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Books for Christmas
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The Meaning of It All
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Feature
Is America in Decline?
A preliminary inquiry. Contributions by W. James Antle III, John Bolton, Midge Decter, Stefan Halper, Matt Latimer, Seth Lipsky, David Malpass, William McGurn, and Jeremy Rabkin.
W. JAMES ANTLE III
At a low point in our experiment with nation-building in Iraq, longtime conservative columnist George Will identified what was missing. “Iraq is just three people away from democratic success,” Will wrote. “Unfortunately, the three are George Washington, James Madison, and John Marshall.”
Needless to say, these three Founding Fathers cannot simply be transported to a new time and place. This is too bad, because America could once again use leaders of this caliber just as much as any fledgling democracy in the Middle East.
Consider: It took the federal government 200 years to produce its first $1 trillion budget. Washington now runs annual deficits twice as large, a scant 10 years after being in surplus. Social Security and Medicare are broke; Medicaid is having a similar effect on state budgets across the country. If left unreformed and unchecked, these entitlement programs will subsume the entire national GDP. Total federal unfunded liabilities stand at $88.6 trillion.
We have spent the better part of the last decade mired in two wars, conflicts longer in duration than World War II despite facing smaller and weaker enemies. Our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president has now entered us into a third. No less a hawk than David Frum concedes, “Three wars is a lot, even for the United States.” The Middle East, a cauldron of terror-fueling resentments, is in a state of political upheaval.
The economy is weak, with unemployment hovering around 10 percent. Our leaders’ solutions range from increasing the government spending that drives the looming debt crisis to expanding the money supply in an attempt to re-inflate the bubble. The latter is akin to downing a fifth of vodka in order to drown a hangover.
The culture is awash in the raw sewage of vulgarity and avarice. The family is shattered. The average American cannot articulate why marriage is not a unisex institution. One baby in three is born out of wedlock. Another million per year are snuffed out in the womb. We are bound by no common faith or culture. Mass immigration, much of it illegal, without accompanying assimilation may deprive us of a common language.
Our political leaders, many of them preening, squabbling, and petty, have proved inept at meeting these challenges. Once the Cold War seemed lost, yet we prevailed. Thus despair is premature. But it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the United States remains three people away from democratic success. The three are Washington, Madison, and Marshall.
W. James Antle III is associate editor of The American Spectator.
JOHN BOLTON
Fulminating about America in decline is fashionable today across the political spectrum. Contemporary political commentators are seemingly rewarded for drawing the broadest possible conclusions from an ever-narrower range of data. Whatever the reason for the commentators’ grandiose predictions of decline, their conclusions du jour, they are describing what can and should be understood simply as a unique civilization’s momentary indigestion.
The international left and its U.S. acolytes welcome decline as long-overdue payback for our past sins, while many American conservatives see it as the inevitable consequence of decades of bad policy decisions. Both are wrong. There is no decline that can’t be reversed by electing a real president in 2012 to unleash our country’s vibrant political and economic strengths.
I acknowledge that, as they say, “mistakes were made,” including under prior presidents, but the mistakes are not ultimately consequential if we can just get a grip on ourselves. Moreover, by comparing ourselves to the mistaken or exaggerated views of other nations’ current performance and prospects, we simply increase a perception of decline that doesn’t exist in fact.
Take the economy. Obviously, 2008 was a bad year, but the governmental policy mistakes that led to the recession (such as Fannie and Freddie) can be reversed, and so can the political mistakes that followed it (such as the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill). Pointing to the continuing strength of China’s economy and straight-lining it forever may suggest U.S. decline, but China’s economy will not grow at its present rate forever. Internal political and social strains are already taking their toll, and we will find out relatively soon just how real China’s economic statistics actually are, and how much is derived from imaginary government planning figures, a common problem of Communist regimes. And anyone who thinks Europe is prospering needs to respond honestly to the question of which country’s government bonds they are really prepared to buy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (131) | Leave a comment
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Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 7:28AM
And who does Bolton have in mind? himself. How convenient, as when Bush hired Cheney to look for a suitable b`veey`p in 2000, Cheney ended up looking in the mirror for one.
simon templar| 5.10.11 @ 8:57AM
Yeah, don't address a single thing in this article but rather cast dispersions on Bolton's intentions. Thank you, you summed up exactly what is wrong with this generation...stupid, rancorous, contentious, spoiled, denial oriented fools.
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 9:00AM
Contentious, partisan, in America? oh dearie dearie.
simon templar| 5.10.11 @ 9:14AM
Case in point. Add smarmy and childish.
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 9:51AM
...unless you want to attack Obama, then all of a sudden it is genuine and adult
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 9:52AM
and you would even deny Bolton wants to be president?
Steve A| 5.10.11 @ 9:59AM
Alan, Not every Warrior President (Like Obama) can be fortunate enough to be blessed with the sheer brilliance of a Joe "Gaffe" Biden at his side. Biden makes Dan Quayle look like a Mensa All Star.
Pecos Pete| 5.10.11 @ 9:55AM
Alan, it is all, everything, Bush's fault. Right?
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 10:25AM
No, but if you praise Reagan so much isn't that implying Bush wasn't very good as president? and that rejecting McCain in '08 wasn't such a bad idea?
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 10:27AM
I've written enough about the topic, here is something unbelievable yet true:
"Shawn Christy admitted in court to having threatened to rape Palin but has denied her allegations he menaced her daughters. He also admitted sending Palin numerous e-mails and gifts, and to traveling to Anchorage earlier this year."
If this isn't stalking, then what is?
simon templar| 5.10.11 @ 10:33AM
Now you are catching on...perhaps something is accidentally sinking in. You must, however, take the next step in logic. Clue: The November elections in 2010.
simon templar| 5.10.11 @ 10:33AM
Now you are catching on...perhaps something is accidentally sinking in. You must, however, take the next step in logic. Clue: The November elections in 2010.
simon templar| 5.10.11 @ 10:30AM
Yes, if it is based on a reasoned argument, factual and objective criteria, and sound criticism . Otherwise, it is more like the typical froth that comes out of liberals with their projection, obfuscation, emotional arguments, slander, outright disinformation and misinformation, and smarmy, childish remarks.
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 2:31PM
15 years ago some of you were saying the same things about Clinton that are being said about Obama today-- but Clinton was re-elected and is almost as popular as Reagan.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:17PM
Clinton was politically competent, Alan. Gas wasn't over $4.00 a gallon. Clinton compromised in 1994.
Whitey O'Carr Kennedy Dukaiis| 5.10.11 @ 5:25PM
Guurrreaagghhhh, I just tossed me lunch! Why did you have to bring up that Bahstad! He was elected by the lamestream Media! Back then we didn't have Drudge! All he did was act cute and the BROADs and their double-digit IQs fell for it.
