Serious Political Commentary for Serious Conservatives



The Independent Voice for Conservative Values
and the Conscience of the Conservative Movement
Less Government is the Best Government




 
 



~ Three Hundred Years ~
What does the Future Look Like
for the United States of America
in Three Hundred Years?

By Scott Rohter, February 2014

"A great Nation and small minds go ill together." - Sir Edmund Burke 18th Century


What does the future look like for the United States of America in three hundred years? In a word... bleak. No republic has ever lasted longer than three hundred years. The longest lasting republic was Rome, but three hundred years was exactly how long it took for the Roman Senate to become a mere rubber stamp for Caesar and for Rome to become a virtual dictatorship with all power consolidated in the hands of just one man. That is exactly what is happening in the United States of America today as Congress cedes more and more of its constitutional authority to the President.

Three hundred years was about how long it took for the Roman aristocracy to become so enamored of their own invincibility that they began to take both their republic and their country's survival for granted. It is about how long it took for average Romans to become so successful and prosperous that they forgot what it took to create all of this wealth. They didn't remember how they created the greatest nation on earth, and they forgot the old adage that success is built upon the hard work and the perseverance of those who seek it. There was no Donald Trump to exhort them to make Rome great again. They just assumed that their republic and their country would last forever. That's how Rome became a victim of its own prosperity.


Three hundred years was how long it took for Roman children to become so lazy that they wouldn’t do the work that was necessary to harvest Rome’s principal agricultural crop, the olives that grew so abundantly in the fields. They got so spoiled that their parents had to hire foreigners from the far reaches of the Roman Empire to harvest the olives. America's farmers hire Mexicans to work in the field and harvest the crops because not many Americans are willing to do this kind of work. Rome couldn't enlist enough Romans to serve in the Roman Legion so they recruited Barbarians. Today we grant citizenship to any illegal alien who completes one tour of duty in the United States armed forces.


The reason that no republic has ever lasted longer than three hundred years is because of two very basic, fundamental flaws in human nature and one simple principle that we have forgotten. Prosperity leads to contentment, and contentment fosters complacency. It is very easy to take for granted all of the things that we are accustomed to. Complacency is the natural consequence of success. It follows that our continued prosperity depends upon our continued vigilance against complacency... the willingness to relax and rest on our laurels. A lack of vigilance is why most republics do not endure for longer than three hundred years. That is why Benjamin Franklin responded when he was asked by someone in 1783 what kind of a government the Constitutional Convention had created in this way. “A Republic madam if you can keep it"... he responded. Eternal vigilance is the price of enduring liberty.


If Rome is the standard by which all other republics are measured, then the United States has less than 63 years left on our clock so we either need to get our act together or resign ourselves to our own national demise. Our country is not ruled by one man yet, but we do have what appears to be a growing trend towards an imperial Presidency... one which respects neither the Constitution or the rule of law, and only grudgingly acknowledges the Congress and consents to share power with the other two branches of government. Congress is all too eager and willing to abdicate its Constitutional authority to the White House, and what else can you call it when President Obama says that if Congress doesn't do what he wants then he will bypass it altogether and do whatever he wants through executive orders. That is not the way a constitutional republic is supposed to operate.


When Congress does occasionally decide to act, it usually makes irresponsible and inappropriate decisions like raising the Federal Debt Ceiling so they can borrow more money against our children's future, or by allowing endless amounts of worthless Federal Reserve Notes to be printed in order to try to inflate our way out of paying our actual bills. This irresponsible behaviour doesn't win us any friends overseas among those foreign countries which buy United States Treasury Bills. The solution to both our borrowing problem and our spending problem is just to cut our spending and to stop our borrowing, and to actually start balancing the Federal Budget, but Congress wont do that. Instead it the members of Congress pass massive amounts of legislation like the two thousand page long legislative red herring called the Affordable Care Act without even bothering to read the Bill or take the time to know what is actually inside of it. That is not the behavior of a responsible Congress.

Our task as citizens should be to pass on a strong and viable country to the next generation of Americans, not to abandon them to the same fate as Rome. In order to do this we must take control one of the too stupid to believe political Parties that control the power monopoly in Washington. There is the Democrat Party of fools and there is the Republican Party of ineffectual cowards. It is far easier to fix what is lacking in a coward than to try to repair what is fundamentally wrong with a fool. Maybe we can provide the courage to fix a cowardly lion. In this case it is more like a cowardly elephant that we need to embolden, but no one can impart wisdom to a fool. That's why the mascot of the Democrat Party is and should be a jackass. We shouldn't have anything to do with fools.

If you enjoyed this article then please let me know by clicking the LIKE button below.


"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth.
A journalist has no better friend than the truth."
- Scott Rohter

                  Share
Home Page

Selected Reading
Victims of Success
Colonizing America 21st Century Style.
An Open Border - America's Achilles Heel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV5swfyBAnA
Addicted to Revenue - Does the U.S. Government Have a Spending Problem?
http://www