Perhaps I can help Kat out a bit. Here's a short history of American politics:

A long time ago, a bunch of men who lived in a mostly-free colony of a powerful empire decided that the tax rate of 2.5% levied by that empire was too onerous. They revolted, and formed a federation of the newly independent colonies. This federation was chartered under a document called the Articles of Confederation.

The problem with the Articles is that they prevented the construction of an American empire, so the Articles were replaced by the U.S. Constitution in a coup characterized by secret proceedings held by a handful of ambitious unelected empire-builders.

The road to empire now having been paved, a few stubborn recalcitrants nevertheless stood in the way of that road being trod. Americans got the higher taxes and mercantilism they wanted, but the empire continued to be delayed until the empire-builders had sufficient numbers to wage war against the recalcitrants, at which time a great multitude were killed off. So emboldened by their victory, the empire-builders then turned their wrath upon the Plains Indians, eventually achieving the continental empire dreamt of by their forefathers. This policy of killing off those peoples who prefer to be left alone would come to be called Manifest Destiny.

Having built their empire, the lust of the empire-builders grew to new heights, heights which could not be met by any plausible rate of taxation. The only solution to the shortfall of spending money possessed by the government was for the government to counterfeit its own money. Thus, the Federal Reserve was born.

Having now possessing all the money they could possibly desire, the lust of the empire-builders grew yet more, this time manifesting itself in a desire to control the minutiae of every American's life. No longer would any man, woman, or child be permitted to live a life free of government nagging and harassment. This would be called the New Deal. And, later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And the Environmental Protection Act. And a host of other such Acts.

And here we are today. The empire-builders and those of like mind are what we would call the Left. Those recalcitrants of yesteryear and their ideological descendants are what we would call the Right. The Left was victorious long ago; the Right is suffering the Long Defeat.

The catch, though, is that the Left will someday utterly collapse, and the light of morning will shine once again upon the freshly-reborn Right. This event is an economic certainty. Because the empire-builders conquered everything except that which mattered most - the universal laws of nature.

Unfortunately, the Shadow always takes a new form and rises again, so the Left will likewise be reborn to wreak its havoc upon humanity. Such is the Doom of men.