Tomorrow_Farewell [any, they/them]

Historically they’ve only happened when a country reached a point where there were was no other recourse

Hindsight 20/20 or something like that.
I am very confident that you would not be saying this about the Russian Empire in its later years.

Our democracy has not collapsed

Yours is a “democracy” of slavers and genocidaires, quite literally. If it hasn’t collapsed, it should.

Elections still happen - we’ll likely be seeing a major power shift in the midterms

Elections are not a viable instrument for effecting relevant change. You are not even presented with relevant choices.

My greater fear is what will happen after we’ve “won.” I fear what we will do. Because if you think the answer is “put down our weapons” then you haven’t read the third act of many revolutions in history

Socialist revolutions have historically been very successful in improving their people’s living standards. Why would one “fear” that?

I recommend you acquaint yourself with actual history instead of repeating myths. Socialist revolutions have shown themselves to be a very reliable way of improving their people’s living standards.

Our democracy has not been dismantled

If you want to claim to have a democracy, you admit that the invaders of Iraq and Afghanistan, the enslavers of Libya, the genocidaires of Palestine represent your interests, and that you are opposed to the liberation of the world from them.

Diplomatic options remain available to us

Like what?
And remember, these options should not be ignorable by them. There should be a cost that could be enforced upon them if they decide to not agree to demands.

We’re very likely going to see a shift in power come midterms

I highly doubt that. I predict that there will be no shift in power and that your leadership will still just be the red-blue uniparty the way it has been for more than a century.

The overwhelming majority of the people I’ve killed deserved to die. But war isn’t that cut and dried

Let me guess, you were an invader into either Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, or somewhere else, and you killed people who were defending against your invasion, weren’t you?
Edit: Seems like you admit to having been a colonial invader. In what world do the people you have killed “deserved to die”?

The scenario where we address the problems we’re having without a revolution remains drastically superior and preferable to the scenario where we must fight a revolution

That scenario that you find preferable is simply not feasible. You have no way of stopping capitalism and colonialism by just politely asking the people that are economically interested in inflicting those horrors upon the world.