Decline and Fall of the American Republic?

American's were concerned about nuclear annihilation and Soviet world domination and then the USSR up and disappeared. Could the American Republic face a similar path?
Please check out this post at Strike the Root: It Can Happen Here. It Might Be Happening Now.

Between the communists parachuting onto the high school in Red Dawn and the neighborhood getting vaporized in The Day After, my elementary school classmates and I were convinced the Soviets would invade and kill us all before we made it to our next summer vacation. Before we got out of middle school, Gorbachev had resigned and the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.

It can happen that fast.

Americans have become so accustomed to stability that, even as the future shouts at us with crystal clarity, we refuse to listen. Our government has assumed more debt in the past seven months than can possibly be repaid, and that is before accounting for its existing Social Security and Medicare obligations. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans can't fathom how we might be unearthed from this massive debt, and they are taking their concerns to the street. Thirty-two states have passed "sovereignty statements" in their legislatures. The governor of Texas is speaking openly of secession.

How has the media responded? Mockery, ridicule, an adolescent meme about "tea bagging."

And Washington ?

"The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties and will hold his own event today," said Dan Harris of ABC News on April 15.

One senses that the existing power structure knows something is up, but intends to go on with life in confidence that this will all sort itself out.

A piece missing from this article is the destruction of the dollar. I've heard Ron Paul mention it recently, and it's worth considering. The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury are literally destroying the U.S. dollar right now. There is still deflation because this money cannot escape the banking system, but as John Mauldin discussed in this week's newsletter, the Fed will keep printing and printing until it gets inflation. It's going to print money and give it to Obama to spend on massive deficits. Essentially, the U.S. government is printing money to pay its bills. Your wealth will be stolen through the silent inflation tax. On top of the 35-40% average tax rate Americans now pay (federal, state & local taxes), there will be an inflation tax of between 5 and 10%, if we're lucky, but possibly much higher.

The federal government will be directing more than 50% of the economy and the results will be total disaster. People will begin to lose confidence in America itself, and hyperinflation is a real concern. This is why DHS put out the report on right-wing "radicals". Right-wingers are a threat because they have an answer to the problem—-cut the size of government. Anyone who works at DHS or any other federal agency, or wants to use government to further their personal agenda or bank account, is threatened by people who have an answer for the disaster they may be about to unleash.

I don't think the above is likely. I don't think we will have hyperinflation. I think things will be worse than the 1970s, but the country will pull out of it. Nonetheless, if things do go badly, then the above scenario is not unrealistic.