A few days ago I was reading a blog entry from CNN’s Jack Cafferty with this title. As one commenter noted, the fact that the question is even being asked suggests what the answer is, and in fact the majority of commenters answered in the affirmative, noting dysfunctional government, spiralling debt, the decline of the middle class, massive expenditures on dead-end wars, politicians who have sold out to the highest bidder, a declining educational system, the loss of manufacturing jobs, citizens wasting all their time on cellphones and social media and not being educated about the issues, and all kinds of other woes that are afflicting the United States.

Throughout all of history, just about every state that has risen to the top of the heap has eventually fallen. The Egyptians, the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Franks, the Mongols, and lots of other nations have fallen. Sure, there are a few exceptions. Turkey is the (much reduced) remnant of what used to be the Ottoman Empire, China has lasted for a few millennia, and Japan has been around for a while too, but, nonetheless, these nations have seen ups and downs, revolutions, invasions, and the like. So, it seems reasonable to assume that, sooner or later, the United States will fall or at least have some “down” times. This doesn’t mean that this is going to happen imminently, but it doesn’t mean it won’t, either.

When the United States was created over 200 years ago, it was, in part, an interesting experiment. Back then, most people felt that people were best governed by a small elite group of people who had been groomed for the role since youth and would be well prepared to lead. The United States decided to do things differently, by having the people choose who would lead them.

Back then, communication and transportation were incredibly slow, and it was only practical for people to go to elect their leaders every couple of years or so. Two hundred years later, we are all in instantaneous communication with each other, so going to the polls every two or four years seems positively slow by comparison.

Just like systems of government based on the rule of an elite aristocracy have, for the most part, either disappeared or evolved into democratic governments, it seems likely that democratic governments will eventually evolve into something better. Two characteristics of a better government would be:

• One in which citizens are constantly able to voice their opinions in a meaningful way, not just once every four years
• One in which all parties are able to reach consensus, not like today where 51% can enforce their will on the other 49%

Will the stalemate in Washington result in new and improved forms of government involving? I doubt it. However, I suspect it will happen eventually, and this may be the first step.