Frisbee| 5.10.11 @ 9:27PM
I liked Seth Lipsky's and David Malpass' approaches.
Can the admin please get rid of Alan Brooks, or maybe just allow him a finite number of posts per column per day?
Margie| 5.10.11 @ 11:22PM
How about admin. gets rid of punks like you who hound Bible believing Christians to death and demand them answer their pathetic questions, and when they don't accuse them of being followers of Arius the Apostate?
Huh, punk?
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 10:24PM
All this talk about decline,rubbish, the greatest person to ever occupy the white house is ready to lift all of us up, if you will just let him. We cannot hope to understand his brillance, he is beyond us, we only need do what he asks and we will all reap the benefits of a true utopia.
simon templar| 5.11.11 @ 12:43AM
Do you really beleive this, Alan....or is this some kind of liberal sarcasm?
Alan Brooks| 5.11.11 @ 8:07PM
Simon, I didn't write that comment, Clint has used my name many times because I Razz His Asshat Writing Style. All the crazy posts in my name were written by him or perhaps another catamite.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:16PM
Simon, hey, at least Alan is better than he who shall not be named. Although he is a Liberal.
By the way, I like Bolton, except for one thing. He needs to throw his hat in the ring already. "Jews for John," yeah, I like that.
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 4:44PM
What, did you sasy Clint/Tim* for Jews?
what IS the world coming to?
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 4:47PM
wHAT??,
Clint/Tim* for Israel? by God, these are the End Times!
Clint| 5.10.11 @ 5:27PM
Uh Oh !
ObamaBoy Israel Firster Brooks attempts to Play The Anti-Semite Card On Tea Party Clint.
Like Playing The Race Card ObamaBoy Israel Firster Brooks, You Smear Merchants Keep Getting Diminshing Returns.
Alan Brooks| 5.11.11 @ 8:09PM
Clint, you are more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
Alan Brooks| 5.12.11 @ 4:20AM
(and now you will write:
"Brooks, You Asshat, ARE a Monkey!")
Steve A| 5.10.11 @ 9:11AM
Liberals should find Bolton refreshing compared to Barak " Big Guns" Obama. The guy is a dove compared to "The Osama Assasin On Pennsylvania Ave." Or perhaps, Barak " Toss Another War On The Fire" Obama. Barak " Johnny Rambo" Obama. Maybe this works: Barak " Gitmo Is My Mojo" Obama.
Conservatives should praise Obama for exceeding Bush on the "War On Terror." His wackjob base will meltdown with rage.
Alan Brooks| 5.12.11 @ 4:25AM
Bolton does possess a presidential-- Chester Alan Arthur, moustache-- if nothing else.
A Brooks| 5.12.11 @ 4:31AM
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....ur_3x4.jpg
mames| 5.10.11 @ 10:53AM
I thought the question was "are we in decline"? The answer is as soon as we allowed congress power beyond that enumerated in the Constitution (Fed Reserve, Soc Sec, Medicare, Medicade, Federal takeover of companies, Federal bailouts of companies etc.) we began that decline and at this point in history we either reclaim the Constitution or erode into collectivism. The dog returning to his own collectivist vomit. Bolton is not the issue.
Louis Tully| 5.10.11 @ 1:10PM
right
Alan Brooks| 5.10.11 @ 7:30AM
"b`veey`p"
Veep.
LMajito| 5.10.11 @ 8:33AM
the real decline of america is its irrational attack on the middle class...its incredible how so many herald the emerging economies being the result of their middle class increases...while here in america, apparently is ok to destroy the middle class as long as the folks holding stocks see their investments soar...
at what point is not good that ibm, for example, keeps on increasing its share value, by destroying american jobs? their lean program is nothing more than a total replacement of us workers with south central folks that are required to work 18+ hours per day(got to support the team in the us and the team back in new delhi) 7 days a week at 50% pay rate? they're free to do that? oh yeah the labor laws don't apply to them, the whores in congress and the white house took care of that with that h1b program...
how about the truck drivers...here are guys hauling this big machines ladden with all kinds of freight from frozen turkeys for the thanksgiving dinner to eggs for the easter season and yet they're subject to incredible schedules and labor laws don't apply to them...
you don't have to work there many claim, but then if you have trained all of your life for a certain career, saying don't work at it anymore is callous, uncaring and totally ignorant...misses the point.
america is in decline because it has been seduced by the wrong forces: booze, lure of filthy lucre, insatiable lust of flesh and total disregard for the community.
say what you want but what brought this country some respect is gone. its running on fumes now and unless the sleepy citizenry wakes up soon, we'll have the red flag flying alongside the stars and stripes with mandarin as mandatory language from k-12
Solomon wisely wrote: 'the borrower is a slave to the lender'...and that's what's sad...nobody cares enough to take a bold step...just moan, complain and back to the daily grind...all of the founding fathers were moved from their position of privilege and comfort to create a better place once thing they didn't do was bitch, piss and moan while bowing to the king...
today can't even get folks to bypass the donout stop for a trip to the local voting booth...
mames| 5.10.11 @ 5:14PM
The attack on the middle class is a symptom. If your goal is redistribution and central control the real money is in the hands of the middle class. The poor have nothing to take and if you take everything the "rich" own you still could not run the country for even one year. No, the middle class is their gravy train.
Whitey O'Carr Kennedy Dukaiis| 5.10.11 @ 5:27PM
Do not forget Title 26 of the Federal code and Trust Funds. That is the heart O'er ta Demcrat party!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.10.11 @ 8:54AM
The real decline is on Capitol Hill where lies are manufactured as truth, where ideology supplants reality and where politicians spend ever more money while bragging about 38 billion in imaginary spending cuts and heralding that as success.
If that isn't decline tell me what it decline.
A decline in honesty and standards is always decline.
Pecos Pete| 5.10.11 @ 10:00AM
Bill, you are correct. The basic fault does reside with Congress. Their effort is to be reelected (and enrich themselves), not look after the USA as a fiduciary responsibility. Charlie Wilson's "You lie!" still stands in my mind as one of the most responsible actions yet by a congressman.
PJ| 5.10.11 @ 9:13AM
I think it's too early to predict an American decline. I would say wait another generation when the baby boomers are no longer in power to see if their bad contributions have taken root in the American psyche.
I'm also an optimist. The economic mess we're in can be corrected. The moral mess can also be corrected; progressives do not procreate.
Brian Mc| 5.10.11 @ 9:45AM
The "Fall of Democracy" is coming true at an accelerated rate as we sit here in alarm over the matter. We may have always spoke of it over the centuries but, nothing compares to the entitlement mentality foisted on this Republic over the past fifty years and that is leading us to a reckoning we can't imagine, or can we?
