Author’s note: This book was written prior to the Trump presidency. Much has changed since then that I hope to address in another book. However, this book explains how we reached the point where Donald Trump would be elected president. Donald Trump did not pop out of thin air, and the country reached the point of electing him after following a decades-long path that caused millions of Americans to look for someone outside of the political mainstream. When I first published this book, I feared for the future of America, but hoped that I might be wrong. Events since 2016 and the published works of Ray Dalio have convinced me otherwise. I can be dismissed, but Dalio can't. I truly fear for the future of this country that I once took an oath to defend and protect as a Naval officer. It may still be possible to avert disaster, but it will require sacrifices. Book summary: If you have a strong personal identity with one or the other major political party, this may not be the book for you. Your suspicions of the other party will be confirmed while your support for your chosen party will be challenged. Over the past 50 years America has experienced increasing public and private debt, long wars that could not be won, increasing political influence by industries and increased fragility of our financial institutions. The United States has also observed increased spending by companies and individuals to obtain access and influence over our government’s economic and foreign policies while the political discourse has become more heated, particularly over social issues. These trends are not unrelated, and Americans sense that something is wrong – that our elected officials are more beholden to those that fund their elections than the citizens that they represent. This popular discontent has fueled the rise of political outsiders, such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. This is the story of how we reached this point, the tactics that both political parties use to ensure that the monopoly they share over access to our government is not threatened by third parties or other threats. It is also about the damage that has been done and how to correct it.. Neither political party adheres to their purported principles. History shows that when presented with an opportunity to increase party power, each party has evolved when the opportunity presented itself. But the stakes were raised in the 1960s and 1970s. Once the federal government abandoned sound money policies in the late 1960s to fund the Vietnam War and Great Society programs and then officially ended the gold standard in 1971, deficits suddenly became painless – spending could be increased without the need to increase taxes. Public and private debt also became painless thanks to inflation. This made it possible for the government to fund defense and social programs while also “bailing out” those failed businesses with political influence while avoiding hard choices about taxation and spending. In this time Americans have fought and died in several wars, costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives (millions, if you include civilian deaths). The lobbyists of K Street rose to power, and lobbying became the profession for retired congressmen. “Think tanks” grew as lobbyists paid for policy papers to promote policies favorable to their corporate sponsors, and the academic field of Economics was largely coopted by the financial industry and promoted deregulation of banking and financial transactions. Americans also increased their personal debt to raise their living standards despite stagnant wages. And, it wasn't long before the two major political parties tightened their grip on power in Washington - all but eliminating third parties. In my final chapter I discuss how we might be able to take our country back. It will be a major challenge and will require sacrifice.