Is America really slouching towards another CIVIL WAR?

Civil war in America, really? Yes, it could happen. The United States, once the most prosperous and advanced civilization in the world, is slouching towards civil war and yes, it could happen.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Think about the little things you can no longer do without. Imagine your cell phone and how awkward you feel when you leave it behind. You make it through the day, of course, because you know you can retrieve it when you get home. Now imagine that you can no longer have a cell phone, because you cannot afford it.

It gets worse. Imagine you cannot get medical care for yourself or your child because it is too expensive, or your Obamacare plan, bloated with years of government bureaucracy and inefficiency cannot help you.

Imagine that the welfare benefits you have come to depend on because the "job creators" created millions of part-time, low wage "Mc Jobs," get cut back further or stop altogether? What happens when the government-subsidized bread and circuses go away?

This is a thought that bears entertaining because if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that the pace of government growth and spending is unsustainable. Eventually, we will hit a fiscal cliff, a real one, and what happens on that day? What happens when the government credit card gets cut into pieces because we're past due on the bill?

Suddenly, the desperation you once felt by simply losing your cell phone for a few hours becomes desperation you feel all day because you cannot pay your rent, buy food or medicine, or scratch out a living at your dead-end job.

At that point, it's moot whose fault this society is. We can blame laziness, fed by an age of easy government benefits and mandatory payments. We can blame irresponsibility, fed by a world so safe and sue-happy that people are free to act as they will without consequence because they can sue for millions if they break a bone or their feelings get hurt.

Americans are used to the safety net, and relatively speaking, it has become comfortable.

This is not to suggest that welfare recipients and others in the net lack motivation, or that their lives are filled with leisure and largesse. However, we have created an entire social strata that depends on these benefits for daily survival. Self-sufficiency is rapidly being phased out as government gets bigger.

Do not think the uber-wealthy can look down their noses at the bottom strata either. Many of the wealthiest "one-percenters," our great "job creators," happen to be among the biggest welfare recipients of all time. Government contracts, tax-breaks, corporate bailouts, and handouts have fueled the rise of a new bourgeoisie, from whence bursts newly-minted millionaires. These supposedly self-made fortunes are often connected to government money in some way, and these people are equally reliant on the out-of-control government spending in Washington.

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As a finishing touch, note the increasing disenfranchisement of all American citizens, as corporations spend millions to buy influence and votes in Washington as though they were purchasing a raw material on the market. In the face of millions of dollars of corporate campaign spending, the voice of the individual is utterly marginalized. Unless you agree with the corporation, you have no more representation.

From ancient Rome to modern societies, history tells us that when governments reach the end of their credit, both the poor and the wealthy pay. The rich lose their fortunes, and the poor often their lives. The French Revolution of 1789, long regarded by historians as the quintessential revolution, shows what happens when the government runs out of money and the people starve, unable to feed themselves.

In the French revolution, a conservative Catholic monarch, friendly to the First and Second Estates (nobility and clergy) was overthrown by the massive Third Estate (poor and middle-class) and replaced by increasingly radical and liberal governments eventually giving way to an authoritarian state.

In the meanwhile, millions of poor were killed, hundreds of the wealthy were beheaded, the Church was stripped of her lands, and wars were started.

France became a liberal, secular state, which today is beginning to reap the costs associated with such runaway policies that include a punishing tax rate for the wealthy, among other things.

Yet, this is our future if we do not address the dysfunction in our own government.

Consider that:

-Our government spends beyond its means

-Does not represent the interests of the shrinking middle-class

-Gives massive welfare to both the poor and the rich, fostering dependency for both

-Continues to strip away by turns the fundamental rights of the citizenry enshrined in the Bill of Rights

-We have lost competitiveness in education, healthcare, life expectancy, many economic sectors, and more (no America isn't number one anymore)

-We are becoming a welfare-dependent service society addicted to imports, producing nothing

What happens when enough is enough? When the rest of the world no longer requires our services and we have forgotten how to sustain ourselves?

The most recent antics in government over the "fiscal cliff" and debt ceiling are only single lines in the drama that is our future. Yet, they scream of the inevitability of conflict. Someday, we will lose our credit, default on our debts, and the gravy train will stop. What happens when the Obamaphones and Obamacare shuts down, and the EBT cards don't replenish?

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On the other side of the tracks, what happens when the days of the $1,000 toilet seat end, the big lucrative contracts disappear, and politicians run away from Washington, not towards it.

The video above shows what happens in Spain when the government tries to reverse course late in the scenario. We'd be foolish to think it cannot happen here.

If you think the notion of civil war is ridiculous, you need to look again at the path we're on. It's the status quo that's ridiculous, not the inevitable result.

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