Fergus Finlay: Who or what will be the spark that ignites an American uprising?

The mid-term elections may be the last chance to avoid a second American civil war. For that, they must produce someone capable of leading a non-violent democratic Potomac Spring, an uprising against the neglect and abuse personified by Trump

The O'Donovan Rossa Funeral oration by Padraig Pearse at Glasnevin Cemetery on August 1, 1915. Archive photo supplied by Glasnevin Trust.

I’d love to be the first person to come up with a name for the next American uprising. And I’d love to be able to predict what sparks it off. I’m going to try a fanciful name for it — I’ll call it the Potomac Spring, after the river winding through Washington and associated with the history of the US capital.

But what’s going to spark it off? It was probably the Boston Tea Party, a popular uprising against unfair taxation and the oppression of a distant monarch, more than 250 years ago, that led to a mass rebellion that eventually took shape as the American Revolution and produced a Declaration of Independence full of ideals that influenced the rest of the world.