I have long believed that the only real way to shake up The People of America will be a honest-to-goodness depression - the type where people don’t have enough to eat, and people die from exposure. Something like that has a tendency to focus minds and instill in youngsters the value of working hard. It also has a tendency to get governments at all levels to prune out wasteful laws and regulations. The closer to collapse of the whole system, the more of the latter effect occurs. Though the ‘30s Great Depression is what most of us think of when we hear the word, it is not the only depression that has occurred in this country.
Pray that no world power (or opportunists like AlQueda/Muslim Brotherhood) are able to take advantage of the chaos which will be rampant in the US while we undergo the coming depression.
The election of Reagan in 1980, and his effectiveness, delayed for a couple decades the recession is now, finally, likely to occur.
I think a depression can have two different effects depending on the moral character of the people of a country. In 1930’s America, which was still mostly Christian, (or at least with Judeo Christian values), and in which most people still respected and obeyed the 10 commandments,the depression had a strengthening and refining effect. In 1930’s Germany, in which most of the country was liberal or non religious, it invoked panic and fear to the point of electing a tyrant to “save” them, and in which the citizens went along with all sorts of evil due to not having that inner character to resist that tyrant and his secret police, guards, soldiers, etc.
Which of those is closer to the character of most Americans today I wonder? I truly hope there is still a majority with values closer to 1930’s America, but just don’t know if we can count on that.