@johnroderick Ugh. I’m going to struggle with this. Need to contemplate after coffee. Smokey and the Bandit was great. I think if I’m to blame The Dukes, I gotta blame Coy and Vance. Need coffee to be sure.

After some coffee induced thought, I have to agree. What is causing the decline of our nation? I think it comes down to a several things: race relations, corruption in government, and the presumed wisdom/righteousness of rural America. We'll start with the last one first.

The only characters in DoH that were not corrupt, were always shown to be moral and won in the end were the rural Duke family. It's important to note, only one of them had travelled outside of Hazzard County when the show started, Luke. He was a Marine.

Yet despite this lack of worldly ways, the Dukes always came out on top. This set the stage for the mythology of the righteousness of rural America. It's values would always see them through. You see this manifest today in the distrust of city-dwellers and foreigners.

The values of rural America trumps all. (No pun intended.) Now we need to address corruption in government. Hazzard County was rife with corruption and nepotism. The county commissioner was related by marriage to the sheriff. When Enos left for L.A, his replacement was the cousin