America...What of it?

By the year 1850, most of what has become the "lower 48", was firmly established in the government's hands (only the Gadsden Purchase, the lower portion of Arizona, remained; it was aquired in 1853). When all of this territory was opened for settlement, there were fewer than 100 million
people living within the boundaries of the United States. It is very likely that that number was half. Today, we Americans number over 300 million, and nearly all of the territory that was formerly frontier is fully settled and/or developed. During the previous 150 years, what is it we have lost?
I believe it is our soul; we are no longer THAT people, the ones who settled, founded, and bled for this nation. May I beg your pardon, but "the
Greatest Generation" are NOT the ones who lived during W.W.II ( though
they were pretty good; my parents among them), but, rather, it was that generation who set forth and made a nation of the raw wilderness( and they include those folks who came here from Europe during the 17th century, right on up till the close of the 19th.) These people had "the right stuff", even if they wouldn't believe it themselves. We, who are their heirs,
should be ashamed of ourselves. We have taken the greatest gift anyone has ever given(well, almost), and promptly pissed it away. We are no longer
a great nation, but rather a collection of sheep, a herd if you will. We have allowed ourselves to be deluded by a bunch of finely-clad hucksters in Washington, who, in their unadulterated arrogance, believe themselves to know better than we do. It may seem a bit dramatic, but the only way I see to save the body, is to kill it...with extreme prejudice.