An American Prophecy

The passage of ObamaCare (with all its corrupt bargains, un-Constitutional mandates and parliamentary skullduggery) has put the United States firmly on the road to decline and fall unless it can somehow be repealed by the Legislature (unlikely) or invalidated in the courts (even more unlikely based on the legal profession's long-standing love of Marxism, Socialism and all other social fads).

Now Mark Steyn has written a somber and probably accurate prophecy of what the future without the United States may hold. Writes Steyn,

Is America set for decline? It’s been a grand run. The country’s been the leading economic power since it overtook Britain in the 1880s. That’s impressive. Nevertheless, over the course of that century and a quarter, Detroit went from the world’s industrial powerhouse to an urban wasteland, and the once-golden state of California atrophied into a land of government run by the government for the government. What happens when the policies that brought ruin to Detroit and sclerosis to California become the basis for the nation at large? Strictly on the numbers, the United States is in the express lane to Declinistan: unsustainable entitlements, the remorseless governmentalization of the economy and individual liberty, and a centralization of power that will cripple a nation of this size. Decline is the way to bet. But what will ensure it is if the American people accept decline as a price worth paying for European social democracy.

The sad part? Speaking as someone with more than a casual knowledge of history, I think he's right. Decline is a choice, but history has proven time and again that most liberal nations eventually choose it. Athens, Rome, Byzantium and Britain are all great nations that allowed themselves (and in the case of Britain encouraged themselves) to grovel at their enemies' feet and profess their own inadequacies. So too does much of the self-elected elite in the United States celebrate barbarism and blindly follow social system and philosophies that have long been exposed as good only to the elites.

The United States has indeed had a great run, but once socialism has taken over, we are done as surely as the Western European nations who have lived off our backs for the past sixty years or so. And once America falls, who will protect Europe? Who will be the motor of the UN's corrupt coffers? As Steyn concludes.

One sympathizes with Americans weary of global responsibilities that they, unlike the European empires, never sought. The United States now spends more on its military than the next 40 or so nations combined. Yet in two rinky-dink no-account semi-colonial policing campaigns, it doesn’t feel like that, does it? A lot of bucks, but not much of a bang. You can understand why the entire Left and an increasing chunk of the Right would rather vote for a quiet life. But that’s not an option. The first victims of American retreat will be the many corners of the world that have benefited from an unusually benign hegemon. But the consequences of retreat will come home, too. In a more dangerous world, American decline will be steeper, faster, and more devastating than Britain’s — and something far closer to Rome’s.

And when that inevitable decline begins to make its effects felt, will the American media and Leftists who worked so hard to bring down their own country at last acknowledge their own responsibility for hat decline? Will they finally admit that they are the villains? Don't hold your breath.