Sam is more about political ideology, than about country.
The problem for republicans going forward, is that, unlike the English and other Europeans of 100-400 years ago, who were able to leave crappy situations and crappy countries, that option is no longer available. There is no new “America” with the hope of a new life and a new success and a new set of freedoms. America is stuck with becoming the repressive and oppressive type of government which the pioneers left way back then.
Sam is right, and there is no going back. Not when the majority is determined that the government owes them anything and everything.
The only hope, if anybody wants to contemplate it at all, is for the more conservative states to try to set their own paths, and perhaps even secede. The country is too far gone, and in reality, there is no way back to 1982 or even to 2000.
I agree with your comment.
Secession seems a long way off, but if our economic crisis deepens into catastrophe, we might be ripe for it.
There are two paths to the future:
One is an authoritarian/totalitarian system that holds the country together by force and repression.
The other is re-invigorated federalism - maybe even con-federalism - in which the states (and the people in them) become truly sovereign. The “national” government would dramatically shrink.