Things to ponder:

Way back in 1787 a Scottish history professor, Alexander Tyler wrote this about the fall of the Athenian Republic, the first real democracy in human history....
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government"
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury"
"From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who will promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years"
"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"
That was 221 years ago, so we're already 21 years past the average. How much time left do we really have as a free people? Perhaps as someone just said maybe it's "time to cling to our guns and religion!"