What if...

Church membership were mandatory?

Compulsory education were voluntary and schools went unfunded?

Gun laws were repealed?

Military service was required of everyone who turned 18?

Abortion and birth control methods were forbidden?

Immigrants - legal and illegal - were deported overnight?

American soldiers patrolled the streets?

Any activity, gathering, or dissent could be banned?

In short, what would America become if extremists – left and right - got their way in everything?

How about. . . The religious oppression of the Taliban. The police corruption of Colombia. The gun chaos of Sudan. The government oversight of China. The health regulations of Pakistan. The foreign policy of North Korea.

Watch any news report. Mortgage lenders are failing. Homes are being foreclosed. Wars drag on. Wages are plunging. Unemployment is spreading. Prices are rising. Newspapers write about a Depression. America teeters on the brink. Yet in the 2008 election, 47% of voted decided to stay the course - right over a cliff. Our everyday lives could get much, much worse very fast.

As happens in. . . THE REPUBLIC

THE REPUBLIC is set a few years in the future. Various extremist agendas have been codified into law. The new Freedom of Commerce, Life, Information, Education, Taxation, and other Freedom Acts mean "security and freedom" for everyone, because nothing is regulated, but everything is controlled.

All media are monitored and government-approved: Internet, radio, newspapers, publishing. Abortion is illegal, punishable by death. Church attendance and baptism are mandatory. Divorce is illegal. Government "interference" with commerce is gone: no food or water inspections, no drug approvals, no price restrictions. Military service is compulsory. Public education is underfunded until it collapses, so only private religious schools continue. ID cards report your every move: being caught without a card is a crime. All immigrants, green-card and illegal, are expelled along with their children. War in the Middle East sparks riots in Europe, but details are sketchy. Self-appointed Neighborhood Patrols enforce curfews and morals. Justice is for the rich and party members. Indoctrination splits kids from parents.

Starting on January 1st of a new year, America wakes to a changed land. The Alden family - Frank, Martha, John, Pam, Peter, and Katie - were apolitical. But as the year progresses and repression grows, tragedy strikes the family in unexpected ways. Finally galvanized, the family decides to fight back.

But how? And is it too late?