I'm not happy with my rights taken away either but a lot people didn't seem to care much about it in the past. In the politicized climate, I'm quite skeptical of many individuals. I was against the Patriot act when it was enacted and still against it, but I don't think a majority of Americans are against it.
I see America as having the most fertile land and resource rich country in the world, this is indeed a land of plenty. I'm always in the long term bullish on US and China as these two places are the most fertile and resource rich places in the world. However my idea of long term is beyond my lifetime and multi-generational, in my lifetime, I think that America will be economically strong but stagnate politically. I do feel optimistic that the problems in the US will be solved without the kind of brutality(althrough it will still be bad for many people) that has characterized the past.