This is further proof, if any is needed, that even repressive governments exist with the tacit consent of the governed and at some level recognize that fact. It is a lesson one hopes Russia’s Putin is healthy enough to understand as he pursues an increasingly unpopular-at-home war in Ukraine.
It is a strength of elected governments that the consent of the governed is explicitly sought and periodically calibrated, however imperfectly, via elections. Thus, in places with elected governments it is normal for people to lose power without losing their lives in the bargain, something not often possible in totalitarian regimes.