Also, I would argue that there is no such thing as "investment" in education and infrastructure just so long as it is the government doing the supposed investing...it's a scam of the highest order.
PJ| 5.10.11 @ 10:13AM
I agree. I also do know that a radical shift in demographics can change the current game plan for the future. The Black Plague in the 1300s Europe is a case in point, 1/3 of the population died. There are legitimate historians who believe that if the Black Plague didn't take place, there would not have been a Reformation of the 1500s that we know of.------There would not have been an Age of Enlightenment, thus no founding of an American federal government.
Louis Tully| 5.10.11 @ 1:13PM
PJ, the boomers didn't bring us the New Deal or even the Great Society, and it was the youngun's who broke hardest for the Socialist in Chief, Barack Obama. I have unpleasant news for you. The youngest Americans rather like their big government.
PJ| 5.10.11 @ 3:23PM
So what are you saying.---------It's over?
Drastic events or changes in demographics, sometimes with the help of Mother Nature, have a funny way to change people's otherwise comfortable notion of living.
Let's see what happens to Japan in the next decade or 2.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:19PM
The youngest Americans don't pay taxes yet. As Bertie Wooster would put it, "they're young.... they'll learn."
mames| 5.10.11 @ 5:18PM
As a member of the baby boom generation I am disgusted and ashamed of my collectivist thinking generation, they, on the shoulders of their grandparents ( FDR, Wilson, Fed Res), have done enormous damage to the Constitutionally Limited Republic. From the "greatest generation" (more like ignorant socialists) came the me generation and the anti american generation.
Frisbee| 5.10.11 @ 9:22PM
You're right PJ: progressives do not procreate. But unfortunately they control the education system. So by the time a government-raised person can vote, they are sex addicted leftists.
PattyMor| 5.10.11 @ 9:19AM
We have a cheerleading Marxist Media. Instead of watchdogs we have partisan hacks. They obfuscate or bury any news that damages Demons, but play up any little Rat misstep. Macaca anyone?
Then there is the irresponsible congress who abrogated their powers to unelected bureaucrats to make rules that have the effect of law. A congress who routinely passes budgets that spends way too much money and then don't have the courage to pass the tax increases needed to pay for the spending.
A congress that does not put into practice their oath to fidelity to the Constitution. So we have Miss Nancy asking are you serious when asked about the constitutionality of Obummercare. A congress who routinely confirm judges that care not a whit about the Constitution. Anyone for a wise Latina? A congress that confirmed the pathetic, partisan, terrorist defending hack Erick Holder.
A gov'ment that created a whole host of regulatory bureaucracies that would save us from rampant capitalism? Well the same congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act and used Fannie & Freddie to pass tainted mortgages around the world. Who is going to save us from rampant gov'ment?
We have the E.P.A. created by Tricky Dick. It is fast becoming the bureaucracy that ate the economy. We have a gov'ment that passes out Billions for Brazil and Mexico to develop their oil industries; while the Prez. and his minions stiffle and permit-a-torium us to high gas prices. Try to put the wind mills and solar panels in your gas tank.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 11:00AM
Amen. In truth and by definition making a power grab beyond those enumerated in the Constitution is treason and should be treated as such. If anyone does not like our Constitution as it is say, like Obama, who sees it as a document of "negative" rights _DUH, then the amendment process is open to them. Just taking action such as with GM and bank "bailouts" ( more like funding them to buy up other financial institutions) is in fact treason because it violate the law of the land. Jefferson would have shot the Obama and most of congress by now; hell he would have done it back with FDR and the Fed Reserve . Just because they have gotten away with it does not make it ok.
PattyMor| 5.10.11 @ 9:19AM
We have a cheerleading Marxist Media. Instead of watchdogs we have partisan hacks. They obfuscate or bury any news that damages Demons, but play up any little Rat misstep. Macaca anyone?
Then there is the irresponsible congress who abrogated their powers to unelected bureaucrats to make rules that have the effect of law. A congress who routinely passes budgets that spends way too much money and then don't have the courage to pass the tax increases needed to pay for the spending.
A congress that does not put into practice their oath to fidelity to the Constitution. So we have Miss Nancy asking are you serious when asked about the constitutionality of Obummercare. A congress who routinely confirm judges that care not a whit about the Constitution. Anyone for a wise Latina? A congress that confirmed the pathetic, partisan, terrorist defending hack Erick Holder.
A gov'ment that created a whole host of regulatory bureaucracies that would save us from rampant capitalism? Well the same congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act and used Fannie & Freddie to pass tainted mortgages around the world. Who is going to save us from rampant gov'ment?
We have the E.P.A. created by Tricky Dick. It is fast becoming the bureaucracy that ate the economy. We have a gov'ment that passes out Billions for Brazil and Mexico to develop their oil industries; while the Prez. and his minions stiffle and permit-a-torium us to high gas prices. Try to put the wind mills and solar panels in your gas tank.
Dan Hirsch| 5.10.11 @ 9:32AM
I very clearly remember the Carter years. At the end of his first term many commentators were suggesting that the Presidency is too big for one man. When Reagan took over leadership, (which Carter never actually did) the economy had three or four rough years of readjustment as we got inflation (HONESTLY REPORTED) and high interest rates under control and tight energy supplies loosened- unemployment, then HONESTLY REPORTED , started getting a lot better and the economy took off for twenty-five very good years of growth. It was Jimmy Carter's lack of leadership and determination to maintain the USA as a world leader that withered the dollar's value overseas, the false regulatorily created energy shortages and the high tax rates without relief in sight that brought us to that state.
Ronald Wilson Reagan changed the direction of the dollar by first strengthening our military. Anybody notice what happened to gold and oil prices on the news of bin Laden's demise? They both fell significantly. But then tax-cheat Geithner opened his big, ill-informed mouth spouting off about raising the debt ceiling and continuing the US-led attack on the dollar and commmodities' prices recovered (I hate that use of the word.) somewhat.
My belief is every generation raised in relative stability elects a President for some quality other than leadership, then learns, first hand that the first priority in a President is leadership, then go for the boutique candidate rationale. Carter was the hyper-technologist (You might remember he was a nuculah engineah, even if he couldn't pronounce it.) that was supposed to be so super smart that he could solve the energy and inflation problems we had in the mid seventies.
He wasn't really not on anybody's radar until early spring of '76, Time magazine put him on the cover in January and suddenly he was inevitable over the so-called dunce Ford. Carter won in November.
