Right up front, let me state that this column is for ACADEMIC purposes only. According to friends of mine still with our government, because of my last novel, my home phone and computer became the subject of curiosity for at least two of our three-letter agencies.

The novel was entitled “America’s Last Days” and dealt with a revolution led by a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former Director of the FBI. Both men felt that the United States of their childhoods, of traditional values, and of true sovereignty, was in a death-spiral from which it would never recover. They felt, that as patriots, it was their duty to try and save at least part of the nation.

Over the course of the last year and a half, I’ve gotten over one-thousand emails from readers. Just in the last two months, I received emails from five war-fighters in Iraq who thanked me for writing a novel that held dear the ideals for which they were fighting in Iraq. Ideals that they felt, were waning in their very own country.

Of all the feedback I have gotten regarding the novel, none is more meaningful, sad, or telling, than those five emails. Are we losing the liberty and traditional values that these heroic soldiers are fighting for overseas?

Putting that rhetorical question aside, I’d like to stress again that this column is merely meant to create discussion. Nothing about it should be taken literally by those with the power to tap my phones or read my emails. Better to direct such resources toward the dictators and terrorists who continue to target our nation.

So, with that caveat established, let’s imagine a United States of the very near future.

A United States where:

• An ultra-liberal candidate for president has the unethical support of almost the top 100 newspapers in the country, the top three television networks, and two of the three top cable networks.

• Nancy Pelosi and other liberals would like to silence the needed and conservative voices of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and others.

• Some Republicans are morphing into liberal Democrats in order to keep their seats at any cost.

• Border security has become a punch-line for many elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

• God and Christianity are under constant attack from the far-left.

• Liberals -- most especially the Democratic candidate for president -- and our Supreme Court, would like to treat Jihadists as criminals and extend statutory habeas corpus to enemy combatants.

• Large segments of the entertainment community are purposefully and systematically exposing our children to the vilest forms of smut to both make money and to indoctrinate.

• Strict-constructionist judges are an endangered species.

• A number of Republicans are jumping on the “Amnesty-for-illegal-aliens” bandwagon faster than Democrats.

• Lower taxes and fiscal restraint are going the way of the Hula-Hoop, good manners, and an abiding belief in the goodness and mission of the American soldier.

Whoops. I’m sorry. Did I say “the near future?” I meant now.

Accepting that depressing and potentially tragic state of affairs, while calculating the prospect of a committed, far-left president, teaming with a Democrat majority in Congress for at least the coming four years, an obvious question comes to mind. That being, is it time to create a “new” United States? If so, how would you go about establishing a new nation predicated on the beliefs and wisdom of our Founding Fathers?

The shrinking number of conservative Americans who still believe in the promise of our Republic are anxiously awaiting the scenarios to be outlined in this “for academic purposes only” homework assignment.

Let Freedom Ring!