First and foremost allow me to state that I love the United States of America. It is still, by far (and with a few exceptions) the greatest, freest, best place in the world to live. I obey laws, I pay my (ever increasing) taxes without hesitation.
I will divide my thoughts into a triptych, taking a cue from the masterpiece, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.
The Good:
Americans pay little in taxes, heath care (while not free) is currently the best in the world. We can do what we want, and if we stay away from airplanes, we can travel where we want without the intrusive scrutiny of government.
The Bad:
I know for a fact that it's having some existential issues. Debt, the "Klepto-cracy" (ZeroHedge.com) of the "Ruling Class", subjugation of rights and a de-volving of civility in our culture. The Economy is quite probably, in a death spiral. The Boomers have a fanatical grip on both the power of the government and an intractable opinion of the over-promises made by the Boomer's in charge. They were over-promised retirement benefits, health care, and the like by people wishing to buy their votes, and now that they have it, the refuse to hear any discussion of change, even if it means the bankrupting of the republic. Fair enough. They paid into the system for their entire lives, and they expect a return. People my age and younger won't have it anywhere near as "good" as the Boomer's have it. We get to see retirement age elevating year after year, and a steady decrease in benefits. People my age are figuring out and quickly that Social Security simply won't exist in any meaningful form when we are finally allowed to retire when we are in our eighties.
The Ugly:
With the economy, the freedoms Americans have enjoyed are on the ropes. A recent ruling by a Federal Circuit court has upheld the "Individual Mandate" of Obama-care. Big deal, you say, the government has an interest in healthy citizens. OK, fine - if I squint I can see how you can stretch the Commerce Clause to fit that. But if it is truly within the Government's ability to force people to purchase health insurance, and be healthy, then it's not going to belong before certain foods and certain lifestyles will become illegal. Effectively, if the Government can make you do this, then it can do anything to you. Certain behaviors will become illegal, all with the intent of keeping health costs down. Choice is dead. As Fred "The Flake" Thompson (I really liked Fred back in the day, see my previous posts from 2007) said, "Any government powerful enough to do anything for you (give you free healthcare) is powerful enough to do anything to you." To be succinct our Government is out of control.
It is coming to light that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was caught red handed supplying firearms (2500 rifles and other weapons) to the Drug Cartels of Mexico. In the interests of full disclosure, the BATFE forced gun stores int he Southwest to sell large amounts of civilian legal weapons to known straw purchasers who then supplied these weapons the the drug cartels that are terrorizing Mexico. I am a simple and can only view this in one of two ways: 1) the US Government is working for the overthrow of the Mexican Government by Narco-Terrorists or 2) to go "under the radar" and lend credence that the American Firearms industry was doing the same and back door evidence to gin up further erosion of American Citizens rights to own firearms. Back in the 1970's a president resigned over the Break-in and theft from a hotel room at the Watergate. This Operation: Fast and Furious (Google Gunwalker) has already resulted in the deaths of American Law Enforcement Officers, civilians, and Mexican soldiers, police and civilians. People are dying because the head of the BATFE lied, the Attorney General of the United States is lying. There is a strong possibility this knowing conspiracy may reach all they way to the Secretary of State and possibly the Presidency. Will our citizens and traditional media (who laughably still tries to claim some form of impartiality and journalistic integrity) acknowledge this, or even care?
Debt. Depending on who you ask, the United States is steeped in debt. We are by far, the largest debtor nation on the planet. Our "Federal" Reserve and the system it has built is almost to the point of disintegration. If you don't take Social Security and other unfunded liabilities into account, we have a debt of over $15,000,000,000,000. With the liabilites taken into account the total is somewhere in the $50,000,000,000,000 - 100,000,000,000,000. That is a staggering amount of money. Default is, at this point, inevitable. Rampant inflation and currency devaluation are also undoubtable at this point.
As I type this, I am informed that the Tax-Cheat Timothy Geithner is about to leave the Obama administration. Thanks for your wonderful, insightful handling of the Treasury, you dolt. The 50+ million Americans that are out of work might wish to thank you for your service. Dipshit.
So we're about to have a worthless currency, our Government can do to us whatever it wants, what are we to do as a nation?
Now we begin a trip through a thought exercise and a workout of the First Amendment. Echelon servers and monitors at Ft. Huachuca please take note that I am NOT ADVOCATING ANYTHING REMOTELY LIKE AN INSURRECTION AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
I ask the question: at what point is the social contract between the population of these United States and it's government no longer valid? When is it decided that the Powers That Be no longer have the consent of the governed?
What then? Take to the streets, fight?
Who to fight, how would the population organize? Could armed American civilians fight against organized police and military units?
I for one, do not think that it would come to something like that. First of all, I think the vast majority of military and police would refuse to fire on their fellow countrymen, should their cause be just. Units that didn't disband and allow their soldiers and sailors to return home to protect their families and homes might just sit the conflict out and let the civilians and powers that be hash it out.
Those that would fire on their fellow Americans would be few and far between. They wouldn't have much, if any, support for heavy weapons, and things like modern artillery, combat aircraft and tanks have a prodigious appetite for spare parts, fuel and ammunition. So in effect after some early gains by "the bad guys", the fight would quickly turn into a fairly equal infantry slog, once thier vehicles and weapons ran out of gas, bullets, were destroyed or broke down.
It is this author's humble opinion that a "Second American Civil War" would transpire in a fashion similar to the first one. States, or blocks of states would secede, either formally or informally, along ideological lines. The United Staes could fragment into two to five possible smaller countries. This time, however, due to the global nature of our economy, the disintegration of the USA would not happen in isolation. It is probable that foreign powers would try to mitigate the violence that would occur to protect American infrastructure and to keep the talent pool alive. Americans are still, even in this time of troubles, an educated and above all productive people. We work, hard and pay our taxes. A quick resolution to the hositilies is in every parties interest, especially knowing that the United States has the most potent military and largest stockpile of thermonuclear weapons in the world. The feared foreign occupation that a great deal of current "patriot" literature features is not likely, due to the galvanizing effect it would have on the average American. The global economy needs the 300,000,000+ of us in the USA. We're known to innovate and produce. No one really cares what the letterhead on our tax bills are.
Life would go on. We'd all have a hell of a time for a few years adjusting to the "new normal". There'd still be a government that would need tax money, people would still need to eat, places to sleep and I seriously doubt that things would devolve permanently into a time where leather-clad nomads would wear face colanders and patrol the wastelands. We won't forget electricity, computers, telephones, concrete and indoor plumbing, although we might forgo them for a time. There would be untold sorrow, sadness and pain. Welcome to the sad story that is the history of humanity. Our current system would become a cautionary tale, and people would have a hard time, but honestly, there ain't enough jack-booted thugs in the world to oppress everyone in the USA. We've got an ass-load of land to police.
So let it be said that the Crazed American is not hopeful for the current iteration of the USA. I think the USA 2.0 (or whatever we end up calling it) might be better suited for the future. My hope is that people can learn to co-exist in peace and for mutual benefit and cooperation. The experiment of America continues. It will be interesting to see what happens.
More on this to follow in the coming days.
Crazed American, out.