Obama, same thing he is oh, so smart, oh so glib, and oh so slightly black. This time America was trying to get out from under the rain of racism charges (NOT clouds, rain, from a group of people who make their living by 'solving' a non-existent problem) thinking that electing a black man would prove that this is not a racist country, something that we have been proving since the Civil War, the eradication of the Democrat-led KKK in the '20's and '30's, and culminating in the civil rights legislation of 1963. We were trying to prove something that any rational human would know was not true - this is not a racist nation-especially when you look at the rest of the world. However, we glossed over the leadership question because we really believed that we needed to dispell this whole racism thing.
Result, an non-leader who really cannot make a decision or take action; all that he can do is move in one direction, far left as fast as possible. Osama bin Laden? Gee, President Clinton was asked that question TWICE and got it wrong both times (after the first WTC bombing) then Bush spent 7 and a half years chasing bin Laden and Obama's numbers have been in the tank for too long so he finds him and kills him. Listen to the White House push bin Laden's criticallity to Al Qaeda and to hear Obama use the forbidden word 'terroist' yet not state simply and clearly that we killed a bad guy without bringing up apparently imaginary rationalizations and all the malarkey shows that Obama is still undecided on whether to take out bin Laden or not.
Gas prices: in October 2008 we were paying over $4 per gallon, oil was trading at $140 per barrel. Geo Bush came out and said that we're going to open up offshore drilling and in December oil was under $50 a barrel and the price at the pump was $1.59 gallon. Check it out! These numbers are real. Obama has stopped domestic production thanks to his response to the BP spill and his left wing global warming fear mongering and hate speech against American production of energy.
A real President could easily reproduce that event, although he'd have to fire tax cheat Geithner and re-work the budget (or just adopt Paul Ryan's plan.) too.
Yes we are in decline, but it is a life lesson for a new generation of voters - we just have to make sure that the 2012 election is clean and fair. America will take care of the rest.
Don't tread on me!
Nunya| 5.10.11 @ 1:47PM
Dan, well said.
We as a country lack a clear vision, and too many fell for the "hope and change" malarky with Obozo, thinking that he could give us that vision. (Instead, what he's given us is record spending, record deficits, a complete lack of leadership, etc. ) I've spoken with some who say "Carter gave us Reagan", implying that the second worst President ever gave us one of the best, and that should repeat itself with Obozo (being #1 in that "worst" category). Unfortunately, I haven't seen many strong leaders in the R group that I think have the vision and the courage needed to implement that vision for the country. My fear is, if we can't find our "Reagan", this country is doomed. We are truly at a crossroads, and if we don't turn this ship around, we become Rome all over again. Destroyed from within by fools.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:20PM
Dan,
that was a lovely post, neither hateful nor snipish. Thank you.
Unfortunately, I have a cross to bear.
Pecos Pete| 5.10.11 @ 10:06AM
Dear TAS Editors: I appreciate your effort with this article. I'd suggest you invite the "many" Republican presidential candidates to submit similar SHORT commentaries stressing their solutions.
Nunya| 5.10.11 @ 1:47PM
Great idea, PP!!
Petronius| 5.10.11 @ 10:26AM
86 this and ask the question that begs response. The lowlife have the upper hand and have turned government at all levels into their support group. Who is going to stop this legion of parasites from ruining what's left of the United States?
Appleby| 5.10.11 @ 10:52AM
Who is John Galt?
Louis Jenkins| 5.10.11 @ 10:33AM
Obama is the problem. Obama has his war on oil, his war on the economy, his war on health care, he even slept on whether to kill Osama or not, etc. This man has a war on every thing. Then he stands before his audience and spins his lies of deceit and the hand picked crowd cheers, roils in his wisdom, and bows to such a extreme display of wisdom. He is urinating in the churn and expects the middle class to drink. How can the USA lead when we have three wars to contend with? How can we lead when we're worried about the cost of food escalating? If Obama is re-elected the decline of America will be certain.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 11:01AM
Obama is not the only problem he has toadies in the dems and RINOs.
mark cost| 5.10.11 @ 11:57PM
the reason obumer got elected was from anglo-saxon simpathy voters ,and the million of americans that vote on emotions ,in fact ,those americans make daily decisions on emotions,(their ignorant)The republicans will have to campaign aggresively to penetrate their granite heads to get a president like Reagan in 2012
Dr. X| 5.10.11 @ 10:50AM
It's easy to dismiss the "America is in decline" thesis. After all, we've survived the Civil War, the Depression, WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam.
But there are several factors fundamentally different this time: 1) our educational and social elites are profoundly anti-American, anti-patriotic, and anti-bourgeois. They disdain the Constitution and the Protestant Ethic. 2) Welfarism has made it more rational for many people to suck off the government teat than to work. What made America unique in the past was boundless opportunity for those who could seize it, but there was no safety net. Today, the path to political power is to promise classes of voters freebies with other peoples' money. 3) We have not achieved racial "equality," but rather encouraged racial Balkanization and white self-flagellation. Reverse racial preferences are enforced by Orwellian government bureaucrats.
Therefore I say we are absolutely finished unless these things change dramatically, and I see no indication that they will.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 11:04AM
Yes, a return to collectivist vomit. Fundamentally anti Constitutionally Limited Republic. If not soon fixed we will live in a state worst than Europe or there will be blood in the streets, preferable K street and on every street where a traitor congressperson lives.
Whitey O'Carr Kennedy Dukaiis| 5.10.11 @ 5:31PM
Please refrain from using gender inclusive language. That's how all of this got started.
Dan Hirsch| 5.10.11 @ 11:12AM
Dr. X.
The late seventies had many of the same conditions and add to that a massively aggressive, capable, and intentional opponent in the Soviet Union.
Really - a good leader can turn this around rather quickly.
Also the racism is not SELF-flagellation - we are being whipped by the race baiters who are, to a man and woman, black or brown. That a lot of progressives have joined in is doubtless. But it would be pretty ridiculous for a bunch of liberals to stand up and shout that 'You are all racists!' unless some different-colored people were standing up whining about racist treatment they thought they had received.
G Wayne| 5.10.11 @ 11:21AM
I notice that each of the contributors to the article seem to count decline as that which has monetary value. The problem with this nation now is the moral decline we are in that started with the Frankfurt school and has continued to this day. It is this underlying philosophy that has led to situational ethics, outcome based education, shool-to-work, and political correctness at all levels of education, government, and now business. Take a look at the subject matter for the average sitcom, daytime talk show, or hollywood movie and then tell me we are not in moral decline. Great Britian went from Christian to post-Christian to neo-pagan and now head long toward Muslim. What would Spurgeon think of his great nation today. America is likewise on that same path. We are certainly declining but that does not mean, Lord willing, that there can not be another great awakening.
Don Baird| 5.10.11 @ 11:29AM
John Bolton for President!
Doctor Right| 5.10.11 @ 12:35PM
Here, here!
