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Have you noticed that politics is becoming more like television? There was a day — long before we were born — when politics was about ideas. Well … ideas, money and power. But at least there were real ideas involved back when politics was communicated solely through spoken or written words.

Today, politics is all a show. But it’s not just a spectator thing. It’s like a giant game show. With the help of the media, politics has become an elaborate version of the old game show, “Let’s Make a Deal.”

You all know how the game is played. Hundreds of people dress in ridiculous costumes, hoping for the chance to trade their dignity for unknown riches — just like those of us who line up like Dorothy and her pals asking the Wizard of Oz for gifts. But that’s mixing metaphors. Let’s look at the ways in which democracy is like “Let’s Make a Deal.”

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It’s easy to assume that life is always going to go on pretty much the way it does right now. I’m sure the people of Rome thought their empire would last forever. The folks of the Ottoman Empire felt the same way. As did the Greeks and Egyptians and Mayans. What do they all have in common? They all eventually fell. The same fate awaits every powerful nation in time.

Empires don’t fall quickly. We have short attention spans. We think that if something doesn’t happen in days, it’s not happening. The truth is that changes happen slowly — over years, decades and even centuries. I don’t know how long it’s going to take for the U.S. “empire” to crumble, but the warning signs are all around. I don’t know how long it’s going to take before the European welfare states — which is the first cousin of our own “mixed economy” — will take to fall.

I’m not a psychic, and I’m not going to make predictions that I don’t believe anyone can reasonably make. I can’t tell you exactly what the end game is going to look like. But what I can tell you is that it’s coming. It might be triggered by a financial panic and collapse soon. It might be that governments and central banks are able to prop up the whole rotting system a bit longer. But it’s coming down.

When it comes down, it won’t be pretty. When it happens, what’s going on in London will look like tea and cake with the queen by comparison. (See more pictures as it’s spreading to other parts of the country.) Think now about how you’re going to protect yourself and your family.

This picture represents one of my biggest frustrations with what passes for news today. Two local television stations had photographers and reporters at the City Council meeting I went to Tuesday night, but they were both gone after the first few minutes. They can’t actually cover the meeting, because they weren’t there for it.

The next time you see a “news report” about a meeting such as this, please understand this. It’s pretty much standard procedure. They show up and get a few bits of video from a few people before something starts, then they’ll stick around briefly to get some background footage of the actual meeting starting. Then they shoot a wrap-up with the reporter talking to the camera outside of the building (while the meeting is going on inside). Then they leave. They can’t tell you what happened at a meeting, because they aren’t there for the vast majority of it.

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