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Well, we can’t say we were not warned. It would certainly be helpful if candidates for the presidency and other elective offices in the U.S. in 2012 read this book and were asked in the debates about how to stave off the ongoing suicide. Buchanan does not assert that the country will not survive, but rather argues that it will no longer be the country that the Founders envisioned. If, as is likely, the United States does not alter its current trajectory, I can only hope that the book will survive to be read centuries from now by some future Gibbon as a prophetic cri de coeur unhappily ignored in its time.

Perhaps that writer will ask how a republic blessed with a continent of great natural resources, a Constitution unique in human history, and a populace blessed with the Christian faith could have committed suicide. However, Buchanan reminds us: “Demography is Destiny.” In the United States since 1973 more than 50 million future citizens have been aborted, the contraceptive mentality has brought the middle-class population below replacement level for the first time in our history, the top money-making entertainment industry is Internet pornography, and the easing of divorce laws has en-couraged adultery and split up families with devastating impact on millions of children. Now, in perhaps the final step, traditional marriage between one man and one woman is gradually becoming merely one more option. The number one health problem in our country in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Depression is not hunger, but obesity. The real question is whether America is worth saving. One thing for sure, it is no longer “Exceptional.” Consider what is left of Europe for a sobering view of our future. The only hope for our country is a moral and spiritual revival. Are we up for the challenge? The next decade should give us the answer.

That’s why ultimately we should look in the mirror for the cause of our decline. In the immortal words of Pogo: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

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About the Author

Matthew Kenefick is a Church historian who writes from Washington, D.C. and a Research Fellow of the Faith and Reason Institute. 

Letter to the Editor View all comments (4) |

Timothy L. Pennell| 4.1.12 @ 10:46AM

All great Civilizations come to an end, one way or another. The Persian Empire fell to Alexander. The great Empire that Alexander had won for Macedonia, was dispersed upon his Death in the East.

The Egyptians woke up one day, to find themselves hopelessly outmatched by ROME.

ROME's Western Empire became fat and lazy. They imported their Labour Force. They used the Goths like we use the Mexicans. Their Military became a Quasi Mercenary Force (Like that of the Carthaginian Force that Rome had defeated) with 9 out of 10 Roman Soldiers NOT being a Roman. They had become their Century's Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Eastern Empire was on the rise. Their Emperor had laid plans to Rebuild the Roman Empire to her full Glory, only to come to an end, as the Black Death reared its Hellish Face.

Genghis Khan. Attila the Hun. The Aztecs and the Maya. The Soviet Empire. All gone, for different reasons, but gone, just the same.

Enter: The West.

The Sun never sets on the British Empire. At least, it didn't used to. So, what happened? They were THE World Power since the sinking of the Spanish Armada. They had Lands all over the World. They brought order, and Education, and Western Culture to savages, all over the world, and like Alexander, they incorporated these new Subjects, in to the Empire.

So, what happened?

Liberalism. Liberalism happened. Good intentions replaced the Old Order. No longer would men STRIVE to achieve their goals. The Government would take care of them, from now on. Britain began to let go of her Colonies. No longer could she gain Wealth from her former holdings. No longer would it spend its Treasure on the World's Greatest Navy. Great Britain did something that no Great Power had ever done before. It just walked away from all of it.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal. They can't even muster an Army. They have no Navy. They cannot defend themselves in the event of an attack. And worse yet, they have allowed their greatest Enemy to live inside their borders, by the MILLIONS, because to do otherwise, would be Racist. (Where have we heard that, before?)

Our Southern Border is being overrun. Our European Base, is being hopelessly diluted. What began with a Democrat Scheme to increase their numbers: The Immigration Act of 1965, has become a Deluge, as we have an Administration of Colour, who would like nothing more than to RID THIS COUNTRY of every last person of European Descent. That's why they won't Close the Border. That's why they won't ENFORCE the Immigration Laws. That's why they KILL any attempt to fight Voter Fraud by States mandating Photo I.D.s, to Vote.

Because we felt GUILTY for things we never did - (Peggy Noonan. Elliot Spitzer's sl*t - Kathleen Parker. Mort Zuckerman. The rest of you know who you are.) - we have a White Hating, Jew Hating, America Hating Black Muslim President who REFUSES to open the Vault in "Asia" (Hawaii) and let us see who he REALLY is.

Because we felt GUILTY, we elected a Marxist/Communist/Maoist to the Highest Office in the Land. No Experience. No Vetting. A man who sat in the HATE CHURCH of a White Hating, Jew Hating, America Hating POS "Pastor" for 20 Years. A man who has been FRIENDS with Cop Killing, Recruitment Center Bombing, Pentagon Bombing, Unrepentant DOMESTIC TERRORISTS for 20 Years.

But it's okay.

Because we proved that we're good people. We proved that we're not Racist. And we will continue to prove these things until we discover that the VISIGOTHS have overrun the City, and we are no longer the Great Empire that we once were, and that a New Dark Ages is upon us.

Alas.

The repeat of History claims another one that failed to LEARN from what had transpired in the Past.

Pity.

RJ| 4.1.12 @ 12:10PM

It is true that Protestant ethics and virtue was a main ingredient of America's exceptionalism. Also, the Founders believed that luxury would lead to laziness and corruption. America's economic prosperity has led to laziness and the noticeable decline of Christian values has led to a society in decline. Each generation chooses its own values. We can turn this situation around, but the trend has been strongly in the other direction for the last several years.

Tony| 4.1.12 @ 4:07PM

A distinguished professor from Yale said to me the other night that the only hope for the survival of the humanities in America lay in small Catholic colleges (and, I'll cheerfully add, small evangelical colleges also). So we have been rearing a most dangerous and irresponsible class of "rulers": the highly schooled but not deeply educated elites, to be found on Wall Street, in corporation offices, in law firms, in charge of hospitals, running the public and quasi-public media and Hollywood, and so forth. These are people not only ignorant of Christian doctrine, Christian art, and Christian history. They are also ignorant of the greatest of pagan thought, and of pagan history. It's not only that they are ignorant of Scripture. They're even ignorant of Plato and Aristotle, and Cicero and Virgil. They are the worst of all possible "rulers": they have high IQ's, lousy education, boundless ambition, and no ties to anything local or small or traditional. Their arrogance, too, is in proportion to the gaping chasms in what they have studied.

George Gilder | 4.3.12 @ 10:48PM

Another scintillating review by "Matthew Kenefick", who transcended the obvious foibles of Pat Buchanan to project his pedi-crucial insights.

More Articles by Matthew Kenefick

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