The Political Decline

Another candidate or two said the same thing. I have long said, the iceberg is straight ahead and those with their hands on the wheel are blind. Finally, some of our leaders are waking up to what is unfolding. We have to first recognize the problem, before we can address the problem. On the downside, DeSantis and Vivek politicized it saying/ implying the decline is due to Joe Biden. No doubt the decline is continuing to accelerate (the political decline for sure), but the truth is the decline has been unfolding for decades now. All the last 8 or 9 Presidents have been doing is steering us right for the iceberg, albeit at different rates. We are Rome about 180 AD, or about 60 years beyond our peak.

For 13 years now, I’ve been saying our nation is in decline. More to the point, in 2010 I called our decent “a long slide” that will result in parts of the financial or real economy collapsing in some way, shape or form sometime over the next two decades.

Initially, I highlighted our moral decline. How it began somewhere between the assassination of JFK (1963) and the Summer of Love (1967). How in the decades that followed, collectively we have lost our sense of right and wrong. I highlighted the cultural decline as reflected in movies, TV and the internet. How it was especially targeted at children and this would accelerate our fall as we “grew into decline” as the silent generation died off and was replaced with those brought up in today’s anything goes culture.

I wrote things like this: “Instead they are watching TV, movies, playing video games and listening to music that is showering them with harmful lessons like, party 24-7, talk with 4-letter words, dis-respect authority, violence is the way to solve your problems, have sex now, and our anyone can marry anyone laws.”

In 2010 I wrote about the economic decline, how it started about the year 2001 and how the economic decline was beginning to lower our standard of living, especially those in the bottom quarter of the income spectrum. The economic decline is rooted in rising public and private debt. How that would raise interest rates and would slow the economy. In turn, the government would step in and print money to keep rates from rising. Inflation would result and that would slowly chew up purchasing power bit by bit.

I wrote throughout the 2010’s the true inflation rate was about 5 or 6 percent, incomes were growing at only 3 percent, so annually those living hand to mouth were losing about 2 or 3 percent of his purchasing power. After 10 years, 25 percent of their purchasing power is gone. No wonder dollar stores and dollar menus are now all over the place. Those at the margin are slowly being squeezed.

The debt ladened economy nearly collapsed in September 2008 (Lehman Brothers) and March 2020 (Covid-19). There would have been other to the foundation cracks if it wasn’t for: staggering borrowing, printing of money, artificially low interest rates, expanding government safety net, juicing up home and stock prices to give us a false sense of confidence and the massive transfer of wealth from the silent/ baby boomers to their heirs.

I also wrote about how we no longer feared God as a nation and lost sight of his instruction here on earth. The spiritual decline has been unfolding since the 1980’s I believe. Finally, the social decline or the inability of our nation to unify in a common cause I’ve touched on here and there. That started in the early 1960’s I believe.

What I did not see coming and I was totally clueless about was the unfolding political decline. This is new to my overall long-term decline theme. There is no longer any rules when it comes to getting and holding on to political power. Tucker Carlson asking Trump, “will they try to kill you?” Even he sees how quickly things are declining in this do what you can do to win political environment. Sad.

What the Democrats are doing is dangerous and another ratcheting down that will further accelerate the decline. Impeachment used to be reserved for gross conduct and law breaking in office. It has been turned another political tool to use against the opposition party like a 3-month-running attack ad. Manipulating elections rules and gaming the system in order to gain a political advantage is now part of the Democrat playbook. Dems are using law enforcement to prosecute their political enemies (e.g., FBI Russia hoax and IRS investigations of conservative 501c3 groups and now the prosecutions of Trump. A complete hoax in the former and unequal justice in the latter two).

The US is inching closer and closer to the edge of the political cliff. This needs to be stopped. If not, Republicans will then have to do the same, and these third-world tactics will be cemented into our nation’s political playbook.

Decades later, we are no longer a shining city on a hill. The right/ wrong direction surveys confirm it, as they’ve been negative for 13 years now. Even the ruling class is starting to recognize the mess they’ve created. The people have the ultimate power. At all levels we have to begin to elect leaders who are candid in the assessment, are principled and more forceful leaders. I don't think we've hit the iceberg yet, but it is dead ahead I think. The unfolding political decline will be most telling. Will the adults step in and stop it? Or does it just continue to unravel and both sides begin to use the same "at any cost" tactics to hold on to/ gain power?