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Vanders9: "It is very difficult to put your finger on what is wrong, but most people, certainly on these boards, almost subconsciously sense that all is not well.
The decline of the West is measured in tiny things - a loss of self-confidence, a trading of opportunity for security, a lack of self-reliance, a damning of curiosity, a freezing of initiative, an increasing (and overweening) bureaucracy, a more rigid social order, an increasing gap between haves and have nots, a tendency to stress rights rather than responsibilities...the list goes on and on."

Sorry, I hate to say this, but that is such a load of cr*p I can't believe it!

First of all, it's not in the least difficult to put my "finger on what is wrong." I can spell it out in just a few words:
O-B-A-M-A.
D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T-S
W-A-Y T-O-O B-I-G G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T

The United States was never intended and never tried to be the New Roman Empire, or have colonies on which "the sun never set."
So we have no empire to lose -- never did.
We have always been, since Day One, a major player in the world, and will continue to be that into the long-range future.

But we have never been the sole power, and even at the peak of our relative world influence, there were always competitors, including the old Soviet Union and Communist China.

And least we somehow forget, we did not win every war we ever fought -- need I mention Korea and Vietnam?
Does anyone remember who was the strongest supporter of our enemies there?

So, at no time was the US ever unchallenged, and we are still challenged today -- by the very forces we thought Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. had defeated over 20 years ago: big government socialism.

One difference is that today Americans themselves voted, in a moment of political swooning, voted those people into our own government and gave them the power to radically transform America.

Now, finally, we seem to be sobering up, and having once identified the enemy, have started back to work taking them down.
It is even possible that by November of 2012, the Bigger Government party will be thoroughly defeated, there will be actual reductions in the US budget, the economy will rebound, and all this ridiculous gloom and doom about a "declining America" will become nothing more than a bad memory.

Like old Jimmy Carter's 1970s era days of malaise.

Oh dear...I'm sorry you think that. I shall try and explain myself a bit better.

First of all, it's not in the least difficult to put my "finger on what is wrong." I can spell it out in just a few words: O-B-A-M-A. D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T-S W-A-Y T-O-O B-I-G G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T

Fair enough, BUT - why is there an Obama? How did such a man, positively inimicable to the American way, manage to get himself elected? He was elected very convincingly, after all. And as for Democrats - why are they the way they are now? They didn't used to be. I mean, there was a time when you might disagree with them on numerous issues but you would never doubt their patriotism. You might think their policies were absurd, but you never for one moment thought they had ulterior motives in pushing them. Now, what they are pressing for is so obviously dangerous to the common weal you wonder. And as for Government, why is it so big? How has it managed, despite all the numerous safeguards built into the system, to inexorably grow? And the answer to all those questions in a constitutional republic with democratically elected leaders is that "we the people" have voted for it all. And why has that happened? Because, basically, of the factors I listed (and no doubt a few more besides). Nations get the leaders, parties and governments that they deserve.<

Now you call that a "moment of political swooning", but I am not so optimistic. Obama may very well get voted out in 2012, and the Republicans will hopefully have a stab at turning things around, but the vacuous thinking that got him elected, and the idealogies that now dominate the democrat party and the left generally are now very deeply entrenched in American society. Untold millions are dependent on the State for their livelihood, even their very lives in the case of the "entitlement culture". Trying to get them off that teat is not going to be easy. It certainly isn't going to be done quickly.

The United States was never intended and never tried to be the New Roman Empire, or have colonies on which "the sun never set." So we have no empire to lose -- never did. We have always been, since Day One, a major player in the world, and will continue to be that into the long-range future.

The US was one of the main colonists in the world! What do you call the expansion into the wild west? What about the Phillipines? Porto Rico? The Virgin Islands?

However, I take your point. The US never had a massive colonial empire aka Britain, France, Netherlands etc. But it doesn't matter, because we are not talking about that kind of empire. The US "Empire" is one of the mind (and more importantly the wallet). But if you have economic power, that translates into political power. Obviously. Why is the US military deployed all over the world? Well, its principle function is to defend US interests. It may not have colonies to protect but it has bases, trade routes, and allies that need patrolling, stabilising, reassuring and/or propping up. How is that different from what the European colonial powers were doing a century back? It differs in semantics only.

Now if the US retreats from doing that, it will create a power vacumn. Nature hates a vacumn, and Human nature is no different. Other nations will move in. And you may very well be able to live with that, but it will affect US power, and therefore US economics. Inevitably.