Sadly, I have to agree, and I was afraid someone would say exactly what you just said. I am afraid the whole thing must come crashing down as well. One thing that surprised me about the Soviet Union, was that I expected millions of victims to settle scores and kill many communists, who had oppressed them. I don't think it really happened that way, but we have a different kind of population. A collapse might bring on a blood bath of Biblical proportions. We shall see.
I think that things turned out that way was because of the timespan of 60 to 70 years. Plenty of time for new generations to be born into the system of statism and despotism. Folks that just played along - you pretend to pay me and I'll pretend to work. The folks that would kill were all gone by the time of Gorbachev.
Similar would happen here. If we can't rectify things with a COS and/or nullification, even a CW-III would likely lead to a period of tyranny, and a new generation, devoid of 2A-adherants/proponants would be the ones to rise up again. And then 50-50 whether those folks, 100 years from now, kill off the 'Rats.
I expect the country will split along socio-political lines before we reach the stage of mass bloodshed or total collapse. In other words, I expect for several of the red states to leave the union before the rot and implosion takes them down with the blue states.
The reason I think that scenario is the more likely one, is because of the internet. It allows enormous swaths of the public to engage in an ongoing town hall meeting of sorts, where the problems and solutions of the day get sorted out at lightning speed.
When I first began reading at political websites some fifteen years ago, the word 'secession' was usually greeted with snickers and jokes about tin foil hats. The very notion was almost always shot down as the mental masturbation of kooks and cranks. Not any more.
I think it's becoming clear to most astute observers that our country has undergone something of a coup, and that those who've pulled it off, intend to completely overthrow the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our traditional American way of life. This isn't tin foil hat stuff anymore. The Communists swore for decades that they'd eventually take control of our government and major institutions, and by George, they've finally done it.
Because of high levels of good quality information consumption today, a huge percentage of the public has become alarmed, and has expressed their alarm in ways large and small. The birth of the Tea Party was one of those expressions. The unprecedented rise in gun sales and widespread prepping, are two others. Now we're witnessing one of the major parties go to war against the most loyal members of their base.
People have the ability to read the handwriting on the wall. They know something is coming. I believe that most are trying to hold on to some level of hope that things can be fixed through the political process, but more and more, it's becoming clear that those now in power have no intention of ever allowing that to happen again.
The stark realization of that fact is going to compel more and more people to consider some way to preserve and protect what's left of our constitutional republic from total destruction. As Walter Williams stated in a recent article, there are only four possible options open to us:
1. Complete capitulation by the people to the new order in power.
2. Widespread, open resistance/protest on a massive and unprecedented scale.
3. Secession by one or more red states from the union.
4. Relief and restoration through our established political processes (which could include an Article V convention of the states).
I personally believe that the first and last of the four don't stand a chance in Hades of happening, which leaves us with but two remaining ways forward.
Of those two, I see secession as the more likely choice because it doesn't involve conflict of any sort. It's a purely political separation, requiring nothing but the passage of Articles of Secession in one or more state legislatures. The logic and reasoning favoring such a choice are pretty overwhelming. In short, the red states can survive quite well without the blue states. The obverse is not so certain.
Now, there are some who believe that Washington would mount a campaign of military aggression against any secessionist states, but that's about as likely as Obama coming to his senses and becoming a patriotic conservative tomorrow. This isn't 1861. Americans in this day and age don't possess the will or inclination to murder millions of their fellows over a peaceful political separation.