On the Decay of America

[Kelinfort]

Less powerful, yes. However, with 315 million people, The US will dominate the Western Hemisphere long after it ceases to be the only superpower.

provided it doesn't balkanize

As bad as divisions are, America isn't made up of multiple ethnic groups united by a charismatic authoritarian leader.

[The Hobbesian Metaphysician]

Less powerful, yes. However, with 315 million people, The US will dominate the Western Hemisphere long after it ceases to be the only superpower.

provided it doesn't balkanize

The requirements for which haven't been met yet, and probably never will despite the claims of secessionists today.

[Haktiva]

provided it doesn't balkanize

The requirements for which haven't been met yet, and probably never will despite the claims of secessionists today.

I will admit it's very unlikely, and the Federal Government seems intent on maintaining control whatever happens.

[Nirvash Type TheEND]

The fact that you referred to it as the 'malaise' speech really makes me want to not take you seriously, OP.

[Colonial Rhodesia]

unfortunately there may not be an America by the time I am 20 due to all the petty quarrels and liberal traitors who dare open up the southern border.

[United Marxist Nations]

Probably worse. America's best days are behind it, and it shall experience the fate of all empires, so if not collapse, decline. Thus joining the rest of the empires of history.

America is not an empire, no matter how much you or anybody else claims it is.

It is... arguable. An Empire is just a collection of nations under control of a single government. Whether the US is an Empire depends on whether you can consider it to govern multiple nations. Given the Indigenous nations, it could certainly qualify. There are few states today which are not empires.

[Kelinfort]

unfortunately there may not be an America by the time I am 20 due to all the petty quarrels and liberal traitors who dare open up the southern border.

Go back to Rhodesia.

[The Hobbesian Metaphysician]

unfortunately there may not be an America by the time I am 20 due to all the petty quarrels and liberal traitors who dare open up the southern border.

Go back to Rhodesia.

Well you know I here they have a black president now so it isn't exactly colonial anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Zion_Gumede

[The Nuclear Fist]

I mean having a national identity associated with revolution

That seems like that would result in riots every time the government made a decision without 100% approval.

[Kainesia]

I find it hard to sympathise with a self-pity rant.

America is not decaying, it's just not alone at the top anymore.

[The Hobbesian Metaphysician]

I mean having a national identity associated with revolution

That seems like that would result in riots every time the government made a decision without 100% approval.

Well I suppose for those wanting the world to burn that would be adequate.

[Outer Sparta]

I find it hard to sympathise with a self-pity rant.

America is not decaying, it's just not alone at the top anymore.

We're decaying internally and externally. Our useless wars (Vietnam, Korea, Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq, oh, in Iraq, ISIS was created) in couple with 19 trillion in debt, bad legislation like DMCA, NDAA, and TPP, are surefire signs that America is crumbling.

[Councilmembers]

Yes, I believe that we will be stronger in 10 years.

Most people seem to have a deep-rooted tendency towards pessimism and distrust of institutions. But I like to look at improvements that we have made in the past decade:

1) We've come much closer to attaining a universal health insurance system (16-20 million people now have coverage).
2) LGBT couples can now freely serve in the military, can marry, and are becoming more accepted by society.
3) Issues like police brutality and racial injustice are being called out by groups such as Black Lives Matter, many cities across the U.S. are adopting reforms, and the two front-runners in the Democratic race for President have both pledged to reform the criminal justice system.
4) The political will for higher minimum wages and gun safety legislation continues to grow every day.
5) We now have the strongest Wall Street regulations in decades, and have come back from a devastating recession.

Call me optimistic. Call me idealistic. But my work in the community has shown me that there is big reason to hope.

[Jochistan]

unfortunately there may not be an America by the time I am 20 due to all the petty quarrels and liberal traitors who dare open up the southern border.

Considering Hispanic immigrants aren't forming mass riots, and taking up arms , collectively attacking American cities and towns in a mass revolution. I would say they really don't hurt much.

[Outer Sparta]

Yes, I believe that we will be stronger in 10 years.

Most people seem to have a deep-rooted tendency towards pessimism and distrust of institutions. But I like to look at improvements that we have made in the past decade:

1) We've come much closer to attaining a universal health insurance system (16-20 million people now have coverage).
2) LGBT couples can now freely serve in the military, can marry, and are becoming more accepted by society.
3) Issues like police brutality and racial injustice are being called out by groups such as Black Lives Matter, many cities across the U.S. are adopting reforms, and the two front-runners in the Democratic race for President have both pledged to reform the criminal justice system.
4) The political will for higher minimum wages and gun safety legislation continues to grow every day.
5) We now have the strongest Wall Street regulations in decades, and have come back from a devastating recession.

Call me optimistic. Call me idealistic. But my work in the community has shown me that there is big reason to hope.

Here's my thoughts on your list:
1. Obamacare is a big step to a universal healthcare
2. Et quote, another big change. Right-wing organizations like Boy Scouts have to adhere to rigid LGBT rules.
3. Meh, but maybe those movements seem to make it worse. Body cameras on police can track down what happened.
4. Wages to $10.75 and a ban on guns is right for me.
5. Jailing Wall Street people who do fraud and embezzlement helps. Also jail bad bankers, and you recover from the recession.
I would like to add maybe cutting defense would be another and divert it to education or something important internally. We spend more time in the international arena rather than helping our people.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

I don't see the growing detachment to the American identity as a decay, but rather an increased understanding of the social order. People are more cynical because they have more reason to be so. Of course the idea that we've ever truly been unified is rather ridiculous. There have always been Americans who were forced outside of contemporary American society. Be it race, religion, class, nation of origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation, there has never been a single America. America isn't decaying; the illusion is simply becoming increasingly transparent. This is a good thing. We need to understand that we don't all have an equal standing in this nation, and that increased consciousness is indispensable if we hope to improve our situation.

