I say this in the most serious possible way. I hope in the next twenty or thirty years Russia or China builds a base on the moon and puts weapons on it. I'm not sure how useful weapons on the moon would be tactically, but at least a refueling/rearm station. You're right, getting to the moon was political. Sadly, the only way I can see to make it political again is the weaponization of space. Having another world power do this would jump start our space program in a drastic way.
EDIT: I apologize for the American bias in my post. When I say "our" I am referring to NASA. I think collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and/or the Russian Federal Space Agency would be good to some extent. Of course, this type of collaboration would probably prevent space exploration from becoming a political issue. And for reasons previously described, eliminating the politics from space exploration is probably a bad idea.
I overheard a coworker of mine asserting "there is no strategic value to the moon". And I think he's right. There's no practical reason to put weapons on the moon, they work a lot better on the earth and with the cost of putting them on the moon you could just build more weapons.
But at the other hand, strategic value may not mean just put weapons on moon. What if it is easier/cheaper to mine rare earth elements in Moon than earth then for Russian and China to dig rocks there and throw refined metal back to earth like meteors will be their strategic advantage.
and since working conditions will be extremely hazardous, maybe we would send convicts and otherwise "unwanted" citizens to the mines.
we would of course need to send some form of authority, like a warden, just to keep the convicts (loonies!) under control.
it would also be necessary to set them up with an advanced computer system to handle all colony operations, from telephone switching to ballistics calculations for the throws.
EDIT: I apologize for the American bias in my post. When I say "our" I am referring to NASA. I think collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and/or the Russian Federal Space Agency would be good to some extent. Of course, this type of collaboration would probably prevent space exploration from becoming a political issue. And for reasons previously described, eliminating the politics from space exploration is probably a bad idea.