banks tax, borrow, and spend, cryptocurrencies become a much more intriguing alternative to more and more people. More broadly speaking, any form of encryption is a way to obfuscate the leviathan as it seeks to ensnare us in a pervasive surveillance state.
Maybe this chaos will result in more and more people asking other questions about regulations, licenses, and permits. Government can only maintain its monopoly while enough people are willing to blindly accept their mandates. The more power they grab, the more obvious the divide between liberty and servitude becomes, and people find themselves forced to choose. Our job is to scatter seeds of liberty that can sprout in due time so people are ready to choose wisely.
Rambling done. Perhaps I'll edit it for typos, careless word repetition, paragraph order, etc. after some sleep.