Decline And Fall Of The American Empire

The economic powerhouse of the 20th century emerged stronger from the Depression. But faced with cultural decay, structural weaknesses and reliance on finance, can the US do it again?

by Larry Elliot - June 6th, 2011 - London Guardian

The US is a country with serious problems...

The assumption is that the problems can be easily solved because the US is the biggest economy on the planet, the only country with global military reach, the lucky possessor of the world's reserve currency, and a nation with a proud record of re-inventing itself once in every generation or so...

Let me put an alternative hypothesis. America in 2011 is Rome in 200AD or Britain on the eve of the first world war: an empire at the zenith of its power but with cracks beginning to show.

The experience of both Rome and Britain suggests that it is hard to stop the rot once it has set in...

Scary thought. Yet many are starting to think it. Rarely does a week go by that someone does not write an article about another American institution that is coming apart at the seams. People are starting to wonder if they would not be better off if their states were no longer a part of this nation. Hatred for fellow Americans has long been a staple of the extreme left. Now there are some on the right who have reached a point of visceral disgust with our nation's voters as well.

Republican leadership actually denigrates a huge minority, if not the majority, of its own voters. Democrats have had 5 years of control of congress and 3 years of total control of congress and the executive... yet the President and leader of that party insists he is not at fault for anything. He is trying to clean up the mess of Republicans blah blah blah. He too smears the same Republican voters that the Republican leadership smears.

No one is taking any actions to actually fix anything. The country is headed for a cliff and all that the leadership of either party does is posture for the next election.

If that is not a country headed for decline and fall, no description will ever fit.