Yes, you're quite right that the press mirrors the majority, and, yes, it's quite diverse. No question about that. The majority of people do support the status quo in almost every society...that can only change if and when the status quo becomes absolutely unbearable for the majority of people, and that's quite rare. It can happen when a war is decisively lost or an economy is in a shambles. Or both.

It takes great visionaries in positions of leadership to break the status quo. It is the job of such people to lead in making a breakthrough in understanding. The public will respond if their leaders are willing to inspire them. They will remain generally complacent and passive with leaders who are unwilling or incapable of inspiring them.

You could not have had the American Revolution without a small group of visionary leaders to inspire and lead it. Same goes for any other revolution.

Now, we got public health care in Canada starting out shortly after WWII because a socialist visionary, Tommy Douglas, dared to try something brand new in a single western province where he was premier at the time (it's like being governor of a state). He made the breakthrough, he showed people it was possible and workable, and he was bitterly opposed by the medical establishment, but he got it done anyway. Then the rest of the country followed suit in not too many years. Now it IS the status quo, and people take it for granted that we have universal health care.

It would not have happened without one inspired man to lead the way.

I hope that Americans find such an inspired man or woman shortly. The inertia in the system that opposes such people is simply tremendous, but sometimes it can be overcome.

******

I am not suggesting an isolationist foreign policy for the USA. I am suggesting a policy of not attacking other nations militarily, of NEVER attacking anyone "pre-emptively", but instead working with other nations through mutually beneficial trade and negotiation. A win-win scenario is a far wiser course in human affairs than a win-lose scenario can ever be, and win-win scenarios can always be found by those willing to look for them.