The biggest problem - who is going to be first to take steps to prevent this?
The three problems touched on by the article are the decline of moral values and political civility, the overconfidence and overstretching of the military, and the irresponsibility of government spending.
The whole "morals" issue is one that there is little point in arguing; we're never all going to agree on what is moral and how to make sure that society follows a set morality.
The military issue is another one we probably won't agree on. From what I've seen, we are exceptionally overconfident when it comes to our military. I've heard way, way too many people call the American military "unbeatable." Rather than being the truth, all that statement does is set us up for a really rude awakening.
And how do we fix irresponsible government spending when we can't agree on a definition of "responsible" government spending? The conservatives would call all welfare programs irresponsible, whereas the liberals would call cutting taxes for the wealthy irresponsible. I think we could all agree on what's inefficient in our government, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
There is a definite polarization in America today between liberals and conservatives that may be impossible to overcome. For a second, I was going to suggest we split the country in half between the liberals and the conservatives (thereby alleviating the tension between the two groups), but then I realized...the Romans tried that, too, and look where it got them.
