I was having a conversation with a group of teenagers last weekend about the Howard Dean statement that the US wouldn't militarily be the world superpower forever, which lead to ruminating about how the US will finally lose it's grip.

The kids found it nigh on impossible to imagine how this could happen. I brought up the break up of the Soviet Union, and Russia's descent into the current era of organized crime, etc.

Personally, I think the break up of the US will also come from within, as it did in the Soviet Union. But I see the changes coming from far beyond the Beltway, which is where the majority of US national power resides, of course.

We had a very interesting conversation. Among the questions we pondered were: are we that far off from the time when there would be regional secessions from the national government, based on ethnic, cultural and ideological differences with the national government, resulting in regions wresting economic power from the national government? Is regional secession, for which there is historic precedence--the Civil War--the most likely scenario for the US breaking apart?

There are such profound social, cultural, ethnic, and ideological differences between regions (ie Northeast, Deep South/New South, Midwest, Old West, etc.) that are becoming more pronounced, not less. The Anglo Protestant power base has tried it's mighty best to maintain it's historic grip on the country. The right wing especially tries to keep up the make of a homogenized US, presenting a facade of 'True Americans' as lily white as homogenized milk. The mainstream media helps them make the case for the 'American' nationalist identity (it has never really been about one's political party affiliation). But it really isn't working.

So how long until the socio-political earthquake hits that destroys the US government, causing it to collapse, or at least attempt to transform itself as a greatly reduced national government? How do others think the eventual demise of the United States of America will unfold? Is Howard Dean right? Is this the zenith of the US military, because we will no longer be able to afford the financial drain of militarism on our economic well being?

Bush's current economic policy just boggles the mind. He is running up record deficits to pay for another surge of militarism, which now takes up half the entire US budget, cutting taxes at the same time. So, does he figure the US government will just still the defense contractors, or what? Is this the folly, along with the current run on slashing taxes to justify the axing of government services, that people will finally rebel against because it is happening in their front yards, instead of someone else's back yard?

As the current new crop of Republican governors in places like Massachusetts and Minnesota, traditional strongholds of liberalism, destroy the social fabric of those states by making draconian cuts in government services, are they the most likely places where resistance to the bankrupting of the American economy and destruction of American quality of life, will first be seen? Or will it be from a place like California, which has already seen it's share of woes with debacles like the Texas Republicrat invented energy crisis, which looted the coffers of the California treasury, and got away with it?