>>Extremists thrive on desperation.

Or on publicity. As an example, the KKK had been thoroughly discredited in popular society. But now they're famous, as are ferals pacing back and forward chanting "this is a race war!" who were ecstatic to see themselves on national TV. Result? There's quite a good video on a disreputable site of a "white-supremacist" youth cornered by "peaceful" counter-protestors, at which point he removes shirt and declares he just turned up hoping for some excitement. Recognizing him as an idiot, the crowd lets him slink away. But he's not the only one and this is the price of pretending to be impressed by tiny warped minorities who were comprehensively ignored through previous presidencies but now are fed by the MSM.

As for desperation: my understanding is that the desperate poor steal and riot in their own communities, whereas a proper revolution always needs the middle class. I don't think the US middle class is quite desperate enough yet, plus the campaign to distract them with the need to oppose Nazis/Trump, is a total success. Look at the Boston protest with a few hundred huddled protestors and 40,000 others, to see that the populace is thoroughly distracted by a tiny fringe that used to be ignored rather than granted oxygen to draw in more idiots like the above. My question for Boston is that if 300 people turned up and stood in the rotunda to protest about a statue- so what? Enjoy the sunshine. As my grandpa used to say: every time a dog barks in the street, you don't need to run out and bark back at it.

>>The media is a huge player in this conspiracy. If you look at media ownership (massive monopolies) it becomes clear their why minions focus on things like what Trump says about women and who yelled at whom over what.

Yes. The MSM has a small adoring echo chamber, but otherwise is consigning itself to irrelevance AFAICS.

>>Has anyone mentioned tax rates lately?

My estimation is that the US is quite highly taxed compared to other places. Even the concessionary rates for dividends enjoyed mostly by the wealthy, are more than some other places. Like obesity, balancing the books is about the size of both the in hole and the out hole, not just one of them. Maybe look at where the money is going to decide how those books might balance better?