You remember the quote, don’t you?
Every Communist must grasp the truth; “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
Mao Zedong, “Problems of War and Strategy” (November 6, 1938), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224.
Here is the 21st century response from India:
A man shows off his finger, marked with ink, to show he’s voted in India’s elections, 2014. WSJ Tweet: India’s weeks-long federal elections come to a close. Photos from the polling place: http://trib.al/SekkQd2 (EPA)
In a democratic regime, political power grows from the finger that rings the doorbell or dials the phone to invite a neighbor to vote, and to that same finger marking the ballot in the voting place. In the 21st century, democratic revolutions are slower, cause less bloodshed, but are more deeply rooted in the will of the people, and last longer in the deep reforms they bring to a nation.
The finger is mightier than the gun.
Mao is dead. Even his nation turns towards capitalism, and eventually, to personal political freedom.
O, Tempora! O, Mores!
To which I would add (hoping I get the grammar correct!): Novae viae veteres malis eius conterendos. Spes et patientia superare tyrannidis. (New ways crush the old bad habits. Hope and determination overcome tyranny.)
Afterthought: When Malcolm X preached “The Ballot or the Bullet,” he advocated the ballot. He knew.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 