It might be politics all the way down, but it's economics all the way up. Like the head versus the gut.

The problem with the United States is that it's built on economic prosperity and progress, without a great deal of core culture to get it through really tough times. (Hollywood!)

The vaunted military industrial complex is simply a consequence of World War 2 having been the public works project that brought us out of the Great Depression.

Now we have kept that prosperity going for the last generation on compounding debt, that has gone truly parabolic in the last few years.

Eventually, likely before the end of the decade, it will blow up the dollar as the world's reserve currency and not only will printing lots more not solve the problems anymore, but all those dollars overseas will start coming home.

Then the various states will have to find ways to start issuing their own currencies, in order to keep their local economies functioning. Then the cracks and earthquakes in the federal system will keep spreading.