Kevin Phillips makes some good points--over and over and over again. Big Oil has a dangerous degree of influence over the US and its policies. The Republican Party is in the sway of the religious right and the fundamentalists. There is a corresponding degree of clout in the southern states--reversing the reults of the Civil War. We have too much debt, in government, in families, in American businesses. All of this makes the future scary and could lead to the downfall of American preeminence, influence, etc. It happened before with Spain, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Dynastic leadership is bad for America. (OK, that was Phillips' last book, but he continues the drumbeat.) That's it, for this very pessimistic and depressing book. To me it seemed to be a literary fillibuster. Lots of data. Lots of redundency. There may be enough insight here to justify a couple of extended magazine articles. But a book? No way.