The enemy from within

On December 4th, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, tweeted “The most powerful country in the world is falling so fast, that it makes you rethink what are the real reasons. Something so big and powerful can’t be destroyed so quickly, unless the enemy comes from within.” The tweet included a US flag emoji.

Even our neighboring countries can see what’s going on here, yet our mainstream so-called news media and over half of the voting population can’t see it, or worse, choose to ignore it.

History is full of examples of the rise and fall of great empires, most of them eventually imploding from the inside, yet we never seem to learn from them.

The ancient Persian Empire, the remnants forming modern-day Iran, flourished for 200 years before its economy collapsed due to government mismanagement and heavy taxation, seriously weakening the ability to defend itself. Alexander the Great easily conquered the Persians in 330 BC.

One of the next great empires to fall was that of Greece, a collection of city-states located along the northeastern Mediterranean Sea and a leading source of olive oil, wine, pottery, and metalwork which they traded throughout the region for more than 350 years. The Greek empire crumbled for several all-too-common reasons.

Different city-states had completely different forms of government and ways of life, not unlike the differences we see between California, New Jersey, or New York versus the majority of America’s “fly-over” states in the Midwest and Southeast.

Conflict and competition between city-states broke down a sense of community in Greece, like the tension between our inner cities and the surrounding suburbs and countryside here in the U.S. today.

There was increasing tension and conflict between the ruling aristocracy and the poorer classes, much like the differences we see between Washington, D.C., the coastal elites, and the rest of us.

Greek colonies around the Mediterranean survived and even thrived under the Greek culture but were not necessarily loyal to Greece. Many in America today are happy to accept or demand the benefits provided by the U.S. but reject any loyalty to our country.

The people of Greece became lazy because they were more interested in living the good life than waging war against their enemies. How many able-bodied workers in the U.S. today have chosen to stay home and live off government handouts rather than participate in the economy?

The neighboring states, especially Rome, were increasing in power and were more unified than the city-states of Greece. Are we seeing the same thing developing with China vs the U.S. today?

All these enemies from within led to the eventual conquering of Greece by the Romans in 338 BCE.

The Roman Empire, possibly one of the greatest and certainly one of the longest, stretching almost 1,000 years from the 5th century BCE through the year 476 ADE, finally collapsed after a revolt led by Germanic invaders.  

In the decades leading up to this, the Roman Empire was in decline, crumbling from within due to a severe financial crisis. Constant wars and overspending had severely depleted Rome’s coffers. Oppressive taxation and inflation widened the gap between rich and poor while many members of the wealthy classes fled to the countryside in the hope of avoiding the taxman. Are we seeing the same here with people fleeing California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York?

The empire was also rocked by a labor deficit. Rome’s economy depended on labor from a fresh influx of conquered peoples to perform everyday work. Expansion of the Roman empire ground to a halt in the second century. Rome’s supply of laborers and other war treasures began to dry up and Rome’s cities, ports and basic infrastructure fell into disrepair.

For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, Rome couldn’t gather enough troops and resources to defend its frontiers from local rebellions and outside attacks. By the second century, the emperor Hadrian was forced to build his famous wall in Britain just to keep the enemy at bay. Imagine building a wall to control the flow of incoming people.

The sheer size of Rome’s administration system made it fertile ground for corruption. Combined with political instability, ineffective and inconsistent leadership, and failure by the Roman Senate to temper the excesses of the emperors and their administrations, it became increasingly difficult to provide and maintain even basic public safety and security. As the situation worsened, civic pride waned and many Roman citizens lost trust in their leadership.

After reigning supreme for a thousand years, Rome succumbed to the enemies within.

You can trace many of these same recurring issues through the rise and fall of succeeding nations, the colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors, the grand empire of France, the rise and long downward slide of the British Empire, right through to present times with the collapse of the USSR just 25 years ago. It’s dead but not yet buried.

While these events have re-occurred over a period of more than 2,000 years, some form of internal rot preceded virtually all these collapses.

And during every collapse, others rose to challenge the leading nations of the times. Today, Iran is attempting a return to greatness in the middle east, Russia continues to flounder, poisoning everything it touches, and now China has its eye on the prize.

The American experiment has been in place for almost 250 years but today we are exhibiting many of those same enemies from within that led to the downfall of former great nations. 

We have out-of-control government spending, much of it on highly questionable programs, a U.S. national debt of over $30 trillion, an amount virtually impossible to ever pay off, chaotic immigration issues and border incursions spreading havoc across the country, and bloated administrations across federal, state, and local public institutions throughout the nation. The enemy from within.

Was the President of Salvador correct in his assessment of America? Have we reached the tipping point, deteriorating so fast that we can’t recover? Are we irredeemable?

Hopefully not, but we are perilously close and have an enormous amount of work to do in order to right the ship.

That work starts by electing people who possess integrity and are willing to do what is best for the country, state, or municipality they represent, instead of using their vote to better themselves and their own families and friends. 

We need high-quality candidates to choose from during the primary process. At the same time, we need to figure out how to undo the damage caused by two generations of people who would rather live off the government dole than have the freedom and liberty to choose their own path to success, to work for themselves and their families, and the opportunity to create a better life for all.

Why don’t we have enough good candidates now?

·         Many political offices are filled with entrenched politicians and bureaucrats. They've mastered all the tricks of getting elected without making serious commitments or by demeaning their opponent instead of offering rational plans, or more recently by just hiding from the public and campaigning through press releases or tweets.

·         Incredible amounts of money are poured into general elections and primaries by wealthy individuals and special interest groups, each with their own specific agendas.

·         Today’s younger voters have been indoctrinated, starting at the public school level, with revisionist history lessons, promotion of radical ideologies, reckless social policies, and irrational fear-mongering (Covid mandates and lockdowns, climate change paranoia, etc.), all making it difficult to have rational conversations with them about real issues.

·         The almost complete demise of any unbiased media, making it difficult to believe anything you see or hear in the news or social media outlets.  

·         Public opinion of our government processes and institutions continues to plummet.  

Faced with these headwinds it’s no wonder that few talented people want to be involved with any political institutions, let alone run for elected office. 

There is a place to start. COS Action is calling for a Convention of States, a process enshrined in Article V of the Constitution, to propose constitutional amendments imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government, limiting the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limiting the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.

You can see how all this works at conventionofstates.com. Join the grassroots army to limit the power of Washington bureaucrats. SIGN the PETITION below.

GET INVOLVED and become a volunteer.