The article makes some good points; however, some I would contest or at least quantify.

"Free Trade and Free Enterprise – championed by the United States – has brought to billions some small and growing taste of the kind of life enjoyed by Hollywood liberals"

Unfettered free enterprise has also brought our economy to its knees.

"Nowhere is there better science being done, and no where is there anything like the numbers of people receiving advanced scientific and engineering degrees."

True but many of the best of these are Chinese and a mix of other nationalities. They have the work ethic and the drive. We seem to have lost ours. Like spoiled children, we have much and have a lot to lose but fail to remember that it was the sweat of our fathers (and mothers) who got us here and that we have to work hard to keep it. Instead, there is a sense of entitlement among Americans, particularly among American politicians who cheat and steal and betray the public trust almost every day.

"Luke Skywalker was an Iowa farm boy."
I hope that goof was an intentional metaphor mixture because Luke wasn't even American; Captain James T. Kirk was the Iowa farm boy. Don't screw with Star Trek.

"Cut those cords of love of and pride in country – as the elites have cut them in every civilization before us – and from your seat on the moon you will see the brightest light in history wink out. The rest of the world will soon follow."

Much of the rest of the world will wink back on, led by China. What was once a great civilization will rise again and pollute the world, just as we did. We learn nothing; they learn nothing. History will repeat itself until we exterminate ourselves.

"And how – pardon the profanity – how ironic is it that those libertines, those most determined to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and at no cost to themselves… how ironic, how pathetic, how tragic, how infuriating and indeed, how insane is it that they – they alone – now control the mythology and the message of the workshop of our identity?"

This brings up the old saw, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Is the Hollywood message shaping the thinking of the country or is Hollywood's message a reflection of the times and the mood of the people? I suspect a case could be made for either. Personally, I think they rise together.

The wealthy of the movie world tend to be liberal. They have much and one wonders if they don't feel guilty for wealth accumulated in such a manner. They also give back and do a lot of social good, giving time and effort and money to causes such as world hunger, AIDS, education, rebuilding what nature has destroyed. They see wrongs and they want to right them.

There are always radicals ala Jane Fonda during the Vietnam War and now Sean Penn, who thinks he's such an intellectual when the truth of the matter is that he is an abusive man who beats women and now wants to impose on the world his vision of society. I hope that most of us can see through him.

We walk a fine line between Democracy, Republicanism
and Socialism. Because the three are distinct, we tilt one way and then the other. Many Conservatives have little room for any thought patterns but their own. While America has expanded and grown, Conservative thought patterns have shrunk into their own world leaving little room for compromise. That pattern is what has brought us to this point in time where the electorate is fed up with "politics as usual" and the sniping. We are ashamed of what the Conservative politicians in this country have wrought: Iraq, the war that never ends, torture for all the world to see, and blind arrogance that has destroyed our economy, our good name and made our place in the world more tenuous. We want our country back, a country the Conservatives have damn near destroyed with their totally free enterprise system.

It is the way of nature to seek stasis. Political systems are not immune from this. It seemed at one time that Russia would always be Communist and remain unchanged. Then almost overnight, it fell under the weight of history and reemerged trying to reinvent itself.

Movement toward change comes slowly until momentum sweeps the old away and the world moves inexorably toward stasis.