End of US empire to be caused by nation's declining values

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
3 Apr 2023 15:40

Over the past 25 years, the share of Americans who believe patriotism is an important value dropped from 70% to 38% while that of religion fell from 62% to 39%.

Workers make repairs to the Sunrise Church of Christ in Buffalo, N.Y., Thursday, March 29, 2012. (AP)

A report published by FoxNews on Monday, citing libertarian think tank founder of the Brownstone Institute Jeffrey Tucker, said that declining national values are signs of a crumbling US empire.

"If the present trends continue, I think we'll look back at the last few years as a real turning point in American history," Tucker told Fox News. "The end of the American empire."

Speaking in reference to results of a recent survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal/NORC released on Monday, Tucker said that the decline in national values such as religion, patriotism and having children is accounted to the Covid-19 pandemic, which Tucker says caused a "cultural crisis."

Over the past 25 years, the share of Americans who believe patriotism is an important value dropped from 70% to 38% while that of religion fell from 62% to 39%.

"The decline of religion, of the importance of religion and patriotism is understandable," Tucker told Fox News. "We lost a lot of affection for our lives and our routines and trust over the course of the pandemic response that has not been replaced."

Speaking on the definition of the word 'patriotism,' Tucker said "it can mean a love of a country, a love of homeland, a pride in its history," he said. "But there's also an element of trust that comes with patriotism."

Trust, Tucker argues, has been eroded by a combination of reasons, including growing anti-American sentiments across the nation and the government's failure to address citizens' needs in light of the Covid pandemic.

"The lockdown period was a real shattering of all the things we had taken for granted," Tucker said. "Childcare was closed, the schools that we could always rely on, that we pay our taxes to, were shut to us. The politicians didn't stand up for us. The courts didn't really work."

"The Bill of Rights seemed to be a dead letter," he added. "And at the same time that all the things you once believed in were taken away from you, the spokespeople for woke ideology were screaming at you that this country is corrupt, that it's never been a good place, that it's always been rooted in evil."

Another shocking find from the survey's results was the drop with regards to people's perception of the priority of raising children. Two decades ago, that level was recorded at 59% of total participants. Now that level fell to 30%.

As for those who value community involvement, numbers dropped from 62% to 27% in just the past four years.

Tucker further raised to attention that faith in the US was eroded due to people being forcibly confined in their homes, shutting down crucial institutions and limiting people's ability to worship.

"Empires come and empires go, and this might be the period in which the empire goes," he said.

"This can be turned around," Tucker added. "But it can only be turned around through a renewed appreciation of the genius of this country and its institutions and its history."

A recent report published by VettaFi revealed that the dollar is unlikely to lose its status as the world's global reserve currency any time soon despite that trends of de-dollarization have picked up speed over the past year.

But since the start of the conflict in Ukraine and the subsequent deterioration of relations with Russia and China, trade policies in several countries across the world have been recalibrated so as to shift away from the primacy of the US dollar.

In this process of de-globalization, the role of the Ukraine conflict has precisely been to resituate the global balance of power, the cornerstone for wealth accumulation.

But the important aspect of this conflict is that Russian endurance would ease the transition towards a multipolar world, in which the right for one to develop at its own pace will be granted against the diktat of Western values - in particular American ones.

A Russian victory would inevitably highlight the decline of the American empire since China will have gains to reap from the western displacement of Central Asia and Eurasia.

Likewise, with de-dollarization on the rise, less dollars are beginning to circulate on the global market.

For an empire that accumulates more wealth as it becomes more indebted, the prospects are grim. Soon it may not be able to print dollars and grow richer at will.