Civil war in America

I was recently asked about John Titor. I knew nothing of him until I googled him. Interesting theories. I don't really follow the notions of black holes and time travel. My belief is that black holes are a bit like a blender, at a very large scale with blades so fine they work at an atomic level. And if a time traveller did come back, he would know dates/times of many things. Heck he could tell us what a share price would be on any day!

Not knowing much about civil wars and how they start, I wonder how such a war would/could start in a democratic economy. I thought mass unemployment would be a key motivator for such to happen, which causes breakdown of the economy. There is no mention of that.

The talk of having a police state etc that breaks down the fabric of American society would surely take years to occur, and wouldn't there be checks and balances to stop such. With the patriot act, MPAA tactics, Guantanamo Bay and barbed wire free speech zones it does make me wonder if there is a breakdown already occuring. People cannot even invent anymore for fear of patent violation!

Its probably a fair bet that outright anarchy from within America would have to be next. But from which sector of society? The techies have been so busy creating things and using their minds, if they get bored, what woudl they get up to? Whilst the perceived and real threat is from offshore, what is being done at a social level to stop the internal breakdown?

Am I correct in the assumption that in American elections, there are but 2 opposing forces, Republicans and Democrates? Is there no allowance for forming an independant political party and running for office? Having but 2 allowed parties does not seem overall very democratic, in colution with each other its fairly well a fasict state.
Perhaps a good idea for the future to stop any possible turmoil would be to have open election processes where any person can form a party to challenge for seats which make up a government. It would certainly slow down progress for some things, but may help in others. It does seem the peoples voice has become smaller in America.