Is this the other shoe dropping (vis a vis Berlin 91)

[Taverner]

Back in 1991, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, many thought we had 'won' the Cold War. At the time I was suspicious - not of the Soviets, but that we were next to fall.

After all, we were as insanely driven by Capitalism as the Soviets were with Marxist-Leninism. We were spending just as much as they were on military might, and they stopped for a while but we continued.

So is this current financial crisis the other shoe dropping, the end of two out of control empires.

Was it just a matter of time?

[The Magistrate]

1. An Interesting Thought, Sir: There May Be Something To That

[xchrom]

2. interesting. nt

[nichomachus]

3. In case you haven't been paying attention

the US became the USSR. Everything we hated about the USSR -- except for official atheism -- is now being practiced by the US. Everything that dragged the USSR down is dragging down the US.

We are the Soviet Union.

[cabluedem]

5. Indeed so. We have checkpoints, no knock police breakins and prisons full of "state criminals"'.

[ProgressiveFool]

4. I'm afraid no one can give you an answer (yet), but it is a good question

The upheavals of 1989 that culminated in the fall of communism were an obvious end of something at the time, I thought, even if it took a while to play out. This might take longer, and could go in a number of different directions.

At this point I see us going into another depression, but that, too will have an end. The government of the United States, as laid out by the Constitution, will continue, unlike the collapse of the communist governments. I like to think that we'll go back to following the Constitution more, though, than we have been lately.