We're a Nation of Laws, But...

[TommyGunn]

Irrelevant. 

Authoritarian regimes never lack for hired help when they are perceived as strong and/or on top.  Of those currently serving, some will toe the ruling class's line, some will not.  Replacements will be found for the latter after they have been purged.  Only way to prevent this is to show the regime as weak or impose personal costs on the hired help.

It is not like this sort of thing never happened before.  Expect the ruling class to increasingly rely on those ethnically alien to its enemies.  It is the way of multiethnic empires to use one alien group to slaughter the other in turn. 

*SIGH!*   Yea.    I was pretty much afraid it'd be something like that........

[roo_ster]

If the modern political system of the US is immoral and unconstitutional, doesn't it deserve it though?

Which government in history has not been immoral in practice?

[Ron]

Military service as a path to citizenship should provide enough manpower to keep the legacy Americans in line.

[roo_ster]

Military service as a path to citizenship should provide enough manpower to keep the legacy Americans in line.

Ayup. 

[MicroBalrog]

Which government in history has not been immoral in practice?

The US government is one where most of society shares moral responsibility for its acts of immorality.

If one argues, say, that the prison-industrial complex, and things like marijuana prohibition, are morally wrong, then the people who vote for the politicians and judges and sheriffs who make and enforce the laws are morally responsible. Therefore these people deserve to suffer from a degree of economic hardship that is partly the result of this immoral system they voted for.

If one argues, say, that the government's wealth-transfer schemes are a form of theft from the productive to the unproductive, and are morally wrong, then the people who voted for the new taxes and regulations etc. deserve to suffer from the economic hardships.

If one believes America's moral fiber is decrepit, and Americans continue voting for immoral policies on both left and right, then to what extent this is true Americans deserve to suffer the consequences.

I of course believe that Americans are good people, that America is overall good and that overall the American people are good, decent, and patriotic, and that despite their differences both Liberal, Conservative, and libertarian voters and politicians are decent people who love their country. THey all have moral flaws (thus allowing for nonsense like the Patriot Act  or, say, Chicago PD black sites to exist), but overall I believe America is decent and good.

This is why I don't believe the American Republic will collapse. I believe in America. All my predictions on this forum and elsewhere are based on my belief in:

1. Humanity.
2. America.
3. Freedom.

America will not collapse, the Republic will continue, the people predicting doom and gloom will be wrong again. People who bet against America are always wrong.

[TommyGunn]

Microbalog ....I wish I could believe that.
With the debt at 18 trillion and growing, and nothing being done about it, and more and more entitlements being given out, I don't see how America (as we know it) continues ad infinititum.
It can't.  It just can't.  Pretty platitudes notwithstanding, it can't.

[Hutch]

America may well, likely will, survive.  Just not in a form we're likely to recognize, much less approve of.  We survived the War between the States.  Japan survived utter destruction.  Germany survived utter ruin and partition.  We will survive.  Some of us, anyway.

[Perd Hapley]

We will survive.  Some of us, anyway.

The country boys?

[makattak]

The US government is one where most of society shares moral responsibility for its acts of immorality.

If one argues, say, that the prison-industrial complex, and things like marijuana prohibition, are morally wrong, then the people who vote for the politicians and judges and sheriffs who make and enforce the laws are morally responsible. Therefore these people deserve to suffer from a degree of economic hardship that is partly the result of this immoral system they voted for.

If one argues, say, that the government's wealth-transfer schemes are a form of theft from the productive to the unproductive, and are morally wrong, then the people who voted for the new taxes and regulations etc. deserve to suffer from the economic hardships.

If one believes America's moral fiber is decrepit, and Americans continue voting for immoral policies on both left and right, then to what extent this is true Americans deserve to suffer the consequences.

I of course believe that Americans are good people, that America is overall good and that overall the American people are good, decent, and patriotic, and that despite their differences both Liberal, Conservative, and libertarian voters and politicians are decent people who love their country. THey all have moral flaws (thus allowing for nonsense like the Patriot Act  or, say, Chicago PD black sites to exist), but overall I believe America is decent and good.

This is why I don't believe the American Republic will collapse. I believe in America. All my predictions on this forum and elsewhere are based on my belief in:

1. Humanity.
2. America.
3. Freedom.

America will not collapse, the Republic will continue, the people predicting doom and gloom will be wrong again. People who bet against America are always wrong.

I believe in the ideals that lead to the American founding. (Which makes saying freedom redundant.)

I have no faith in Humanity, though. History provides more than enough evidence that humanity is ultimately selfish and short-sighted. People will happily vote for a despot.

I expect there will have to be the equivalent of a Monastery on a mountain to preserve the records of civilization for some time once we are plunged into the next dark age.

I hope it's not 1000 years before we get running water again, though.

[Hutch]

The country boys?

They'll likely be over represented, but "time and chance happeneth to them all".