Progressive Politics

1659 readers

95 users here now

Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)

(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

863

The United States is Falling Apart and the World is Taking Notice (www.counterpunch.org)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

379 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In three weeks, Donald Trump has imploded whatever positive image the United States might have had internationally.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Roman Empire took centuries to eventually collapse and a lot of it was corruption, hyperinflation, and complacency. It's happening here but at a much quicker rate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Maybe the external factor is the final kick, knocking over a rotting house of cards, but the cause is almost always division, internal conflict, or unsustainable growth.

Rome was a place where power consolidated, but the various eras might as well have been different empires.

The system collapsed, dissolved, reconstituted, and expanded several times during the 1400 years it existed.

Same with China. 5000 years of history emerging from Beijing, but each dynasty was distinct.

Even the US has reinvented itself several times over by now. Antebellum America might as well have been a different country. New Deal America was radically different from it's Coolidge Era predecessor. Reagan's America became it's own thing in turn. Trumpian America is a new thing, not an end point.