70 A.D.

2000 years ago, a nation enslaved by a corrupt power had a chance for salvation.  In the court of Pontius Pilate, the Messiah was presented to the Jewish people.  "Behold your king!" shouted Pilate.  "We have no king but Caesar!" cried the Jews.  70 years later, Armageddon was visited upon Israel.

There's no one to blame but you, America.  You had the chance to elect a man who could pull us back from the brink of economic collapse.  He may even have been able to stem the advance of cultural decay.  But America has no king but Obama.  Can Armageddon be that far off?  Consider:

Will Israel unilaterally strike Iran?
Will North Korea become a nuclear power?
Will terrorists kill thousands in America again?
Will our military become impotent?
Will gas prices skyrocket further?
Will our income be sapped by egregious taxation?
Will the stock market crash?
Will the national credit rating be further downgraded?
Will we face a national healthcare "death panel"?
Will Catholic clinics and hospitals close?
Will we see "hate speech" legislation that makes preaching Catholic sexual ethics a crime?
Will gay marriage become the law of the land?
Will our media begin to expand its umbrella of "tolerance" over other moral aberrations like bestiality or pedophilia? (hint: it's already started)

Can America be pulled back out of four more years of entrenched Leftism?  Has the "American Experiment" finally failed?  Have we become New Europe?  Is the Conservative movement dead?  Even if it can be said that conservatism works, what does it matter if the voting majority wants a free hand-out?

I know this much - the folks on conservative talk radio have lost all potency in my opinion.  They're in the business of selling a product just like any other business, and I was buying it for a long time.  Now I'm convinced it's a lemon.  All those bright minds - Prager, Hewitt, Ingraham, Hannity, Limbaugh, Medved, and a host of others - with their entertaining shows with all their rational apologetics and well-constructed arguments couldn't convince enough people to keep this from happening.  All their forecasts of Romney landslides turned out to be empty hope.

National discourse has been reduced to the soundbite.  Soundbites can't change minds.  Apparently the Republican party needs to start making music videos and learn to give away free cell phones.

Rational thought doesn't rule the land any more, and optimism doesn't win elections.  It takes virtue to make virtuous choices, and America is no longer a virtuous country.  We're a nation of post-Christian nihilists.  "United States" has become an oxymoron.  Reverend Wright must have been a prophet.  America is damned.

Silver linings?  I can't think of a single one.  At least heaven waits for some on the other side of Armageddon.  And there will be more Star Wars films to watch while we wait for the fire.