No- can't wait a whole life time for you lot to change- the simplest thing is for the world to work out what it wants without your nation, and then ask if you'd like to join our way forward  

Stanley, I'd have to agree with you and have a rare public disagreement with Chris. If the American public is divided, then it already implies that many have already joined the way forward for a richer, more substantial twenty-first century.
   However, I wonder whether the United States is as divided as the media make out; I'm not one to go for the huge gulf. None of the election issues, as far as I know, were viewed in such apocalyptic terms as American, or for that matter, international, media communicated, by the average person in the street.
   And while America has her faults, the world would be a worse place without her. I cannot imagine how harmful a power vacuum might be; engagement with America for change is more powerful than isolation from the nation. In that engagement and good relations, Jefferson's hope may well come true in this century.