So far, he's my # 1 choice.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:24PM
As you know, Doctor Right, I, too have referred to John Bolton as my "dream rabbit," (Have you noticed I'm a Jeeves and Wooster fan?) and I applaud your good sense.
This is why I never take theological disagreements with you personally; one, because I know of many people like you, having graduated from TCU over a quarter century ago now, and two, because, unlike certain posters I shall not name, you personally and your views, certainly, wish the best for my family and I. Definitely sound on Pekes, as the master would say.
canuckistani| 5.10.11 @ 12:59PM
Nope.
Nunya| 5.10.11 @ 1:50PM
You don't get a vote. Canadians can't yet vote in US Presidential elections, at least legally
Doctor Right| 5.10.11 @ 12:35PM
I've heard it all before.
Our nation has faced-down dire threats in the past, and we've always emerged stronger, wiser, and more prosperous as a result.
This current predicament - what Ms. Decter refers to as "the dumbest -- and almost certainly the most ignorant -- administration in living memory" - will one day pass, too. And with it will go a lifetime's worth of leftist dreams.
The beauty of America is that our best days are ALWAYS ahead of us.
And no two-bit, narcissistic, race-baiting, rabble-rousing simpleton from Chicago/Hawaii/Indonesia/Kenya is going to change that, no mater how hard he may try.
Nunya| 5.10.11 @ 1:51PM
From your keyboard to God's ears.... :-)
mames| 5.10.11 @ 2:31PM
This admin is neither dumb or stupid they do what they do ON PURPOSE like good little Alinskite progressives (that word should be "regressive" since they intend to return us to collectivism from which we came.
Dave Williams| 5.10.11 @ 12:38PM
As a professor, I am in daily contact with America's youth, and therefore its future, and I must sadly report that we are already in deep and irreversible decline. With some honorable exceptions, my students can't read, can't write, can't think critically, and even when these deficiencies are brought to light, show no interest in (let alone drive toward) remedying them. Their concerns range no further than 20 miles afield or two weeks in the past, and indeed, it seems that their prime concern is the school's football team. Their binkies have utterly deprived them of any capacity for reflection, calmness, meditation, or abstract thought. I don't often reflect positively on mortality, but when I realize I will be safely in my grave before this crowd starts managing things, I am profoundly grateful. I shudder to think what the ruins of this country will look like in 50-100 years. The good intentions and high abilities of a few will absolutely not be enough to prevent a future that will at best be philistine and at worst utterly barbaric. Sad.
Pecos Pete| 5.10.11 @ 1:04PM
Dear Professor Williams,
I graduated from university in 1965 after working a full time job and using my GI Bill. I'd have to say that the majority of students then, in the age bracket of 18 to 22, were not much different from what you describe today. Once they are forced to earn a living, not in government jobs, they grow up.
I meet college students from time-to-time now and am generally impressed with their common sense and basic intelligence. I do admit, however, to having met a few that make me wonder how they survive.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 2:39PM
Yep of course you saw much of the same, you and I came through just when the libs started implementing their indoctrination programs they still try to label as "education". When I left the University of MI in 1976 with a 3.8 I found I had to relearn everything all over again using my education as a guide as to what NOT to believe. One must seek out a classical and conservative school today as they are so rare. Just drop in on one of your state university classes and you can see that the progressivism of 1965 has become the collectivism of 2011; the profs still have their requisite long hair and beards. they never grow up. Not all learning is profitable.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:39PM
I took Religion Classes and mainstream US history classes as my break from pre-med in College. I never took one "advanced lesbian basketweaving" class.
The sciences are still pretty good in the US. But the school I plan to send my kids to is St. John's College in Santa Fe or Annapolis, if I can.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 5:30PM
Good for you. My wife and I have found that seeking out and sacrificing for a conservative, classical education has reaped rich rewards for our son as regards character, honesty, integrity, passion and love of work. No he was and is not perfect but understands that he does not need to indulge in every sinful human impulse. His friends from these parochial schools have far and away done much better than his friends and cousins in the government schools. He may never be financially wealthy, although we hope so, but he will be rich in so many other ways. His mind is also uncluttered with humanism and he is more than capable of defending what has become his own set of beliefs and principles. The things we did without to pay for this education was worth it in every way.
BTW I sat in a biology class at UM grad school in Mich a few weeks ago. You guessed it, me and the prof had a heavy debate about his blind faith and acceptance of the global warming hypothesis ( it really hasn't risen to the level of theroy yet). It was obvious that he did not fare well debating an adult rather than a government educated drone. He is an educated moron without the ability to examine the premises of his thinking.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:36PM
Pecos,
I just wish I had met more people like you when I lived in NM.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:27PM
Dear Dave,
Professor, you surely know that most collegians do not deserve to be there. You also know that your complaints were made in ancient Greece and Rome, too, well before the fall of either of them.
I work with a lot of nursing students. They're eager and interested in learning. One can mold students through kindness and interest; as a former Medical School instructor I know this.
TennesseeVolunteer| 5.11.11 @ 5:33PM
Dave, you haven't met my sons or their friends.
both graduated with honors with a baseball team full of student athletes who are achievers and are more conservative than me...almost!
We'll be just fine with them. It is getting this Marxist out of the White House that is my main concern!
Louis Tully| 5.10.11 @ 1:06PM
You don't have to read much further than the objective facts in paragraph 3 of Antle's opening piece.
What was once the greatest free economy and society on earth is now in endstage of the metastatic disease called too much government--a disease that overwhelmed our Constitutional order and the work of the founders decades ago.....
canuckistani| 5.10.11 @ 1:14PM
I have few fears about America continuing well into the future.
The one thing about our system of natural selection is that "greed" is good for the country.
China will hit the wall, no pun intended, when their structural and political deficiencies hit a peak in the next decade. The Chinese government's inclination is to assume a command economy posture in the face of challenges, but the cat might be out of the bag already and their choices will not align well with the burgeoning elite and middle-classes.
The US is suited extremely well to accept the trillions in cash investment when the Chinese option becomes untenable.
We have a relatively good water supply, usable land, and although rusting - a working infrastructure that could be improved with these investments.
The one thing missing from the US psyche is the presence of a real competitor. We have fear, which has enabled reckless pointless ethical failings from boomers on down, but not an identifiable target for our energy and ambition like the depression, Hitler/Hirohito, or a Kruschev pounding the desk with his jackboot.
The fact is no country is "kicking ass" on this planet today. Europe is old and distracted, Asia is young but lack inherent muscles to drive their country's to greatness. America has too much muscle memory and although atrophied, not unrevivable. I have great expectations for the nation at large.
If we could only get government out of the bedrooms of America.....
