America is fading, and the ruling class lacks the courage to stop it.

Courage was more abundant in 1776 when a pompous monarch was confiscating the people's wealth in order to live like a pompous monarch.  The people revolted.  Today, hundreds of arrogant elitists in three branches of government use our wealth to implement ruling class visions.  In the process, we are losing our prosperity and our freedom.  It is time for another revolution.

In the beginning, English colonists rebelled against the wealth-grabbing tactics of a king.  Today, nearly half of Americans approve of a president who promises to grab wealth from people who have "made enough money."

King Barack and gangs of ruling-class elites steal our freedoms and debase our morality.  Orders, laws, rulings, and regulations force us to secure medical insurance and tolerate infanticide, tell us what type of light bulbs and electricity we may use, what cars to drive, how much salt, fat, and sugar we may consume, what our children must learn in school, and how much investment risk we are allowed to take.

In view of such overbearing government control, it's understandable that less than a fifth of Americans think that the country is on the right track.  Yet nearly half of us approve of our king.  Barack Obama -- the American president whose budgets will grow a national debt that leaves previous record-holder George W. Bush's mark "in the dust."

The debt now approaches $15 trillion and increases by $100,000 every three to four seconds.  Brushing this nasty reality aside, Obama speaks of taking yet more money from people to expand the already obscene nanny state.  Some members of Congress call for spending less and living within our means.  But as witness to the sad state of the once-libertarian American spirit, a dismaying number of people are standing with Obama and against economic freedom.

Two-thirds of us want Congress to reduce the growth in spending but continue to borrow.  Two-thirds want heavier taxes on the wealthy.  Nearly half support raising Congress's credit card limit.  Indeed, many Americans seem to condone the fiscal carelessness that sucks the life out of the economy and drives taxpayers menacingly deeper into debt.  The misguided mindset is no surprise.  The majority of Americans alive today understand little about capitalism, having lived under so much socialism.

It is especially telling about our national psyche that, of all parties involved in addressing the debt crisis, Americans seem happiest with socialist democrats in Congress and the White House who push freedom-robbing taxation and reject libertarian spending reductions.  Fools wandering around old Washington buildings reciting, "Problem?  What problem?" are seen as adults, while straight-talking purveyors of ugly truths are considered childish extremists.  Such is the gaudy morality play presented to the people by pathological liars in the media.  Such is the distorted view held by a populace conditioned by decades of a falsehood-fueled nanny state.

American statism will take a long time to tear down.  When our nation was born, the people cast off the control of an aristocratic, iron-rule monarchy and insisted on fending for themselves.  But now many of us watch passively, others pay no attention, and some salute, as modern-day aristocrats impoverish the future to create a plusher life today.  Government intervention has become the deeply entrenched norm.

And intervention is not just a progressive habit.

Many Americans object to gargantuan spending on the pointless war on poverty and yet insist on funding the monumentally pointless war on drugs.  Some of us think that government should not promote minority homeownership but should increase legal restrictions on marriage.  Many criticize the religious-like agenda of multiculturalism, yet call for "creation science" in public schools.  We want no green corporatism but defend federal favors for black gold and farmers.  We condemn the trillions spent on entitlements that benefit Americans but demand trillions for military interventions that kill Americans in the hope of benefiting non-Americans.

Here is the truth.  Staunch progressives and staunch conservatives want government to force ideological agendas against the wishes and economic interests of anyone opposed to those agendas.  Demagogues across the sociopolitical spectrum routinely insist that government enforce cherished worldviews.

Thusly we are losing our liberty, our prosperity, and our country.

We are suffering a societal death spiral steepened by venomous ideological warfare.  It is true that far more venom leaves the lips and fingertips of dogmatists on the left than on the right.  But as for the biggest problem threatening America today, neither "liberal" Democrats nor "conservative" Republicans offer serious solutions.

Neither pack of professional politicians is sincere about reducing spending or debt.  Arguments on left and right continue to go in one ear and out the other.  Both sides cling doggedly to their damned ideological agendas.  And Americans have grown sick of the cesspool government created by all the doggedness, gamesmanship, and dishonesty.  We are stupendously disgusted at coming out on the losing end of immoral deals struck by immoral lawmakers to solve problems which those lawmakers created in the first place. 

Starting over is starting to look like our best option.

A writer, physicist, former high tech executive, and Cajun, Chuck Rogér invites you to sign up to receive his "Clear Thinking" blog posts by email at www.chuckroger.com.  Contact Chuck at swampcactus@chuckroger.com.