| Future A) As the body counts in Iraq and Afghanistan on both sides (i. el. Iraqi and American alike) continue to increase, there will be an incredible backlash because average American citizens will not accept anymore of what this administration is doing, and our administration will be forced to capitulate, because American citizens will no longer tolerate losing their own sons/daughters to wars that never, ever should've been waged in the first place. The downside of this kind of backlash, however, is that police and other law enforcement people will take tougher measures against people who participate in the backlash, with more beatings and jaiings than there are right now, elections would be monitored to make sure that they're not rigged like the last two presidential elections were, and people would be elect ed to office who would live up to their obligations to the "a government for and by the people" credo and be held accountable by the public for what they do or don't do. As good money continues to be thrown after bad at our war on Iraq, people will rise up and say...No more, and there'll be a forced withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, whether this leadership likes it or not.
The necessary 2-state solution that would definitely would be best for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be implemented by forcing Israel to cede West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians, and Israel and the Palestinians will live in uneasy peace alongside each other in two separate states--Israel, the Jewish-majority nation-state, and Palestine, the Palestinian Arab majority sovereign nation-state alongside Israel. The way it should be.
There would be a full peace in Ireland, which would unite the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland into one state, enabling Catholics and Protestants to live together.
Urban ghettoes would be dismantled, resulting in racially, ethnically and socioeconomically integrated neighborhoods with improved schools for all, and no necessity to implement such divisive policies such as mandated school busing, which, in many instances, was a disaster, and has made many people more angry, suspicious and fearful of one another.
As more bridges collapse, more and more American citizens will be writing, protesting and calling their state reps, congressmen/women, and senators to provide funds to repair bridges, roads, levees, and railroad tracks. Public transportation in the cities would also have to be improved, and admissions standards on cars be even stricter, and the making of many more smaller cars would have to be continued..
A cap would be put on auto insurance and healthcare insurance premiums for all insurance companies in the country, thus ensuring that people would not be gouged unnecessarily, nor would they be denied adequate healthcare due to short staffing and overcrowding of hospitals or unavailability of equipment. More medical research would be done also, to help promote cures for various ailments such as Parkinsons, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, etc. Vaccines against AIDS, Strep, Tuberculosis, and many other communicable diseases would be made available,a s would vaccines against various types of cancers. Foods would be raised naturally, without chemicals and/or antibiotics, to make for healthier eating, and food co-ops would become more widespread in communities so that food would not be overpriced. Corporations would have to adhere to strict anti-pollution standards.
Due to the diversity of the United States' population, there'd still be racial, religious and ethnic tensions, but there would be a much better ability and willingness to keep extremists and instigators in line, thus reducing existing tensions to a minimum, and people would not have to risk limb and life walking or driving through given neighborhoods and communities. Banks and real estate agents would have to comply with stiff anti-housing discrimination laws, and allow people to move wherever they felt like moving. There'd still be a certain amount of crime, gang warfare, and the need to protect oneself while going out at night sometimes, but it wouldn't be nearly as intense, and people would not have to worry about the consequences of fighting back if attacked.
The National Endowment for the Arts would be refunded, and many more people would be able to attend the movies, plays, concerts, etc, of their choice, since there'd be many more available to choose from. Various government programs, such as the WIC programs would be refunded and re-instated, and civilian ownership of handguns, and assault rifles would be prohibited. Firearms would be regulated, as would hunting guns, and the Second Amendment would be enforced correctly.
More affordable housing, especially in the cities, along with improved public transportation, police and fire protection, racially/socioeconomically/ethnically integrated neighborhoods would be the norm,as would better, more integrated city public schools for all public school students. There would be movie theatres and other art venues in every neighborhood, and people would be able to attend the venues of their choice.
People who're being bullied for whatever reason, be it verbally or physically, would be encouraged to stand up for themselves, hence making the bullies realize that they continue that kind of behavior only at their own detriment.
There would be more concentration on fixing up our own country, rather than dominating and destroying other countries, and cars would either run as hybrids, or totally electric.. Bridges, highways, subway systems, etc, would be monitored on an intermittent and regular basis and necessary maintenance and repairs would be performed as needed. The same would be true of various public transportation systems and highways, etc. as needed.
Future B: This is yet another possibility of what could happen to the United States and the world at large: The Democratic Party at large would succeed in totally self-destructing, and there'd be more backlash in the streets, and a really hard-line Republican Administration would take over hence resulting in the dictatorship that they've always wanted. More mindless and unnecessary wars, like Viet Nam, Iraq, not to mention countless others would be fought, hence resulting in the loss/compromising of many more lives on both sides--;i. e. American and adversary alike. Less money would be available for necessary governmental services, infrastructure maintenance and repairs, healthcare and various welfare programs here at home, resulting in the complete breakdown of government services and the entire United States infrastructure.
