Im going to throw my 2 cents into the mix.
F Obama. May he be relegated to the dust bin of history. He was a fraud IMHO, he continued/increased foreign incursions while being given the Nobel... I mean really. Also one more word on that subject, teleprompter.
When we say the republic is finished, when was the last time this government really functioned as such? We have most of the world garrisoned, we over throw small countries at whim(or for large corporations(smedly Butler)). At best we are an (corporate?)empire.
Yes we have lost most of the qualities that had bound us together as a nation. We are many dissimilar faiths, different languages, different general world views. Do our differences really bind us? Opposites attract? Catchy sayings at best. Looking at what is left of our country, we are not all in this together. We fight each other for anything possible. Xbox or ps5, black white etc, gay straight lgbtxyzqwerty, Republican Democratic, left right, conservative progressive, etc. Mix those together and apply the different mixes to people and very few people see eye to eye. Then throw it on the nightly news and boom. Divide and conquor, frog in pot, pick your analogy.
Who do we blame? Pick one, there are so many different agendas with competing interests. Who is really benefiting?
Anyway the question is are we finished? What we started as was finished long ago. The only constant is change, we can never be what we were. What are we now? Nothing like the founders would have wished.
Where are we going? Doesn't look like anywhere good. I couldn't say where we are going to end up as there are too many variables right now. Good unifying leaders are hard to come by. We do not have statesmen any more, only corporate sponsored (insert descriptor).
>>Point being that our freedom is protected or enshrined in our government, when that fails it will fall to the individual. For this purpose our rights/freedoms were supposed to be guaranteed by gov. Are you really free to do as you like with in reason already? Try take your dog for a walk without a mask.
Just an aside, someone was talking about he civil war, it was about states rights. Lincoln wasn't really too concerned with freeing the slaves, try go reading his stump speeches.