I think voter apathy and blissful ignorance have destroyed America's chance to be great all the time. Sure, we come together when problems are overwhelming for the majority and solutions are clear cut, but the boring day to day stuff that keeps an economy and a nation growing together are not exciting enough to warrant interest.

If it was put to a vote right now, we would have a balanced budget amendment because the ruling class has hammered home the concept of such being desirable. Never mind that actually stamping such lunacy into the stone of our Constitution would destroy the global economy long before it could ever be undone.

The average voter has no realistic view of anything involving his/her own government, but every one of them has an opinion about everything. At least 90% of those opinions are wrong, factually. We might just have to face that we, collectively, are not smart enough yet to choose the direction of such a powerful force in the world. Or, that reality will be forced upon us, and the rest of the world, very shortly as fascism loves a vacuum of power.