Is America Doomed?

 If Aristotle is right, every form of government goes through patterns. If Nietzsche is right, then every good thing contains its evil twin. Benjamin Franklin's statement that we have a republic if we can keep it seems to me as incorporating Aristotle's and Nietzsche's ideas. 

The United States Constitution was designed to keep the people as free from abuses of power as possible. 

When I was younger, conservatives worried about social benefits like Social Security and national healthcare as our version of bread and circuses that would undermine our Republic as surely as they had the Roman Republic. 

What we got was a political party trained to be sheep bleating their virtues while marching ever forward into autocracy, fascism, despotism to the tune of white Christian nationalism, and a hatred of Americans who did not share their musical tastes. 

 Considering whether America is irretrievable broken: 5 Reasons Why America Can't Be Saved and The Federations : It’s the Same Picture:

I think both videos above make very good points, make some very serious observations needing our attention, while missing out on what I think is an important point about American governance: the states. It is the United States of America, after all.

I seem to recall The Federalist says something about the states producing federal officeholders. That the states would produce the virtuous types needed for a republican government. It seems to me, the states would exist if the federal government were to dissolve itself today.

Our attention has been on the federal government from the New Deal onwards, certainly since the Warren Court moved to apply the federal Bill of Rights to the states. The states had become corrupt, they refused to protect the civil rights of its citizens. 

The states also had found it easier to slough off controversy to the federal government. By doing so, they did not need to raise taxes to provide better services to its citizens. Nor did they need to annoy local interests by doing the same for environmental protection and upholding rights protected by their own state Bills of Rights.

The states could reform themselves. Taking Indiana as an example, it could make itself more democratic. We could upset the oligarchy that has existed in Indianapolis since I was young. This would take a lot of nerve from the Indiana Democrats, who have benefitted from safe seats. They are seeing the effect of that acquiescence: they are being shown the entrance to the slaughterhouse. Overcoming their collaboration with Indiana Republicans has to mean rejecting their partnership in oligarchy, trusting to actual democracy. However, I think this would make Indiana a doormat in federal elections. We might even return to sending quality representatives to Washington, DC. 

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