Casey, while your analysis is thorough (and indeed could have cited a great many other examples of how US society is collapsing) your notions of how to address the problem lack the same intellectual thoroughness. You seem to believe that (a) representative democracy is an adequate approach to government in an increasingly complex world, and (b) a few adjustments here and there can return us to a more adequate set of circumstances. The problems are (a) it's clear that representative democracy is hopelessly unsuited for purpose, and (b) the USA has always been a far more racist, corrupt, and authoritarian state than you seem willing to accept. When we consider the history of the USA it's clear that there is no time when such adverse influences have been anything other than mildly suppressed. There are simply far too many systemic problems in the USA and thus collapse into ever-greater discord is inevitable, until it results in true tyranny. As the GoP is very clearly intent on power by any means, it's likely that we're only a few years away from de facto dictatorship. Luckily this will be dressed up as freedom and democracy, much as Rome maintained its hollowed-out symbols of Republicanism after dictatorship became the norm there too. Trump is merely the infantile precursor to the GoP's first true Fuhrer.