Is this the end of America?

Is America done? It sure seems as if we have betrayed all of the principles for which the founders established this country. More importantly, these betrayals become precedents, the code by which we run this once-great nation. Now both parties accept the government shut-downs and political obfuscations as routine. The process normalizes and accepts the very principles of betrayal. Thus we ‘lock-in’ the infidelities by which we have reversed our course.

More importantly, the public seems to ratify this process. Term after term the public returns the same one-party monopoly which makes possible such shenanigans. They endorse the system.

We weren’t meant to be a democracy, but the fact has been highlighted in the election of 2000 and 2016. This will only be locked in as the technology advances to the point where we can rig elections.

The Senate has lost all significance, and is now simply a second House of Representatives. Gone by Republican hands is the 60-vote rule. Advice and consent is but an excuse not to act. Now we can put on the shelf for years, any appointments that a president wants to make. We have made obstruction an art form. In the House, The Hastert Rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, prevents any possibility of realistic, bi-partisan debate. House and Senate leaders control both bodies, with the result that oligarchy sets in.

All of this trickles down to the ranks, in one form or another. Politically, it seems we can only debate one or two issues: tax cuts for the wealthiest, or which country do we want war with? And the indifference toward morality affects our everyday life. We lie to start a war, and suddenly lying is not a moral question, but an ‘alternative truth’. Polish an evil and it becomes acceptable: don’t call it torture, call it “enhanced interrogation”. These indignities trickle down, and suddenly not only torture, but kidnapping, rape, concentration camps and genocide become legitimate means of accomplishing ends.

So, is this the end of America? Is it already gone? Political structure is altered to the point that democracy is no longer possible. The end justifies the means, and if we can prevent blacks, Hispanics or women from voting, all the better. The very concept of truth is in question…not whether it is truth, but if there is such a thing as truth.

Let’s be frank: The real political game in America is just a whimper. Politics by consent is reduced to a form of obstruction and games. With truth sacrificed, you can be a dictator and no one is the wiser. Give it a palatable name, and you can get what you want: enhanced interrogation, locker room banter, and trickle-down economics. The last bastion is he Press, the voice of conscience. But our leader is telling us the Press is the enemy of the people. If that channel is choked off, there is only his voice…and you know what that means.

BRING ON the 'Divided States of 'Merica'...

With existing states like California, Texas, New York, and maybe even Florida, each having large enough individual  economies that they could each afford to "sink or swim" on their own;  it is quite plausible that the good ol' 'US of A' could conceivably split up into 3, 4 or even 5 smaller entities..

Especially if the current Trump administration gets its way with so many of their self-destructive "Make 'Merika Gwate Ag'in !" policies.                               

I'm thinkin' my dream of a Pacific States of America could become a reality.  California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawai'i as the core.  Pick up both Baja Californias, northern Sonora, Nogales over to Rocky Point, BC, Yukon and NW Territories, and we've got a new, succinct nation, fronting the eastern north Pacific.  

Let Russia have Europe.  We'll be dealing with Oz, NZ, SE Asia, the Malay peninsula, China and Japan. Trade with Europe would be prohibitive, anyway, what with the distance and transport costs. Populations, and markets, are much greater to the west.

The simple fact is that the US doesn't make sense in the present day.  The bulk of this nation--the west--was picked up when France couldn't pay its bills from the Haiti rebellion: the Louisiana Purchase.  Then it was just open plains...space.  Now, it's all huge urban areas, with diverse personalities, and frankly, the tail is wagging the dog. I do believe the corrupt government that Trump has brought to the US--god sake, we're selling retail goods out of the Oval office--is a function of the nation being too large to manage or oversee. There's nothing for us in New York City or Savanna, GA. We don't even speak the language.

Los Angeles, in California, is the second largest city in the US, and Vancouver, in British Columbia, is the second largest city on the west coast.  San Francisco is the banking center of the Pacific and the computer mecca (Silicon Valley) of the world.  San Diego, Puget Sound and Pearl Harbor, are great safe water ports.  What do we have to do with Boston and Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta or Miami?  And god forbid we have to live any longer than necessary with the south!

I'll miss my origins in New England, but god won't it be great to be free of the freekdom that elected Trump, McConnell and Ryan.  We have no business to transact with them...and they have a strong and unpleasant body odor about them.