An American Nadir

Decline is a choice. The choice is ours.

America, it’s your 250th birthday. I’m not sure any of us wanted it to look like this.

America is a nation that is currently in decline. We have abandoned our allies. We have abandoned our commitments. We have entrusted power to those who care only about the accumulation of wealth and prestige, an appetite for which appears insatiable. We have made foreign policy less about ideals and more about transactions.

There is no better image of the decline of the American Republic than this.

The destroyed East Wing of the White House is quite the juxtaposition of the President’s preparation for the Bread and Circuses in his front yard. A Capital City hidden behind construction, barbed wire, algae, and the National Guard

Decline is a choice. America made that choice on November 5th, 2024. It was not the first time that American voters had chosen decline. The voters were presented with two particularly bad options for leadership. Even the most adamanet opponent of the victor could never have imagined things would go this badly this fast.

We are a nation on the verge of a technological revolution, with no understanding of what that means to our economy, our tax base, or our way of life. We are a nation on the verge of hyperinflation caused by schizophrenic government policies and a war of choice in Southwest Asia.

And the voters are left with a choice between two woefully unserious political parties. One party that wants to transform the American culture and way of life through transgendrism, socialism, and a nanny state. The other party has become little more than a personality cult directed toward an old, physically decrepit, mentally decrepit, and morally vacant man who cares about nobody and nothing but himself and his fragile ego. Those who do have an ideological lodestar within this party often agree with the socialism and nannystatism of the other party.

Instead of leadership, we get bombast. Arches. Combat sports. Car races. We get racist immigration policies championed by a balding 30-something who looks like an anthropomorphic hemorrhoid. We get health care policies written by a scientifically illiterate septuagenarian with brain worms and a fascination with road kill. We get a foreign policy that has little to do with putting “America First” and more to do with “who can kiss the President’s ass better.” And instead of bringing our troops home as we were promised, we have started foreign adventures in places we never needed to be.

All while we sit and wait for the DOGE checks we knew would never come.

I don’t know if this is what the decline of the Roman Empire felt like, but it damn sure seems relatable.

But decline is a choice. But so is reversing that decline. As Ronald Reagan said in 1964:

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

We can choose one of two paths. We can continue on the path we are on, of conflict, struggle and perfidy. Or we can choose the path of community, integrity, and liberty. The choice begins not in Washington, on Wall Street, or in our State Capitols; it begins at home, in our neighborhoods, in our communities. The choice begins with us.

What do you choose?