History is a great teacher for those willing to learn its lessons. That's not a very popular idea these days, as evidenced by those running the government.
For most of history, tribes battled each other for land and game, then as technology advanced, for treasure. Kings and tribal chiefs attained power over their land and subjects by offering protection and prosperity to their subjects. All walked a fine knife edge, balancing between the need for enough resources to raise armies to protect and expand their kingdom and the need to keep their subjects content enough to minimize those who would rise up and throw them out of power.
The Greeks were the first to innovate a new idea of civilization, the idea of self-governance through representation. The Greeks were hugely successful, but eventually crumbled as their citizens became complacent and overindulgent.
The Romans tried to apply the Greek ideal, but in relatively short order lost it to strong emperors who grew increasingly vile and corrupt with each generation, until the Roman empire crumbled under its own weight of debauched corruption.
Until the United States of America threw off the British to establish the modern version of the Greek model, the world mostly reverted to the age-old system of tribal chieftans and monarchies.
Then came Karl Marx, who dreamed of a collective society that pretends to distribute all goods equally among the citizens. The ideas were embraced brutally by revolutionary regimes in Russia and China. The Russian version crumbled, but China has so far adapted to become a world power.
In the meantime, a steady drumbeat has sounded in America over the last 200 years in the form of a movement euphemistically called "Progressivism". Which is Marxism disguised by an attractive name. The Progressive movement took full power over the American goverment in 2008, but has been gaining power for generations.
The Progressives are represented by specific, identifiable groups: Labor Unions, Government Bureucrats, Academics, Trial Lawyers, and those who consider themselves disenfranchised by the Capitalist system.
Their ascendancy took place incrementally, as government expanded, people were encouraged to believe they were disenfranchised by faceless capitalists who they believe selfishly deny them opportunity, and big business was allowed to consolidate into "too big to fail" status.
Ironically, the toppling of the system that permitted a Progressive takeover had at its core a Progressive program, named from acronyms that sound like "Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac". Where Progressivism demanded that everyone has a "right" to decent housing, and therefore the government should guarantee mortgages to help them obtain such housing.
Then when energy prices spiked, many of these marginal folks could no longer keep afloat financially, and defaulted in unprecedented numbers.
So the Progressives rose to power on citizen anger over an intractable war against terrorism and a belief that the unsustainable energy costs were deliberately driven up by evil and greedy capitalists. People voted in the Progressives, thinking "let's let somebody else try to save us, they can't be any worse than these guys".
But they are worse. Much worse. The Progressives are in power and taking advantage of every moment. They have already imposed a socialist healthcare program that promises to bankrupt the system without delivering its false promise of quality, affordable healthcare for everyone. They are using all available power to shut down domestic energy production, while shifting huge sums of borrowed money into the pockets of their progressive cronies to build boondoggle windmills and solar panels while they lie to the public.
They ram through "financial reform" regulation under the facade of "fixing" the problems that led to our economic destruction, while the reality of that regulation is further consolidation of raw power into the Progressive bureaucracy. As evidence, just consider the fact that the new regulations and agencies do nothing to address any of the causal factors in the economic meltdown.
They are committed to dismantling the military to shift those resources into their social programs. They change foreign policy into one that is obsequiously seeking to pacify enemies while insulting and abandoning allies. They break laws with impunity, knowing they have the power to stop any investigations or prosecutions of their over-the-top corruption.
They plot to impose massive new taxes from the Value-Added Tax to Carbon Taxes. Simply defined, these brand new taxes are on everything we make and everything we put into the air. All of course earmarked to enrich their Progressive cronies at the expense of all productive citizens not part of thier "in" crowd.
Some citizens are waking up to their agenda, but it may be too late. Ordinary people can't get loans even when they qualify. The government controls the largest domestic automobile manufacturer. The government owns or controls much of the financial industry. The government seeks to own or control the energy industry.
In the meantime, real unemployment is above 17 percent and continues to rise. The proportion of citizens dependent on government for their very existence has reached critical mass. Illegal immigration is encouraged to put the size of the government-dependent citizenry into a position to insure permanent Progressive power over the country.
Thus does the latest, greatest society in human history topple.
Unless those of us who understand can find a way to reverse the Progressive juggernaut.
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