Various communities, such as urban areas, suburban areas and small towns alike would become ghettoized in order to become more self-sufficient. Gang warfare, drugs, and crime, which have long been mainly urban problems, would become widespread and develop in suburban and small-town America as well. Gangs would control many, if not most city neighborhoods, suburbs and small towns alike and rule by force, making travel by night particularly risky . People , regardless of who they were and where they live, would become more fearful, and therefore more isolated from each other, preferring to stay home and watch high-tech , big screened televisions, and work straight from home, and/or choose to home-school their children, rather than walk out of their houses for fear of becoming crime victims. There would be little to no chance for people to develop any kind of trust, much less friendship with each other, especially because harsh security measures, such as the proposed Real ID solutions, which pose a real threat to privacy, would be implemented, as would searches and seizures of people's property and person, arousing people's hackles, and further pitting them against each other. Lines would be extremely long while waiting to get on public transportation due to lengthy searching of everybody's person for supposed contraband. People who look or act suspiciously in any way or form would be subject to extra scrutiny and possibly detained. Divorce rates would go up, as well.
Race relations, never great here in the United States to begin with, would become even worse. Race riots would break out regularly, not only between whites and non-whites, but between the various non-white groups as well, making the historical racial strife in the South, as well as Boston's busing debacle back in the mid-1970's, look like a picnic. This overall situation would be made even worse, as there would be many more non-white politicians who are cast in the mold of demagogic white politicians, both Southern and Northern alike. Wars, both here and abroad, would break out. Israel, correctly recognizing that keeping the Occupied Territories would put them in more danger, would ultimately cede them over to the Palestinians, pull their settlers out of those sections, and one of two things would occur: Either Israel and the Arab world at large would reluctantly come to terms with each other's presence, OR, when Israel pulled out of the Occupied Territories, the following would result:
The Palestinians, in their newly-formed state would begin killing each other off at a rapid rate, hence being like Lebanon was in the 1980's, thus being in a constant, bloody civil war, or even resembling many of the urban ghettoes here at home in their implosion. Or, Israel might well experience renewed terrorist attacks, as well as attacks by Arab countries, therefore having to fight back as hard it could to defend and protect itself from the onslaught. Untold numbers on each side would be maimed/killed, and the UN Security Council, as well as t he United States, the European Union , the Vatican and the U N Security Council would have to enforce the necessary 2-state solution and regularly monitor the region to make sure that hostilities don't break out. Or, war would be a regular way of life in the region and totally uncontrollable.
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The same thing might well happen in Ireland, with the fighting spreading to the Republic of Ireland, as well as throughout the North. Persecution of religious minorities, including Jewish people here in the United States, as well as tensions between other ethnic and religious groups might well be rekindled.
Reproductive rights would be totally curtailed, such as the criminalizing of abortion and birth control alike, resulting in more unwanted pregnancies, more domestic violence and more crime. There would be many more "shotgun"weddings Scapegoating would be rampant, as would more housing foreclosures, more severe poverty and more homelessness, and more severe illness as more people would have to make the choice of having a roof over their heads or having adequate health insurance or car insurance. More sickness and death would result, especially from widespread flu epidemics and other epidemics that kill many, many people, as hospitals have to turn people away due to lack of room. This would happen because fewer and fewer people would be able to afford preventive health care, and insurance companies, to save money, would continue to deny people life-saving tests/procedures, hence resulting in more deaths and compromising of lives, due to inadequate care. Hospitals would be severely understaffed, equipment unavailable or hard to come by, and people would be turned away from overcrowded hospitals. For workers and patients alike, hospital-related infections causing maiming or death, would be a regular occurance.
The gutting of our environmental laws, which have had disastrous results already, would be even worse. Pollution of our forests, streams, lakes, rivers and oceans would result in undrinkable, unswimmable water and result in the genetic mutation of various species, both plant and animal life alike, making formerly harmless species harmful, and making already-harmful species still more harmful and life-threatening.
The extinction of certain species would definitely decimate the environment even more.
The cheapening of our culture would continue, resulting in more corruption, crime, and the rise of more incidents such as the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan incident , and sports would become deregulated, producing disastrous results on and off of the playing fields as well.
Anyway--Let's hope this latter possibility doesn't occur. The average American public electorate has the power to prevent all that from happening.
Future C: Future B might result in terrific backlash nationwide, in towns, cities and villages throughout the United States, because the situation would be too intolerable for most people to simply sit back, accept it, and do nothing. Things would get to a point where people would be so turned off by both major political parties (i. e. the Democrats and Republicans alike), that there'd be more and more clamoring for a viable Independent Third political Party, which would eventually take place, resulting in more accountability, a government by and for the people, a true democracy, increase in the arts/movies/theatre, and many other better things. |
