What will history say about America?

"It'll work... unless the people of the future stop reading it..."

Imagine what America's legacy will look like in a history book some 500 years hence.

Here was a nation, it might say, that was begun in defiance, dissent, and idealism. Divorced from Europe by the expanse of ocean, American colonists were forced into self-reliance and independent thought. Progressives sprouted, and dared to challenge centuries of tradition. They looked at the chess game of European monarchies, and they looked at their own colonial past of intolerant theocracies, and they rejcted both. Humanism, rationality, and liberty were born in those early taverns and tea rooms.

Such was the courageous optimism of the Yanks. Such too was hope, pride, and a new national identity set down in a framework for each incoming president -- not king or church -- to "preserve, protect, and defend."

And so did it continue, into an era of American global dominance, when these ideals inspired the world and established the United States as a moral leader, an economic leader, and a cultural powerhouse. It's easy to downplay or dismiss that today, but it was very real for a long time.

Then our future history book would come to the late 20th and early 21st centuries:

The United States battled the three-headed monster of fascist imperialism. Adding their strength to an alliance of freedom-fighters, they took on the incredible Nazi war machine and the naval supremacy of the Japanese, and emerged victorious. But when faced with cave-dwelling terrorists in the 21st century, they became a shrieking chorus willing to trade their Constitution, their freedoms, and their souls in exchange for a Nanny State Fatherland.

The average American never read the Constitution, so was willing to believe whatever pundits said it said.

The Founding Fathers called the Constitution the "supreme law of the land" which officials had the duty to "preserve, protect, and defend." The 43rd President George W. Bush called it "just a piece of paper."

Liberals attacked conservatives. Conservatives attacked liberals. This passed for lucid and cogent debate.

6 million Americans had car accidents every year; 560,000 Americans died from cancer every year (1,500 a day, roughly 1 in every 4 American deaths); there was 1 death every 27 seconds from heart disease; 500,000 died from tobacco every year; 100,000 died from alcohol every year; 16,000 died from illegal narcotics every year; 11,000 died from handguns every year. But what were 21st Americans concerned with? Terrorists... who killed around 4,000 Americans from 2001 to 2008.

Poverty, health care, unemployment, education, environmental issues, and scientific advancement were not nearly as important as the issue of gay marriage. Or violence in video games.

An entire political movement proved successful in trading due process for illegal surveillance; habeas corpus  dismissed in favor of limitless incarcerations and government-sanctioned torture; wars fought for liberty now fought for profit; the leadership role in a global village shredded to accomodate a new zeitgeist of international disregard; and the two lowest human emotions -- hate and fear -- became the new currency.

The bottom line became more important than a higher standard.

Many of the people who were quick to screech about "religious freedom" were unwilling to grant other religions that freedom. And somehow the words of a Jewish carpenter who spoke of peace were used to justify slaughter.


Nearly half of the country believed that mankind had been sculpted out of clay. What about women? They came from his spare rib! Presidential candidates could with a straight face deny evolution, and politicians saw how effective proselytizing could be among the same constituency who liked to think of Jesus as a bomb-dropping genocide advocate.

The price of oil went up more then 300% in just 7 years of the Bush Jr. Administration. In 2008, many Americans were forced to choose between the price of gas and the price of food.

"Mission Accomplished in Iraq?" It was a nice photo op, but since that declaration, more than 4,000 American soldiers died, more than 700,000 Iraqi civilians who had nothing to do with 9-11 were killed, and the mastermind behind the 9-11 attackers was uncaught and unpunished.

With world favor and near-unified domestic support on their side, America rightly attacked Afghanistan which had in fact trained, housed, and supported the 9-11 hijackers. Then, seeing an opportunity to deepen the pockets of the military-industrial complex which Eisenhower specifically warned the American people about, they decided to create a permanent war economy.

A permanent war economy took the place of ordinary economic output.

"War is peace!" said George Orwell in irony.

"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace," said George W. Bush in 2002, without a shred of irony.

Many of the loudest "endless war" supporters were people who had never served in a war - George W. Bush, Dick Cheney (applied for and received five draft deferments during Vietnam), Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh.

The American people allowed themselves to become partisan sock-puppets. Instead of discussion and compromise, they took the easy road and parroted their partisan masters. Some even happily called themselves Dittoheads!

Part of the wickedness of Communist countries was how one party dominated the political scene. How was America different? It offered two!

Economic stimulus packages? Many would have preferred bread and circuses.

$10 billion a month spent on the Iraq War... instead of spending such funding on medical research, education, job-creation, or social security.

Ranks in Al-Qaida tripled since the Iraq invasion, the Taliban regrouped, and Bush's declaration that Osama would be taken "dead or alive" faded from public memory.

Americans forgot who had the power in their country - themselves.

And they forgot something else... that essential little sentence from the Declaration of Independence: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Then America elected a new president.

What will this next chapter say?