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:28PM
China is doomed due to demographics. 20 years to collapse.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 6:13PM
Occam's Tool,
I give them a bit more time, but the population pyramid for China at
http://www.china-europe-usa.co.....011_7a.htm
should convince anyone of the national suicide their one-child policy and accompanying female infanticide has created.
As Mark Steyn likes to say: China will get old before it gets rich.
Derek Leaberry| 5.10.11 @ 1:29PM
Antle is exactly right. Which may be why Obama should be reelected. Like a reeling drunk in search for his next drink, so America reels in moral degradation. Just as all drunks need to hit rock bottom, so must America hit the floor.
Edward G. Radler Rice| 5.10.11 @ 1:42PM
"We have a choice -- and have taken a step in the right direction with President Obama's careful position on the Libya crisis." - Stefan Halper
"[A] step in the right direction...careful position..."? That's quite funny, sir.
Seek| 5.10.11 @ 1:48PM
Morality has been "in decline" for several thousand years. Nothing new here. Cheer up, Cassandras. Societies have self-correcting mechanisms. And there is much to enjoy in the meantime.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 2:43PM
Not here. Our decline is just now getting started. WE are returning to a moral standard like that of Rome and Greece where homosexuality is acceptable, child/adult sex is fine and killing children is a choice. And God forbid anyone should decry this depravity; would not be PC.
King Edward II| 5.10.11 @ 2:54PM
People of the caliber of Emperor Elagabalus and myself rule the culture right now.
Old Progrmr| 5.10.11 @ 3:07PM
What is troubling about the commentary and the comments is that, for the most part, the condition of our Nation is being defined by discussion of CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. That in itself bodes troublesome for the country. WE are obsessed with Government. WE are permitting the entire Nation to be defined by government and those who reside within its parasitic structures. Government is NOT creative; it creates no wealth, neither should it define a people. Government is not intended to set the moral tone of society; it probably only reflects that tone. WE as a populace have, step-by-step over the decades, assigned far too much responsibility and control, far too much dependency upon government. Indeed, government is to protect us; central government is to enhance and protect commerce and deal with foreign governments. Little else. The document intended to minimize the impact of an all powerful central authority continues to be marginalized.
WE can get wrapped-up in our shorts about Presidents, wars, economics, morals, etc, etc, etc. All dominated by the relationship of these subjects with GOVERNMENT. Yes, WE are in serious crisis from which the country may not survive, but it is simply the result of a single massive issue. WE, the people, no longer control the Government as our founders intended, WE, the people, are progressively becoming willing and un-willing subjects of an un-bridled Central Government whose driving objective is its own survival and power grabbing expansion.
WE cannot compare today with any other time in our history. Today is vastly different! The central Government now operates with no checks and balances; the Executive Branch in just a few short years no longer merely governs, but RULES.
The pundits and know-it-alls can ramble on about this and that while ignoring that the nation is no longer defined by our people, by our resources, by our traditions, but only by our Government! A free society, certainly a Representative Republic cannot survive under those conditions. The times are a-changing. Until the State Governments reassert their constitutional rights and the powers of the Executive Branch seriously constrained, our decline may be terminal.
mames| 5.10.11 @ 5:41PM
This focus is a symntom of the greater moral decline which says others must take care of me and it is alright to steal from each other if the majority agrees. In 1963 the average person brought home 85% of his check today the average brings home 55% or less. That is a moral decline that is measurable. Until we speak of taxation beyond the limits of the constitution as immoral we will get nowhere. Just because congress decides to tax beyond the limits of the Cont. does not mean it is morally proper, it is tyranny of the majority over the minority rights of the rest of us, a stealing of our inalienable rights. Make no mistake about it some may call this a soft tyranny but it is very very hard on us all and there is little soft about it.
Paul| 5.10.11 @ 3:45PM
If the election of a former low level socialist agitator who never worked an honest day (college professor, politician) in his life is not proof of this country in decline, what is?
Jack in Wi.| 5.10.11 @ 4:09PM
Mr. Antle is totally right. The neo-conservtives that follow him have been wrong since the beginning. The only prominent conservatives with a lick of independence and brainpower are Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan. They have been right about the economy and these idiotic wars all along. Sadly they are both in their 70's. There is no Reagan coming up. John Bolton is totally delusional.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:29PM
Nazi and Nazi are not the way out, Jack, unless you are a Nazi. But, surprise! You are!
Clint| 5.10.11 @ 5:34PM
The Fixated Israel Firster Smear Merchant Tool Job, is Obsessed because Real American Patriots like Our Tea Party Co-Favorite Dr.Ron Paul & Conservative Pat Buchanan , like many of We Tea Party Patriots Don't Asskiss This Israel Firster Maniac's Personal Israel Firster Agenda.
The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates.
Carpe Diem.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 5:40PM
Occam's Tool,
You do Ron Paul a disservice by calling him a Nazi. We agree that his positions on foreign policy are naive, but his principled positions on government's place is rather good, don't you think? He is where he should be and I have no desire to see him in the White House.
Buchanan is a xenophobe of the first order. Whoever wants him can have him.
Jack in Wi.| 5.10.11 @ 7:12PM
Buchanan has been right for 20 years. There was no sane reason not to bring all our troops home in 1992. The country is broke and our military is broken following the Neo-consTrotskyite worldwide revolution. Is is fittng that John Bolton and Midge Decter, 2 of the earliest and most delusional neocons, have commented here. They have learned nothing from all our disasters.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 7:31PM
Jack in Wi.,
That's why we have elections. You vote your way and I'll vote mine. As I said, you can have Buchanan. I can agree with him that the American culture is worth preserving, but I cannot abide what I see as his xenophibia.
John II| 5.10.11 @ 4:09PM
Of course America is in decline, and of course America will pull out of it.
This is the silliest damn discussion I've heard in weeks, bar none. I reckon.
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:34PM
You are correct, John II. Of course we're going to recover. We are the only Western nation with good demographics and a reasonable attitude towards integrating immigrants (no, I'm not talking about illegal idiots from down South. I'm talking about geniuses from the sub-continent). But the pain of O is hard to bear.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 5:29PM
Occam's Tool,
Don't be too harsh on the "illegal idiots" from the south. If we could out-source our lawn-care, roofing and construction they would be just like the Chinese -- exporting their cheap labour in the form of finished product.
I was flying along the Mexico/New Mexico border last month looking down at the border. Every so often there would be a U.S. development on the north side and a shanty town on the south. It struck me that we would be so much better off if Mexico wasn't such a failed state for the labourer. Consider his prospects, (1) scratch out a meagre living at home, (2) transport drugs, or (3) move to Houston and hang drywall. It's hard to fault them for their choice.
