Widespread Fear of Internal Decay

In a column yesterday, Gregory Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Reflecting a widespread fear of internal decay and external competition, survey after survey shows that Americans think the country has seen its best days. Last month, a poll commissioned by the Hill newspaper found more than two-thirds (69%) of respondents think the U.S. is in decline, and 83% are very or somewhat worried about the nation's future. Like almost everyone else on the globe, a growing number of us, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project, believe that China will surpass the U.S. as the premier superpower.

But concern over America's place in the world is one thing, hysteria is quite another. Paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan has just published a book, "Suicide of a Superpower," in which he suggests that the United States will collapse by 2025. Likewise, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, who only eight years ago argued that the U.S. was well positioned to play a constructive imperial role throughout the world, has a new book out in which he asserts the "imminence of our decline and fall."

Read the entire column here.