"What would it take to panic Americans into abandoning their Constitution?"
But it's already been abandoned, and long ago. If we followed the Constitution, we wouldn't have Social Security, not to mention Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, etc.
I, for one, believe that most Americans are solidly against what has happened in America over the last 100 years.
But what I have seen, and I have been watching closely, is that monetary manipulation and significant inflation, especially in medical costs, has brought us to a place where the average hard working middle class family can no longer survive without government handouts. What do you think the Obamacare subsidies are all about?
So now the vast majority of Americans are dependent on government.

Good article WDonway. I agree with your premise that "It's Earlier than You Think" for a political solution or transition to a free market. We might make gains in slowing them down, but we won't stop them politically. Too many Americans agree with the path we've been on since Kennedy. As we saw with Bush 1 and 2, (and now maybe 3), we're not going to get an Ike or Reagan, but even those were just bumps in the road to the progressive agenda. We're also far enough down the road from Hitler and fear of Russia that's going to take over the world. Now (IMHO) we're really into more of an Oligarchy of hidden and quiet men that are hard to identify and there's been too many conspiracy nut stories spread over the last few years for 'normal' people to place any weight on such.

Not to stop or dissuade anyone from their efforts, but I fear that the true change will have to happen at the city and state level and particularly during and after a collapse. It's just hard to see any way to avoid.

Hello WDonway,
Thank you for that excellent article. I believe we are advancing into a kind of soft Fascism. Like others, I too believe far too many have abandoned our Constitution and many of those who have not completely abandoned it, do not recognize it for what it is (a limit on government). Many see it completely opposite of what it is. They see it as a grant of power. Education in the public sector has become indoctrination and dumbing down of generations so they might be passive serfs, at best humble supplicants, bowing before their new God (government).
On the positive side, many are feeling the sting of the lash in the form of oppression and futility under the present conditions and opening their minds to other voices. As you have stated there are those in the know that are now in positions to be heard. The name of Rand is heard more now than I have heard in decades. If we all continue to speak out and inform the youth of what they are missing and how they have been led astray... that there is an alternative, we have a chance to steer the boat back on course whether before or after disaster.
If it is after a serious calamity we must be even more vigilant as you have pointed out, since that is historically when a tyrant has the best chance of grabbing the reigns.
Are we at the point where it is "still earlier than you think"? One cannot see into the future, but one can look to the past and I believe we are at a fork in the road.
People are uneasy around the world and the doomsday clock is a reflection. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...

Which direction will we take? If we all speak out loud enough and to enough people perhaps we will take the right path.
I will continue to speak out with you as best as I can, even if my ability is not as eloquent as yours.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - Barry Goldwater

Respectfully,
O.A.

"It's Earlier Than You Think" summarizes why AS was 1100+ pages long. Just when you think that their tiresome tricks can no longer work, the looters find yet another way to prolong their game. Leeches are less parasitic.

"The greatest instrument of government ever created, the U. S. Constitution, still stands between us and any tyranny. What would it take to panic Americans into abandoning their Constitution? Do new generations feel, as mine did, that the whole “game” must be played out within Constitutional limits?
I cannot answer the questions I have raised. Perhaps you can.

I'll try.

This article (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-r...) on Immanuel Kant says "One of the most famous lines of the first Critique occurs in the second edition's Preface, where Kant says, “I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith” (Bxxx)." This clearly places him in the school of philosophy that believes that emotions (faith) are superior to reason (knowledge) in apprehending and grasping reality. This concept was picked up and elaborated on by John Dewey in his My Pedagogic Creed written around 1898.

He wrote in part "...I believe that the subject-matter of the school curriculum should mark a gradual differentiation out of the primitive unconscious unity of social life.
I believe that we violate the child's nature and render difficult the best ethical results, by introducing the child too abruptly to a number of special studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc., out of relation to this social life.
I believe, therefore, that the true centre of correlation of the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child's own social activities..."

And not the Constitution. His anti-reason, anti-knowledge nonsense is the driving force for the educational system including Common Core. Is it any wonder that so many young people are swept up into the Occupy movements and more interested in what Kim Kardashian wears than what an Article V convention is and why it is important? They have been taught not to think but to emote for the last 117 years.

So glad to see VERY serious answers to the questions I raised. Good work!