It’s Uncle Sam, he’s fallen and can’t get up!

[zeemike]

That is my metaphor for where we are now.
Uncle Sam has gotten old, and with age comes infirmity, and if you fall you may not be able to get up by yourself.
Our government, and it’s institutions have gotten old and are infirm and they have fallen and we need to help it up.

Now the question…how do we help it up?

I have my own ideas and I have expressed them from time to time, but I would like to hear what you think we can do to return this nation to a standing position?
Or would you let it die and get a younger one?

[DonCoquixote]

1. Letting Sam die

As the people in the Former Soviet Union might say, it might not be all that good to trade in old nations for new. Some there have made out better, whereas some have come out worse for wear. I myself feel that there is enough of a foundation left to build on; whereas to start from scratch, we might end up with something like the Confederate states of a America, NOT something I want to see.

[Deja Q]

2. The UK empire fell in the 1800s... they're still doing good.

Better than the US in some ways too... at least until they start to parallel what we do, which wouldn't be good - their media has already decayed to that level, with popular TV producers openly being ageist as well...

Dunno what to say.

I don't want to see Sam die, and its repercussions will affect the entire world. I know some hate the US, which may or may not include some developing countries (I don't know so I'm not being conclusive), but things could be a lot worse. Let's work, ethically, to make things better for everyone.

Maybe small businesses in America are the future. I'm hip to that. Who isn't?

[zeemike]

4. It is actually one of my answers.

put in a simpler form...with me it is more like every man siting under his own tree...agrairian reform.

[zeemike]

3. Yep I agree, the foundation is sound.

And I think the Constitution and declaration of Independence shows that well.

[izquierdista]

5. Reinventing

America hasn't had to be reinvented. Italy on the other hand, has been reinvented numerous times. There was the pre-Roman Etruscan civilization, the Romans, the city states of Venice and Genoa, the Papal states, the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, Garibaldi's unification, the Fascist era, and they are still reinventing themselves as times change. The same thing with France and the monarchy and then revolution and then Napoleon and then the republics. The United States has had a fortunate run for over 200 years, but the Repubs tried their best to ruin it, shipping all the industry to lower wage countries and playing casino games with the money. Despite Obama's efforts, they may still succeed in tearing it apart, to the point that the whole mess has to be reorganized on the Italian model.

One thing they have done is to keep the better aspects of the old, while trying to put together something that works. The system of law can still be traced back to the Romans, and the trains run mostly on time, without the brutality of Mussolini. Americans are full of themselves if they think their government and institutions can last forever. It's already apparent that elections by the calendar are not as responsive as elections whenever there is a vote of "no confidence".

I'm afraid though, that the situation will have to get far worse before the call comes for a second Constitutional convention to reorganize the nation. Big changes in governments occurred in 1918 and 1945, along with a lot of refugees and starvation, and so far, most Americans are still pretty well fed and only a fraction have been foreclosed out of their homes.

[zeemike]

6. I also think that revival is possible.

Because the founding principles are sound and will work.
But a second constitutional convention would not have to reject these principles, just uphold them.