Schieffer: Presidential Debate ‘Was Just Disgraceful’ … Bob Schieffer was not a fan of Sunday night’s presidential debate.   -CBS

Bob Schieffer, CBS news contributor and former “Face the Nation” host made news for calling the most recent presidential debate “disgraceful.”

But the debate was more predictable than disgraceful.

In fact, the entire presidential election is predictable. It is the outcome of political trends that have been gestating for well over a century. The US republic, it can be argued, was effectively at an end after the Civil War when it was clear that those who lived in the US could not secede. The federal government’s power has been expanding and deepening ever since.

Even before the Civil War, various economic narratives show that European powers had waged economic war to consolidate control over industry in New York, Chicago and elsewhere.

In fact, one can argue that the US Constitution