I agree with your articulation of the problem, although I don’t agree with the solution. Other than the bandaid, as you aptly put it, to really heal the disease we need several things to happen:
(I had heard many of these ideas before, but have been going through The 5000 year Leap with my kids this spring and summer and it really brought these ideas home)
1) widespread religious revival (I’m talking on the order of the 1st or 2nd Great Awakening)... followed by:
2) reformation - widespread renewing of the minds of all our citizens through study of scripture and application of Biblical principles to our individual lives. The benefits of liberty in a Republic only work if there is a large enough mass of people with principles, self discipline and wisdom to elect the right kind of leaders.... followed by:
3) Wise, moral and educated citizens who then get active and involved in their civic duty of seeking out wise, moral and educated people who desire to serve their country and then helping them to get elected.
Without all that, as you said, we will just be constantly trying to fight fires and avert one disaster after another, each time coming closer and closer to the edge. Our Founding Fathers warned about this very thing over and over and over, but ever since we drifted away from faith and toward humanism and allowed our children to be brainwashed into socialism, all this was inevitable. Not that we shouldn’t keep trying and doing everything possible, but we also need to figure out long term what we can do. Besides trying to get involved in local politics, I’m personally praying for a revival among the pastors in this country. I think maybe a revival will start through pastors waking up to the seriousness of their responsibility before God and turn away from some of the fluff and start really preaching again.
N, Great summary article on the whole BC issue.
It's the natural human condition, and no country, no civilization, is immune from demise.
You are on the right track with the cure, but you should be satisfied to have the cure work on a small scale. There is no way any one of us, or any family, or even any community, can fix the country.