As mentioned in this opinion piece, the current protests are not just about racism or police brutality. People are angry. The government no longer responds to the will of the people, but they still do whatever benefits wealthy people and large corporations. This is a big part of the reason many are in the streets protesting right now, and I think it's why so many conservatives backed the worst possible candidate in the 2016 Republican primaries.
18th Century History
Let's review a basic lesson of the French and American Revolutions.
If you take power from the people or wield power over the people, you have to use that power to make life better for the people. If you do not, then it is in the self-interest of the people to remove your hands from the levers of power so that they can make sure they have a government that does.
This same lesson was echoed again and again in many other nations in the 18th and 19th centuries. For a long time, anyone in power who failed to heed this basic lesson paid a price in either their power or their lives.
The solution in both France and America was simple and dictated by various ideas that had been cooking in the Enlightenment: distribute political power into as many hands as possible. That way, no one was ultimately responsible for the well-being of the people because the people had the means of ensuring their own well-being. This created stability and protected the wealthy from the chaos of revolution.
The Erosion of Democracy
Little by little over the past half-century (if not longer), power has been slowly transferring from the voters to the donors through our corrupt campaign finance system.
Every time the campaign seasons get longer, politicians need more money, which increases the influence of donors a little bit, while decreasing the influence of voters a little bit.
Each time political TV ads get more expensive, more political power slowly trickles from the voters to the donors.
Every time campaign finance laws are relaxed (as in the Citizens United ruling), political power trickles from the voters to the donors.
Little by little, over the decades, political power has been slowly transferring from the voters to the donors. That is not to say that voters are completely powerless, but our influence over the government relative to the influence of rich people and large corporations is nearly negligible. At this point, we have to move heaven and Earth to get the government to do anything, while the elites can veto any demand we make of the government with a mere flick of the wrist.
At this point, we are no longer a democratic republic, even if we posture and pretend to be a democratic republic. The communist bloc countries also claimed to be democratic republics, but because of their flawed implementation of democracy, they never really were. Now we Americans have become what we used to mock.
The Elites Are No Longer Protected From Revolution
The problem is that before when power more or less rested in the people, the wealthy were protected from having to take responsibility for the well-being of the masses because the people had actual power.
Thus, they got in the habit of not considering how their decisions affected the masses.
Then, little by little, they accumulated great wealth, then used that wealth to accumulate political power as outlined above. They then used that political power to amass even greater wealth. They did all of this without regard for how any of this affected the majority of citizens. Because power rested with the people for a time, the wealthy got in the habit of not worrying about how their decisions affected the masses, and so they did not notice when they finally accumulated enough wealth and power for the above lessons of the French and American revolutions to apply to them.
Honestly, I think they still don't get it.
They have accumulated enough power that the above-mentioned lessons now apply to them. They have to make life better for the masses, or else face a violent revolution of one kind or another.
Right-wing propaganda outlets have deceived Republican voters. They have convinced Republican voters to blame minorities, immigrants, the government, etc., for how their lives have been slowly getting harder over the past half-century or so. Your average Republican voter is now so reality-challenged and fact-immune that they simply cannot notice the boot of the economic elites on their necks, and they will continue blaming everyone else indefinitely.
But deep down, they still know something is not right.
I believe this is the reason so many of them voted for Trump in the primaries. They saw the Republican establishment react against Trump, and that was all the reason they needed to want to support Trump. Now that Trump is in power, they cannot admit that there was anything wrong with their decision, and so they have succumbed to the backfire effect. They have convinced themselves that Trump is the Second Coming and can do no wrong, and get very emotional if Trump is criticized even a little. But their original impulse to reject the Republican establishment was right, even if the solution they settled on proved an unmitigated disaster.
I think Trump's performance in the primaries is related to the explosion of protests over police brutality we are seeing in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. The masses can feel that power is no longer in their hands even though the mainstream media continues to pretend we are a democratic republic.
People may be wrong about exactly what's wrong and exactly how to fix it, but people are getting angrier and angrier. People will continue to lash out until something gives. Things will continue to get more and more chaotic until either life gets better for the masses, or our society is torn down in violent revolution.
Right now, the lesson of the American and French revolutions applies to the economic elites in this country, and I don't think they understand this.
They can either use their power to make life better for the people, give power back to the people, or wait to find out what kind of chaotic violence finally tears our nation apart. I'm picturing something like the French revolution, only with more lynch mobs and mansion-burning. Even if they manage to flee the country before the violence starts, all those pieces of paper they worked so hard to accumulate will become worthless very rapidly in the economic turmoil that follows.