It’s simple really. Two schools of thought:
1.) This to shall pass (i.e., Obama/Decline of Western Civ)
2.) It won’t.
How much longer will this Republic endure with the lawlessness described by Ted Cruz? Or the infection of the culture of Death?
If you have something to be optimistic about, please share. Do your hopes ride on 2014/2016? If only we had that one charismatic figure with “shining city on a hill” rhetoric everything will be just fine.
Perhaps it’s Mark Levin’s Article V remedy?
Do you retreat to the safety and comfort of a 2nd Amendment solution?
Or perhaps it’s all over? What’s the historical lifespan of a Republic? 250 years? We’re almost there. What’s the natural state of man? It’s not republicanism. What has it got us? 55 million babies dead, a culture that worships sodomy and death. If that’s your idea of freedom then you can have it.
What does this have to do with the Ukraine/Russia situation?
Certainly you aren't trying to defend Putin who overseas a country with a staggering abortion rate - one of (if not the highest) abortion rate in the entire world. Putin's Russia is not even remotely close to a state that holds individual freedom dear - or even any criticism of the state.
As to your other points. I am not terribly optimistic. I think the founding fathers did many great things right, but hopefully some future attempt at setting up the foundations of government will learn from their/our mistakes. It's pretty clear, at least to me, that you have to be more precise in writing out any ability for a federal government to build a social welfare state. As long as the individual states have to compete, they can experiment as they like but will always be constrained by what the other states are doing. But this sort of thing should never be allowed on the Federal level and any future constitution should expressively rule that out. Also, I do have to wonder if our 2 party setup is really the best solution. It almost always leads to general elections that force voters to cast ballots for the lesser of two evils. I wonder if a system which was not winner take all and allowed for coalition government might be better.