Flirting With Disaster?

In general, Americans aren't very good at civil disobediance. A few prominent examples notwithstanding, in general we like our rules and/or we believe we have a say in changing the rules that we don't like, so by and large we are a people that play by the rules. (Also, we still have a deep national scar left behind from a massive experiment in civial disobendiance.) But this is not to say that we are people prone to submissiveness - the American character is defined by both the ability to put up with alot but only so much. We are a "tipping point" nation. We blow things off until they become intolerable, but when they do, watch out. I have always speculated as to what sort of actions, taken by our government, would cross that line and go beyond the tipping point and send Americans into full-scale, civil disobebiance-type revolt. Despite the multiple depredations and abominations embodied in ObamaCare, I actually never considered something like the individual mandate to even go that far, although it certainly has gotten alot us (me included) highly exercised. In modern life I can only think of one maybe two things that would breach the tipping point - and, as it happens, the Obama administration has dabbled around with both of them. The first, and I am not even totally convinced that this would even get us past the tipping point, is outright expropriation of citizens' retirement savings. I'm talking the taking of actual hard, real money savings, not the abrogation of lofty promises or the ham-handed collateral destruction of economic value (the government does that all the time). I'm talking banana republic-style theft of money that Americans have set aside for their retirements. Well, the Obama administration has aggressively noodled the idea. The other thing, and this one I'm pretty sure is a tipper, is government imposed restrictions on movement. I consider a tax on movement a restriction, albeit a less draconion flavor of the larger noxious concept. Well, the idea has been out there for awhile, cooked up by radical environmentalists and even proposed at the state level; but, now for the first time the idea is being floated trial balloon style by the White House. Just imagine it - going on vacation? visiting family far away? taking that cross-country drive to see America? kids on a travelling team, moving for work? etc. - get out your wallet. I doubt that either of these proposals will get much political traction, but they are worth highlighting as a gauge of disconnectedness between a policy agenda and the fabric of American life . Of course I could be totally off on my assessment of the national view of such things, but I doubt it.