Slip Slidin’ Away?

History shows that almost every past empire, including Rome, begins to decay after 250 years

By Donnie Johnston

ADVANCE COLUMNIST

Cole Thomas, The Course of Empire: Destruction, 1836

This should have been America’s shining hour. Our 250^th anniversary as a nation.

And it could have been our shining hour had it not been for President Donald Trump and his MAGA cult. But instead of the rest of the world offering congratulations for a republic that has long been the model for democracy, other nations are shaking their heads and wondering what happened to the America that was.

The debacle with the reflecting pool pretty much sums up Trump’s second term in office. He promised American flag blue, and we got green slime with a $16+ million price tag.

Trump promised no wars and gave $10 billion in taxpayer dollars to some fantasy Board of Peace. Before the ink was dry on the check, the president started a useless war with Iran that cost lives, hundreds of billions more in taxpayer dollars, and is culminating in a loss-of-face ceasefire agreement that the president has twice broken before it was finalized.

Trump has alienated our closest allies, threatened to steal Greenland, isolated Cuba for no reason and destroyed Venezuela’s government, all in the name of Christianity and patriotism.

There is no sense in continuing with a litany of the chaos that this president has caused in less than two years. As I said, the reflection pool debacle pretty much sums up his sick administration.

What is worth saying is that Trump’s sins have taken much of the luster off what should have been a glorious 250^th celebration. Entertainers won’t perform at his “fair,” and foreign countries aren’t eager to send emissaries. Like the cage fight on the White House lawn, everyone just wants to get it over with.

As we prepare for our 250^th Fourth of July celebration, the big question is, where do we go from here? History shows that almost every past empire, including Rome, began to decay after 250 years. That isn’t speculation; that is fact. And the Trump administration seems to be showing us that America is beginning to slip slide away.

Can we recover? No other empire has been able to return to greatness once it took a downhill turn. Rome tried but failed.

We look to November’s mid-term elections for help. Have the American people had enough of MAGA and a Republican Congress that turns its back on evil and corruption? Will sanity prevail and allow for a slow ethical turnaround?

Truthfully, I am not optimistic. There are Republicans out there who would vote for Hitler if he was on the GOP ticket. Their loyalty to the party—not the country—is that strong. And there are those Christians out there who would argue—at the ballot box—that God has ordained Trump and the Republican Party to do as it sees fit, no matter who gets hurt, no matter what laws are broken.

“Broken” is a good word to describe America on its 250^th birthday. We are a nation split right down the middle. We are in a war few people want, making a peace that no one wants to face.

Europe can’t stand us, Canada no longer trusts us, and China is laughing at us. About the only friend we have left is Israel, and only because we supply them with money and weapons to stir up trouble in the Middle East.

We are like the most obnoxious kid in his class. Nobody wants to come to our party and help celebrate. We have beaten them up too many times on the world playground.

For 248 years we were a great nation, a grand governmental experiment that was a shining example to the world.

Then came Donald Trump’s second term, and in two years he undid much of the greatness that it took more than two centuries to build.

To be great, a country must feel compassion for everyone, not just the rich and those with power. That’s why the South never had any chance of succeeding, even if they had won the Civil War.

Somewhere during the mid-twentieth century, America experimented with compassion and rights for all, but it appears that we have given up on that idea.

This can be a great country again, but not until we respect the rights of everyone.

Unfortunately, we seem to be going in the opposite direction.

It has been my observation that those who feel the need to wear their patriotism and their religion on their sleeves seldom have much of either.

It is more effective to practice rather than just preach.