the empire is going to hell in a handbasket and most can see it happening. here be some ruminations on that by its creator;

The title of this piece is a question I always hear (and ask). What the fuck is happening to this country?

From listeners, neighbors, friends, family, and even those whom I despise on the opposite end of the political spectrum, it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that this country is a complete mess. The natural follow-up question is, how did we get here?

It’s not hard to answer.

It simply took 248 years for our government to bloat itself to what we are witnessing today. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.

Our founders understood this, and Benjamin Franklin wondered aloud when Elizabeth Willing Powell asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin famously responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” They knew what we are experiencing today was inevitable. That government naturally evolves to seek unbridled growth and total power over the people. What no one knew was how long it would take to lose it, and here we are today, in our lifetimes, living through what may very well be the end of our constitutional form of Republic unless we decide to “keep it” and “keeping it” my friends, is not a foregone conclusion.

To understand this requires a glance back to the work of Lord Alexander Tytler, a Scottish historian who lived between 1747 and 1813. Tytler wrote what has been referred to over the centuries as the “Tytler Cycle,” outlining the eight stages of a democracy or a democratic republic such as ours. His words were prophetic indeed. He believed that every society began in bondage and progressed through the stages below:...........more........