John II| 5.10.11 @ 4:11PM
No--wait. I was at a faculty meeting yesterday. Correction: this is the silliest damn discussion I've heard in weeks, bar only one.
Pat| 5.10.11 @ 4:25PM
with unemployment hovering around 10 percent”. If only this so-called bad news was even that good. Because recently the Feds have taken to fudging the “official” unemployment numbers, more new jobs have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. These are real jobs the Feds insist and should be included when reducing the unemployment rate, existing but difficult to estimate newly created jobs, gestated by talented young American entrepreneurs - but no one, including the Feds, actually knows how many of these mythical jobs were recently created.
The time has come to pass when an “official” lie is preferable to the truth while keeping us Americans “informed” – and spending our own tax dollars to disseminate this propaganda. Buried among the “official” numbers is a more realistic unemployment rate exceeding 15% when you count those Americans involuntarily employed part time or working reduced hours from past years or stubbornly searching for work, any form of work which for reasons unknown can’t be readily found. In urban pockets, like Detroit, the unemployment rate is over 35%, with those who are presently employed clinging to jobs funded in whole or in part by federal, state and private agency handouts – America can now boast entire cities living off welfare provided from one source or another.
Future historians will describe us as a once great people. A nation of individuals who had thrown off rule by a King only to be ruled by uncaring bureaucrats; white collar monarchs, lacking any claim to royalty, who accept no blame, feel no responsibility and simply administer and enforce thousands of laws us bewildered citizens have supposedly demanded. All nations eventually fall, but who would have thought we could rise and then fall so quickly?
Occam's Tool| 5.10.11 @ 4:35PM
Pat, if Cain is elected, or West, or Bolton---hell, any Republican except Trump or Paul---we will be kicking ass economically and taking names internationally before the end of their first term.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 5:33PM
Occam's Tool,
He (or she) will have his work cut out undoing the damage. But I agree, all this economy really needs is some certainty that the government is getting out of the way.
Clint| 5.10.11 @ 5:36PM
The Fixated Israel Firster Smear Merchant Tool Job, is Obsessed because Real American Patriots like Our Tea Party Co-Favorite Dr.Ron Paul , like many of We Tea Party Patriots Doesn't Asskiss This Israel Firster Maniac's Personal Israel Firster Agenda.
The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates.
Carpe Diem.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 5:53PM
Clint,
You are, no doubt, aware of the Balfour Declaration which committed Britain to the creation of a Jewish state in 1917. The West supported the notion as a solution to the age old "Jewish problem". The opportunity arose when the last of the Ottoman empire came under British administration after the defeat of the Turks. The Jews then built their state amongst olive trees and desert.
So what is your solution? Is it to leave the Jews to themselves, let the Arabs kill them or relocate them elsewhere? If it is the first, you might find the U.S. has prevailed on the Jewish state to act in U.S. interests on many occasions and leaving them alone might not turn out as you like. If is is the second, there will be lots of dead Jews and Arabs and a conflagration which will probably involve Russia and China. If it is the third, then where do you suggest?
Perhaps there is a fourth option I haven't considered.
Dave| 5.10.11 @ 5:48PM
Occams, As usual you have some great posts that I appreciate. I am hoping for a Rubio, Christie or Walker. And no, we do not need anymore illegal idiots from down south and the parasites that are here now need to go back.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 6:01PM
Dave,
If you look at the immigration data, you will find that border crossings track the economy. When there are no jobs in Houston, Jose stays in Mexico - it's cheaper.
As to whether or not they are parasites (which, by the way, do not kill the host) depends on which study you read. I've been looking at them since Simpson-Mazolli days and for every one I see that says they are a net drain, there is another which says they are a net contributor.
Of course, this debate could be over if we didn't have so many social services. As Wm. F. Buckley once said (and I paraphrase) - when you start paying people to be poor, you are going to get a lot of poor people.
Dave| 5.10.11 @ 6:29PM
John, I appreciate the thoughtfullness of your post.
Having said that, I live in the Northeast, and in my town, every other Mexican woman on main street is with child, pushing a stroller, and has a 3 year old walking beside her. Sorry, but I am not buying that they are not parasites. They are here to cheat the system, and worse, they have no emotional attachment to Old Glory.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 7:39PM
Dave,
And I appreciate your concerns. Having lived in a border state for almost forty years, my experience isn't yours. I'll also suggest that past waves of immigration have mirrored your concerns, I do agree that assimilation is required.
Italians have their celebration, the Irish have St. Patrick's Day, the Chinese have their New Year and the Mexicans have their (beer company inspired) Cinco de Mayo. Just as those before them have assimilated, I suspect the Mexicans will, as well. They've been in Detroit for 100 years since Henry Ford began paying them $5 per day.
Negro X| 5.10.11 @ 10:35PM
John, 100 years ago no one was peddling, tribalism, entitlement scams, diversity of political correctness, perhaps you should rethink your position.
John Navratil| 5.10.11 @ 11:12PM
Negro X,
I'm sorry, but I don't get your point. Please tell me how the immigrant of today differs from yesterday.
Who Knows?| 5.10.11 @ 7:20PM
What is "America", and what is "decline"?
And, this query also necessarily rests on RELATIVE to what, or who, is America declining, or not declining.
I think or "America" at any instant as the living people, and what they do with the patrimony left by those who've died---the total infrastructure, physical and otherwise.
Simply put, when the trend is for two thirds to three fourths of Americans to be overweight or obese by 2020, how can anyone deny that decline is happening?
As my fit lifeguard friend noted to me, when I was bemoaning such horrors, when he was at a hospital recently, almost ALL the nurses and doctors, were, THEMSELVES, already looking quite FAT and unhealthy.
It's even obvious in medical TV ads, in particular ones looking for poor souls who just can't stop eating, for barimetric surgery, or however you spell it. Of course, the ad always features young and healthy actors playing doctors and nurses!
The trend is your friend.
It will take many years for the USA, and her vital people, to wake up and reverse this stupid high fructose corn syrup guzzling trend!
Watch Dr Lustig on his 90 minute youtube sensation, and wake up!
tatosian| 5.10.11 @ 8:14PM
"May 10, 2011 - -General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded a $77,573,788 firm-fixed-price contract May 5, 2011...One bid was solicited, with one bid received."
http://www.mmdnewswire.com/contracts-40478.html
Kodiak Jack| 5.10.11 @ 9:51PM
Antle's piece is really the "spot on" article because he includes the cultural decline as well as the economic reasons. The American particularism is ending in the combined swelter of ignorance, stupidity and debauched hedonism.
