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“the Republic is on life support. There isn’t much time left.”

In case you haven’t noticed, the American Republic is as dead as the Roman Republic was after 100 years of wars and revolutions in the First Century B.C.

The next act will see the creation of a dictatorship of either the Right or Left. My guess is this regime will be on the model of the one created by Caesar Augustus with the forms of the old Republic - like the Senate and the Constitution - in place, but the real authority will lay with the “First Citizen” who will rule for life.

Thus America will become an Empire, the overlord of the world in time. Our new leaders will do this because, like freedom of speech, independent countries and peoples outside the orbit of Washington’s control are dangerous and wars too costly.

Of course, the Pax Americana will have its advantages - wealth, trade, industry and the arts will have another Golden Age as will all religions, which to the “First Citizen” are all equally true, equally false and equally useful to the State.

Yes, the New Praetorian Guards will knock you in the head if you speak out against the Emperor, the Empire and the New Order. However, who needs republican nonsense like the First Amendment when the Empire offers everything to everyone?

For the professional soldier - endless peace keeping missions. For the professional politician - state funded election campaigns that lead in steps to membership for life in the Senate. For the businessmen - state loans at low interest rates. For the drug addicted - free drugs including a suicide pill when addiction gets too much. For the lazy - a state pension and free housing for life. For the student - free education including college.

Fill in the blank. Everyone will free to find their own pursuit of happiness. Everyone will be happy. At long last Plato’s Republic will be become reality. The earth will be the best of all possible worlds. This “Pax Americana” - the “Golden Age” may well last far beyond the 200 years of the Roman Peace - It may last 2,000 years, or forever. After all, it will be the perfect political system for mankind built on the wisdom of the Old Age and made into reality by the technology of the New Age.

But you ask: “What about the rebels? What about those identified and knocked on the head by the Praetorian Guard? What if they insist on rebellion against the Empire to the death? Will they be executed? Sent to Siberia for life? Brainwashed into acceptance of the New Order?”

None of the above. Execution is the poorest waste of a human being. Those who rebel against the best of all possible worlds are to be made the colonists of outer space. In time they will push the boundaries of the empire literally to the edge of the universe.

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD, heh?