Honestly, this

[Councilmembers]

I find it hard to sympathise with a self-pity rant.

America is not decaying, it's just not alone at the top anymore.

We're decaying internally and externally. Our useless wars (Vietnam, Korea, Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq, oh, in Iraq, ISIS was created) in couple with 19 trillion in debt, bad legislation like DMCA, NDAA, and TPP, are surefire signs that America is crumbling.

The TPP is a progressive trade agreement that includes minimum labor and environmental standards for countries involved in the pact. The DMCA is hardly an ideal policy for copyright, but isn't under any grounds representative of the "crumbling" of America. And for the NDAA, there haven't been any cases (outside a few outlier examples) where regular Americans were detained indefinitely without trial. I used to be extremely scared of the legislation, but all it does is clarify an already extant policy established by the 2001 AUMF, which is the detention of suspected terrorists under our current operations overseas.

For the wars, I agree. We need to cut it out.

[Bentrada]

America is not an empire, no matter how much you or anybody else claims it is.

Um.... It has no emperor, certainly; but it has worldwide power projection,

Not all empires were powerful. Other great powers, like the UK and Germany, also have worldwide power projection (regardless of how it compares to America's). Would you call those countries empires?

disproportionate cultural power,

Which really isn't a requirement for an empire at all.

colonies (territories),

Even if you do consider territories to be colonies (which there is disagreement over), I guess that means Canada, the UK, and France, are empires, too.

client states..... Awfully similar to an empire.

The Greek city-states of antiquity would also create client states, and some modern nations, the US not included, could be considered to have client states. Does that make them empires? Not really.

[Bentrada]

America is not an empire, no matter how much you or anybody else claims it is.

It is... arguable. An Empire is just a collection of nations under control of a single government. Whether the US is an Empire depends on whether you can consider it to govern multiple nations. Given the Indigenous nations, it could certainly qualify. There are few states today which are not empires.

Given the definitions (all of which are controversial) of what a nation is, any diverse state could be called an empire. Canada? Empire. Brazil? Empire. Indonesia? Empire.

Until there is a standard, agreed upon definition of the concepts of a "empire" and "nation", it is a largely meaningless term.

[The Greater Ohio Valley]

I'd say the only "decay" America is experiencing is the decay of its aging infrastructure that nobody seems too interested in fixing.

[Nirvash Type TheEND]

I'd say the only "decay" America is experiencing is the decay of its aging infrastructure that nobody seems too interested in fixing.

Zing!

[-Ebola-]

I can't vote because I'm a virus. Will you give viruses the vote?

Better question actually.

If Ebola has a soul then are vaccines, and cures a form of murder?

Yes. Finally someone gets it.

[Eastern Equestria]

America isn't in decay. It's just waking up from a drunken stupor and realizing it's a clusterfuck. Consider the violence among other recent events as growing pains. I'm optimistic about the long term future.

I agree. The American nation is doing fine. If widespread discontent over the status quo and our current government is what's to be considered "decay", then I'll have some more of that. We'll have truly declined as a nation when people stop giving a shit.

[-Ebola-]

Yes, I believe that we will be stronger in 10 years.

Most people seem to have a deep-rooted tendency towards pessimism and distrust of institutions. But I like to look at improvements that we have made in the past decade:

1) We've come much closer to attaining a universal health insurance system (16-20 million people now have coverage).
2) LGBT couples can now freely serve in the military, can marry, and are becoming more accepted by society.
3) Issues like police brutality and racial injustice are being called out by groups such as Black Lives Matter, many cities across the U.S. are adopting reforms, and the two front-runners in the Democratic race for President have both pledged to reform the criminal justice system.
4) The political will for higher minimum wages and gun safety legislation continues to grow every day.
5) We now have the strongest Wall Street regulations in decades, and have come back from a devastating recession.

Call me optimistic. Call me idealistic. But my work in the community has shown me that there is big reason to hope.

After you take inflation into consideration, raising the minimum wage would just be putting things back to what they were in the 1970s. It's something that should be done, but it's not exactly taking the US to new heights that it has never seen before the way the gay rights stuff is and universal healthcare would be.

[Schwere Panzer Abieltung 502]

When have there not been problems, anyway? America, like any nation, is always undergoing change and the like. After the Civil War, the US was 'united', but that only meant that the Jim Crowe era would continue for another century(and, some would say, to this day) and left at least a quarter of the nation devastated. After WWII, everybody was 'happy', as they'd just won the biggest war in history and the economy was doing well. But the entire world was still suffering from the effects of the largest war ever and an entire generation had to deal with the effects of being in such a war in a world that had not yet accepted PTSD as an actual thing. Then came the Cold War, where everyone was constantly worried that the world could be nuked in a matter of hours to minutes. And now we're living in a post-9/11 world, and more up to date, a post-Arab Spring world where there's been tremendous upheaval throughout the southern Mediterranean and Middle East nations.