Jack in Wi.| 5.10.11 @ 10:16PM
60 million aborted babies have been replaced by 60 million immigrants. A country that thinks killing babies is a Constitutional right has no future. The neocons and their endless wars are another cause of our decline. There is no hope for this country as long as this gang is in charge. Homosexuality as a good idea is another issue that will and is sinking this country. I am not counting the obvious economic collapse we are having. USA RIP.
Dee See| 5.10.11 @ 11:30PM
Wishing Bolton would WAKE UP for real and
turn his sights on our deeply entrenched, many decades operating, globalist cultural subversion
and RED China set-up, sellout and TREASON
cabal.
REALLY, REALLY, REALLY time for that
audit, investigation, dismantling and high crimes
prosecution of our ultra-rich, conflict and subversion engendering, openly treasonous TAX FREE 'benny violent' foundations, NGO's and proxies.
We sense Bolton's the genuine article ---BUT
dangerously duped.
Hard not to be in the D.C. of today and the
TOTAL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE of the
inter-nationalists and EUGENISTS.
BCG| 5.11.11 @ 12:39AM
I think the USA should think more about NATION BUILDING back here in the USA and less around the world. I think its about time our hard earned money that we pay our taxes to our government get used for our country to be rebuilt into the strong powerhouse that it used to be, and let the IraqI's and the Afghani'sand any other country looking for a hand out build there own nation for once!
Michael Tomlinson| 5.11.11 @ 1:26AM
The overblown hype of the late 90's budget surplus, created by the Republican Congress, misses the reality that Clinton was blowing that miniscule surplus even before he left office.
There is within the heart of Americans a battle between the optimists and pessimists. While this conflict is often fought out between the optimistic right and pessimistic left within the conservative movement the self-described fiscal conservatives take on the mantle of the pessimist and lament the “decline and fall of the United States.” They have been consistently wrong and prayerfully they will continue to be so. Sadly, their green eye shade self-absorption with gloom and doom is not helping the conservative movement or the country they aver to hope the best for.
Despite the mantle of America’s transformative conservative President Reagan for all his rhetoric was in the camp of the optimists and based on his policies the antagonist of the fiscal conservatives. Not until Obama was there a President who spent like Reagan or amassed deficits so easily, but Reagan was a defender of capitalism and American exceptionalism. This is what distinguishes his successful Presidency (despite its spending, deficits and tax increases) from the failed monstrosity of Barack Obama. An administration built on the failed pessimism of FDR and LBJ that America is a flawed society and only the intervention of elite oligarchs will save it from doom.
If the sourness of the fiscal conservatives does not drag down the GOP or the Tea Party doesn’t hand Obama a second term with a inane third party run things will get back on track in 2013 as the GOP leads the nation onto a path of economic success and prosperity as seen from the middle of Reagan’s first term to the last two years of the Bush (43) administration that was undermined by a Democrat Congress courtesy of the fiscal conservatives incessant “bleating” about profligate Republicans.
chaussures mbt moto | 5.11.11 @ 3:11AM
nice job!
Scandalised from Australia| 5.11.11 @ 3:58AM
Of course the USA is in decline. Let us hope it is temporary. One stunning sign of decline is the inability to secure the southern border. No nation can survive such contempt of its border. Remember the Western Roman Empire imported foreigners to man the legions and then gave the ex soldiers citizenship and so diluted the Empire that eventually the foreigners told the Romans what to do. Another big cause of decline is more temporary. It is that the number of people retiring from the workforce because of age is less than the number of people entering the workforce, and also less than the number of people reaching middle age, the peak years of work. This will not last for ever, unlike Japan, but it must erode the tax base for a decade or so. If during this period the USA faces a crisis such as a large war, or a nuclear detonation, or a large scale invasion then the USA will be in even more trouble. The USA may be able to recover from the temporary demographic decline as long as she is prepared, mentally and physically.
Derek Leaberry| 5.11.11 @ 9:30AM
Having read the whole symposium through on my back deck last night, beer at my side, I was struck at how obtuse everyone but Jim Antle was regarding American decline. One writer, I think it was Midge Decter, inexplicably regarded the safety of Israel as part of the discussion. Several writers seemed to be looking through the prism of Reagan's 1985 America, a fine past but a distant past.
So let's look at a few quick facts of America's decline. 40 percent illegitimacy rate. 50 percent divorce rate. 1 million abortions a year. Family dysfunction widespread. 30 million illegal immigrants have come to America, almost all of them Third World, a calamity that has transformed the nation's demographics negatively. $1.5 trillion deficits for as far as the eye can see. A culture in free-fall pagan collapse. The widespread acceptance of dishonorable behavior. This is a country heading downhill fast and if this symposium is the best "conservatives" can do to analyze American decline, perhaps America is playing out the later stages of the Western Roman Empire.
gearjammer| 5.11.11 @ 10:01AM
I am having dental work done at a Boston teacing hospital. The young resident in training there looks like he should be shooting hoops with his buddies. The young hispanic women who is the dental assistant I can picture strolling in the mall with her girlfriends. They learned I was a viet Nam vet and said it was an honor and privelige to serve me. I was staggered. They were top notch in capping my tooth with a new crown. I thought if we have people like them coming up we will be ok. The same goes for the young kids who work at my super market. These people are reasonable and will not be the blind followers of radical nonsense so many boomers were. I hope.
Brian Reilly | 5.11.11 @ 8:24PM
America is in the midst of great change. Modern Western Civilization is over, and we are in the scrum to see what culture will dominate the globe for the next epoch. Right now, something signally American is a good (though not the only) bet, but it is not clear quite what it might be. We head into a rough patch of fifty years or so, and our grandchildren will know if we were doing the right things.
Joe Librandi| 5.24.11 @ 2:38PM
I love the optimists like Matt Latimer who see the bright side of the current state of the US with a wave of the hand and statements like “we’ve heard it all before.”
Sure; “We must maintain a strong, robust, and flexible military force.” Unfortunately, our military is so infused with Political Correctness and inept officials that I’m not confident we have what it takes to decisively win wars. “…that deploys it’s considerable power with patience and prudence”? Like in Libya and the neverending “wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Good luck getting the schools to teach the core values of our Constitution. They can't even teach math and grammar. And we’ve already made some destructive cultures and traditions part of our own, i.e. Hip Hop, the gangsta mentality, and Islam, while eliminating all things Judeo-Christian.
All great empires decline and fall and I believe the branches of the US government are so big and corrupt and have moved so far from the founder’s intentions, that we’re too far gone. We have too many uninformed voters and too many citizens (and non-citizens) who are vested in an ever-growing government. Even a little sacrifice from those on the dole is too much. Witness Wisconsin, etc.
Four more years of Obama will be the final nail in the coffin.
Intelligent Design| 5.29.11 @ 6:04AM
The United States is weaker now than it was 50 years ago.