The fourth republic

Another interesting (though long) link I saw on Instapundit:
The Coming of the Fourth American Republic. Its thesis is that while we’ve had the same Constitution for over 230 years, we’ve actually had three different governments: the one before the Civil War, the one between the Civil War and the New Deal, and our present government that started with the New Deal, which the author calls the Special Interest State. Furthermore, our current government is rapidly becoming unsustainable and will have to be replaced soon. Well worth reading and pondering.