He foresaw the recent national trouble and says we're closer to the brink now

[misanthrope]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/he-saw-americas-crackup-coming-in-2011he-says-its-worse-now

If you've read Colin Woodard's insightful 2011 book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Regional Cultures in North America," then you're likely aware of a prescient passage in the later pages.

"Another outside possibility is that, faced with a major crisis, the federation’s leaders will betray their oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, the primary adhesive holding the union together. In the midst of, say, a deadly pandemic outbreak or the destruction of several cities by terrorists, a fearful public might condone the suspension of civil rights, the dissolution of Congress, or the incarceration of Supreme Court justices," he wrote.

For this year's tenth anniversary, Woodard has penned a new afterword addressing the alarming decade that has just passed.

“I knew the country was brittle and if we kept going down the road we're on that there would be trouble ahead, but it's the speed at which it’s happened, right?” Woodard said.

An award-winning author who put countless hours of research into the work and its two sequels, he is concerned for the fate of our nation.

More at the link.

[Mr. Evil]

1. What do we expect

when we allow several media outlets, most notably, Focksnooze, to promulgate lies as actual news?
What do we expect when we allow an insurrection upon our Capital with only slaps on the wrists as punishment?
What do we expect when we allow billionaires to take everything, including our government, for themselves?
What do we expect when a significant portion of our representatives are lying lunatics and only self-serving?
What do we expect when an ever increasing amount of people believe Q-Anon is real?
What do we expect when people choose damn near anything over taking a vaccine during a deadly pandemic?
What do we expect when we allow tax-free churches to become political lobbying organizations?
What do we expect when no one from the previous administration, including TFG, been held accountable for anything?

And our AG seems to be asleep at the wheel. I don't want to be told that they're just working quietly and to have faith in the process. Investigations usually come with progress reports. Because the republicans are passing laws state by state that will allow them to basically have the results they want in future elections. Especially a very important one just over one year from now. We'd better see some god damn action and results or we'll see democratic apathy like we've never seen before.

We are on the precipice. The Biden Administration cannot wait any longer!

[Eyeball_Kid]

8. As of January 15 of this year,

We were informed that the insurrection was being investigated by three or four government bodies, including the DOJ Inspector General. Since then, it appears that all of them have taken an extended coffee break. And unless I just can't read the tea leaves and I'm as stupid as a glass of water, there's been NOTHING that can convince anyone that investigative work is actually in progress.

If I may indulge is a bit of not-so-wild speculation, it looks to me as if the DOJ and the entire federal apparatus is clogged and saturated with Trumpers who are foot-dragging and trashing every possible investigation that is or might be going on, because they know that exposure will, by simple legal logic, implicate a third of the GOP in Congress and many more in the Executive Branch. Full exposure will necessitate the resignations of a few HUNDRED GOPers in Congress by federal statute (18 U.S. Code § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection) and destroy the Republican Party and all of the Trump movement.

So, come on, Merrick Garland, prove me wrong.

(Hah!)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Seems thought provoking though flawed book. I share the authors concerns

(I'm writing on the basis of the excerpt? in the OP and the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Nations )

[Hortensis]

3. Interesting. Thanks, Misanthrope.

Makes me want to find his book and scan it again too with today in mind. I know it should be here somewhere...

[Kaleva]

4. Climate change is going to shake the foundations of all nations

Some will surely collapse. Others may survive.

[Irish_Dem]

5. When countries collapse, they are easy pickings for authoritarian regimes.

[joetheman]

6. Ahhhh the incarceration of Supreme Court justices.

I have my wish list.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick

Woodard still hopes “the generational shift is the most powerful of all.” Though regional differences exist, culture remains “humanity’s chief tool of adaptation” and marked shifts in generational attitudes—Silent Generation to Boomer, Gen X to Millennials and Gen Z—are notable in the last century. Regional biases remain, but their depth and number vary. Woodard cited polling of youth skewed against ethnonationalism and toward a more inclusive society, and just crosses his fingers that they can ward off cynicism stirred by the United States’ shortfall of its aspirational ideals.

“There’s a window through which the republic can be overthrown. You have to cease to have fair and democratic elections before it closes, before that generation takes over, or the authoritarians are done for,” Woodard said.

Which isn’t to say the author surrendered wariness. He’s scrutinized and relayed too much perilous history for it.

“Jan. 6 was essentially a coup to overthrow a free election and the constitutional order of the country and it's not over yet. We're still in crisis,” Woodard said. “I think we’re going to make it, but we need to get our act together.”