The Fate of the U.S.

Victor David Hanson responds to a question on how long the United States can last as a country:

We are doing very well at over 200 years, and more if we count colonial America. Aren’t we the longest democracy in continuous existence? I will say at least another 200, longer if we solve this dichotomy between a multiracial society (good) and a multicultural society (very bad). It takes generations to build a multi-ethnic state allied to common values and ties, and just weeks for some firebrand to tear it all down.

(emphasis mine)

Watch also our elite in politics, letters, universities, and the media. Do they argue for public service and sacrifice, and talk unabashaedly about honor and shame or do they descend into metaphor, allegory, sarcasm, irony, and nihilism? Some days the op-eds of the New York Times seem right out of late Roman literature with their smug dismissal of the hoi polloi, and the in-the-know uncovering of various machinations and conspiracies by the bogeymen of the military, church, or corporation.

On the right, watch the concentration of vertically integrated concerns that mimic big government and have no loyalty other than to its own profit-mad elite. We have some symptoms of decline, but have a long slide to enjoy, primarily because of the wonderful work of our parents and grandparents, and a constitution and 200 years of allied democratic exegesis to guide us.