Is America headed up or down?  Is our discontent with our leaders because we see them working in their own interest, not in ours or just because we are deplorables?  Is our distrust in the FBI, the IRS, the Veterans Admin., the USPS, and Amtrak because of rampant bureaucratic & political corruption or just because we are paranoid?  Does our gloom and pessimism obscure all the wonderful indicators of progress—teachers now getting paid well, even the poor have smartphones and air-conditioning, inequality going down, life-expectancy up, and increasing numbers of young people choosing selfless careers in government.  The great Roman Empire is now nothing but ruins. Why America is not similarly headed to inevitable oblivion.  Don’t forget the cobra eggs.

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