Tuesday, our country split apart along the dangerous fault lines of class, race, gender, age and faith, and we can already glimpse the consequences.  Tipping points and inflections can be seen: here are two personal observations from Wednesday.

First for some context from sfgate.com:

Prop. 30 [which easily passed in California last night] will raise the sales tax by one penny for every $4 spent for four years, while increasing the income tax on the state's highest earners [over $250,000] for seven years. It would generate about $6 billion per year in new revenue. The sales tax hike will go into effect Jan. 1, while the personal income tax increase is retroactive to the beginning of this year.

At the gym, a no-nonsense businesswoman's first words were quite telling.  "Darn it, Prop 30 passed, and now I have to cancel my bathroom remodel." Shannon told me she called her contractor early Wednesday morning and canceled a total of 177 hours of labor and over $5,000 worth of hardware and bathroom fixtures from a local big-box hardware store. There was a re-stocking charge but it was just a fraction of the cost of the remodel.

As taxes are raised, taxpayers make more careful decisions on how to spend their remaining disposable income.  Politicians from both parties never seem to understand the common sense consequences of governmental regulations and flawed taxation policy.

At the local caffeine dealer, a well-dressed black woman had ordered 8 different coffees to go. The baristas were doing their best, but it was tedious process to make, label and stack that much coffee. The woman was obviously in a hurry and loudly snapped at the white staff, "Just because we won last night, is no excuse for lousy service." The entire cafe was pin- drop quiet for a couple of seconds. She finally gathered up all her drinks and with both arms full of coffee plus a big purse, she headed out.  No one moved to open the front door for her, staff or customers.

Thanks to overt and nasty racism of the Obama campaign, which carefully sowed the seeds of a Marxist-style social warfare, America's natural inclination to work together has been deliberately and effectively poisoned. More than the sick economy, the dissolving of our social bonds fatally weakens our national will to defend and protect what is uniquely American. The Roman Empire and countless Chinese dynasties know how well that worked out.