We are getting old.

[David Horn]

(09-28-2016, 12:21 AM)Galen Wrote: The tone may change but the US is functionally bankrupt now and that will force a retrenchment of the size of government.  That will tend to force a decentralization which has already happened with legalization of pot and other matters which was unthinkable even in the seventies.  This suggests the pre 1865 view of the Federal Government is reasserting itself.  Given other technologies that are in their infancy, it seems likely that the nation state is facing a long term secular decline. Rebellion will depend on if the political class gives in to reality.  Recent history does not make me optimistic.

I don't think it's wise to bank on a return to an era that has virtually nothing in common with the present.  We are seeing a worldwide move to disintegrate political unions of all types, EU, UK ... even the Czechs and Slovaks went their separate ways.  Something of that ilk may occur in the US, but it won't lead to a nation-of-states, like the earlier vision of the US.  It's more likely that a schism occurs, followed by the creation of two or three entities with more not less internal integration.  Even that is unlikely, but a lot more reasonable than a union that consists of a herd of cats.