I was then challenged to opine on what the future holds if my contention is correct. In reply I offered the following:

I’m not very good as a futurist and never have been so it’s a very difficult question for me to answer in any detail. That being said, what has happened and where are we now seems to be a place to start.

1. In the last election we were presented with collectivist (socialist) and collectivist (socialist)-lite. The concept of a smaller, less intrusive government is no longer supported by either of the major parties. Only a small number of individuals subscribe to that view and they have been effectively marginalized by their party and the media. Not many pay attention to them any more.

2. The concept of reducing cost as a way to reverse the growing descent into ever increasing debt is no longer in favor, increasing revenue through ever more creative taxation methodologies is in favor and is likely to remain so for as long into the future as I can reasonably hope to see. Every serious attempt to do so, e.g., steps to become really energy independent, will devolve to a SCOTUS decision adding huge costs in terms of time and money so that they will never become reality.

3. The unfettered authority given Congress to tax and spend has bred the current system of pay-to-play between our professional politicians and those with money. While, in theory, this could be reversed by reversing such Supreme Court decisions as the Helvering vs. Davis decision and imposing term limits on Congress and the Supreme Court, that will never happen. They are in a symbiotic relationship.

4. It will be many years before the fundamental balance between left and right in the Supreme Court will change so there may be some push-back from the more egregious socialistic regulations but only those. Ever more intrusion into our individual daily lives through regulation will be the ‘order-of-the-day’ regardless of any resistance from individuals or groups. Every controversial issue will be decided upon by SCOTUS. We are an oligarchy and we’re likely to remain so.

5. The demographics of the country are changing rapidly. The ties to our traditions and cultural heritage are rapidly being sundered and/or diluted. Virtually all education related to our heritage has either been abandoned or transmogrified to support socialistic ideologies (frequently camouflaged as ecological subjects). The feelings of being a united people are being eroded as ethnicity becomes more and more important. Relativism continues to gain acceptance which further erodes unity.

So, where is this all leading?

[First, a caveat. All of this is theoretically reversible. But, to effect a reversal would require a massive education of the electorate in the face of unimaginable resistance generated by those currently benefiting from the status quo, including a growing majority of that very electorate. Only a cataclysmic paradigm shift will ever initiate that scenario.]

What will happen?

In a word?

1. We will continue to lose our position as a world leader and will become subject to the whims and wills of off-shore nations and ideologies. We will be dictated to and will be unable and, perhaps, unwilling to assert our own wishes.

2. We will be hostage to our creditors and we will see our standard of living decline as they take more and more over time of the ‘fruits of our labor’ for themselves.

3. We will suffer an increasing number of physical attacks per unit time at home and abroad.

4. Entrepreneurial enterprises and innovation will decline as it becomes harder and harder to overcome regulatory and judicial barriers to change and novelty (except in the arena of entertainment).