it seems everything is falling apart....?

Question

i love this country (US) despite our terrible leaders and our strange social stuffs. history will repeat itself. Rome: started as nothing, grew to the most powerfull nation the world has seen, and then collapses into itself due to its own corruption. it was so good at defending itself that nobody could destroy it, except for itself. thats happening to America. arguably the most powerful nation the world has seen, its quickly killing itself. our freedoms are being violated. the constitution will be revised, surely. when its done there will either be 17 Amendments, or there will be 28. they may delete the first 10, our beloved Bill o' Rights. Or they may make a 28th that voids the first 10. so, how can we, as Americans, help America off of her knees and bring her to her former glory?

its only a matter of time before we wont be allowed to say this type of stuff anymore.

Answer 1

Be careful to keep things in perspective. We were much worse off under Nixon: we had the VietNam War, Arab Oil Embargos, skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, government corruption (both Nixon and his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace over their crimes). Unarmed students were shot by armed national guardsmen for protesting the war. There was open racial warfare between the Black Panthers and the FBI. There was mass rioting in the streets. Young men with long hair were subjected to ridicule and violence by conservatives. Liberals were considered second class citizens, and told by conservatives "America: Love it or Leave it". The Cold War was still in full swing, with offshore Soviet Subs armed with nukes that could reach everywhere in the country (this was when coastal airbases began to be moved to central areas because they were sitting ducks anywhere near the ocean. In VietNam, where we were clearly losing the war, the death toll was pushing 50,000. Thats 25 times higher than our death toll in Iraq. People who complained about the war or criticized Nixon and his gang of crooks were labelled liberal traitors.

Trust me, it was even worse back then.

Answer 2

It may seem that way, but it has been far worse in our past.

In WWII, all of the Japanese-Americans were rounded up and placed in camps for the duration of the war. Abraham Lincoln suspeded writ of habeus corpus in Maryland during the Civil War, though it was a state of rebellion.

Rome grew weak due to a disinterested society, and an unwillingness to use its own soldiers. Rome hired mercaneries to do its dirty work, and the people of the Roman Empire were too focused with their own lives. If you just spend a few minutes in the politics section here, you will see that the US' citizens are far from disinterested. Americans are still very interested in the defense of their great nation from the threat of losing civil liberties to the threats of terrorism.

Rome had begun to overextend itself militarily. It may appear that the US is becoming overextended, but we have hardly tapped our military potential. In WWII, we were fighting on 3 continents, 2 oceans, as well has defending our own nation. Today, America has troops stationed around the world, but the vast majority of those aren't fighting, and we do not control the regions in which we have bases. There are really two major fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are far smaller, both in terms of people and territory, when compared to even the African theater of WWII.

Although this is not likely to happen, the US still does have the power to initiate a draft. The size of our military could increase drastically in a matter of months.

America is more economically and militarily powerful than any nation in the world. One could argue that China is on the verge of challenging us, but China's biggest economic advantage is cheap labor, but as it moves towards capitalism and a higher quality of life, it will lose that.

I understand your "slippery slope" concerns, but whether or not the US is using torture or if the illegal wiretaps are actually legal, is still up for debate. I feel that the biggest threat to our first amendment rights is coming from the very people who oppose the loss of other rights. Political correctness is stifling freedom of expression.

But I am not concerned about either of these. Think of them as a pendulum, it will only go so far in one direction before it swings back towards the middle.

Answer 3

A country cannot stand when it has no respect for its own laws.

Rome fell to the barbarians (their equivalent of our terrorists) because they lost the rule of law, and descended into corruption.

And we're seeing the same thing happen here, with Congressmen being indicted several times a year, and an executive branch that refuses to follow or enforce by any law that it doesn't personally like.

The solution is personal accountability. People who break the laws need to be held accountable for their actions. That doesn't mean shooting everyone who goes 3 miles over the speed limit. That means holding people accountable for what they've done. Serious crimies get serious punishments. Minor crimes are not just ignored.

And that applies to all areas -- elected officials, illegal immigrants, police officers, drug dealers, terrorists, everyone. Becuase if we start ignoring our laws whenever we feel like it, we'll have lost everything that we stand for and everything that we've fought for.

Answer 4

honestly, i think we'd have to have a major social, economic, and political overhaul. i think the disposable society and special interests are killing us as is the fact that way too many of our citizens don't seem to care about anything except their own personal gain and what they can have right now. it affects every aspect of our country. the way our politicians operate, the way they develop (corrupt) the system, the way people in general treat the environment and each other.

there are a score of approaches to take, but it involves changes i don't think the majority is willing to make. nor are they prepared to wait for these changes to take effect. actually, they may not even be alive long enough to see any long term results. because we're so screwed up, we'd have a great deal of work to do.

i do love the us though. i've lived in other countries for work reasons, and i gotta say, even with all of our problems, i still pick here.

that's just me though.

Answer 5

Bless you for seeing this. Not many do. Our rights ARE being dwindled away. We have a President who bypasses the checks and balances of our judicial system and Congress( both of whom are equals to the Executive branch) The Republicans, who control the House and the Senate, give our President free leeway to do what He chooses without any accountability because they want to keep their fruitful jobs. The only way I can see to help is voting Republicans out of office so we can get some accountability back into the White House.

Answer 6

Check out the following links...

Answer 7

Well it won't be the fault of the conservatives. It was excess and lack of morals and shear decadence that killed Rome. They no longer paid any attention to the outer areas.