‘America’s best days may be behind it. I think it is only a matter of time.”
Try reading some history. It will give you a perspective bigger than only what you can see in front of you.
There have been cycles of prosperity, chaos, war, and destruction throughout all of history, and throughout the history of this nation, too.
There is an interesting book called The Fourth Turning which lays out some interesting principles for the future. Yes, there is a crisis looming right now, and a contested election may be the trigger. But it’s not the first time we’ve been faced with something like that, and won’t be the last.
Here’s a thread that has a long, but very important booklet called “The Revolution Was”, by conservative Garet Garrett (written in 1938). Lots of parallels to today and STRONGLY recommend its reading.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/929392/posts
Here’s an excerpt:
So it was that a revolution took place within the form. Like the hagfish, the New Deal entered the old form and devoured its meaning from within. The revolutionaries were inside; the defenders were outside. A government that had been supported by the people and so controlled by the people became one that supported the people and so controlled them. Much of it is irreversible. That is true because habits of dependence are much easier to form than to break. Once the government, on ground of public policy, has assumed the responsibility to provide people with buying power when they are in want of it, or when they are unable to provide themselves with enough of it, according to a minimum proclaimed by government, it will never be the same again.
All of this is said by one who believes that people have an absolute right to any form of government they like, even to an American Welfare state, with status in place of freedom, if that is what they want. The first of all objections to the New Deal is neither political nor economic. It is moral.