Stephan:   As America has moved rightward, and Randian hyper-individualism has increased as a cultural imperative one of the consequences has been the election of increasingly ambitious, self-absorbed corrupt politicians who know how to manipulate fear to their personal advantage. Bobbie Jindal is a classic example of the type.  The legislation these politicians espouse, and that is being passed by their crowd, is slowly degrading life in the Red value states where they are in power. The data is incontrovertible on this. Yet because fear has become so dominant the citizens of those states continue to vote these people into office. You can look at the re-election of Brownback in Kansas, or Walker in Wisconsin to see the process playing out. This is part of the Great Schism Trend. As the crises of climate change occur with greater and greater intensity and frequency the fabric of the country is going to fray. Some states, the Blue value ones principally, will come to recognize that the only way through is a society in which wellness for all is the priority. To anyone who cares about facts it is increasingly obvious that by any social metric you care to choose the wellness model -- happiness, life span, health, elder care, child care, environmentally apprpropriate -- is superior. Norway is an example of how to do this.