Thanks for the very thoughtful response and for hearing my perspective.

I love the original idea of America, it’s a great system of government. Voting also wasn’t as foundational as they make it seem these days - America didn’t even have direct presidential elections until the mid-1800s.

With that said, there always has to be a foundation of true individual autonomy for a society like that to function long term. It’s the natural state of the world, and if we stray away from it, it’s a very slippery slope into collectivist societies and a tyrannical government (as we have seen unfold).

I think you’d be surprised by how few people would freely choose to act violently against their fellow man. It’s normally not in our self interest to do so. Plus, government itself still doesn’t stop the people who don’t care about laws from doing bad things to others. 

Life is a very risky proposition which only ever ends in death, and when we sacrifice some freedom for the illusion of safety, all we will ever find is tyranny.