DON ROLLINS

It’s striking, this creeping (and at points creepy) modern day convergence of end-time biblical literalists and empire’s-end political progressives. The two paradigms diverge on almost every conceivable issue, yet agree on one that should rock both worlds: America is going down the crapper. And it’s only gonna get worse from here.

The two traditions, of course, part ways again, but liberals benefit by that unlikely pairing, if only to practice greater clarity about why a true empire is in true freefall.

Leaving the particulars of a literal Armageddonist position for another occasion (you’re welcome, dear reader) its indeed time liberals stop thinking and acting as though America’s brightest days lie ahead. Because they don’t.

And somebody has to break the news.

This is no doubt the most difficult message imaginable, for polls consistently indicate overwhelming agreement ours is the “greatest country on Earth,” blessed by God. Even though the megatrends suggest America’s weakening, not disappearance from the map, speaking that truth would no doubt initiate death threats.

Still, somebody has to break the news.

To that end, liberal explanations and remedies for America’s tailspin too often buy into the “Tyranny of the Moment” approach to societal decay. It’s a shortsighted, present tense worldview Republicans easily counter by defining progressives as sore losers. Placing America’s decline in historical context will not win over hordes from any party, but the alternative is to play now-only defense while GOP extremists set policies and pass laws quickening our descent into moral dry rot.

Related, Donald Trump alone cannot bear presidential fault for America’s fading empire. Empires rise, empires fall. The causes and symptoms are many, often gradual. Trump fits the bill in every way, but he’s not the first chief executive to fail this country. Once again, context matters.

Third, many on the Left mistakenly believe there’s an off-year, Democratic middle-America out there, craving moderation — a claim unsupported by a February Pew Research Center poll indicating 29% of Democrats want their party to move further left, and 22% are satisfied as is. Given those figures, bolder progressives have at least some cushion when the America-love-or-leave-it crowd raises holy hell.

If all this doomsaying sounds exaggerated if not improbable, consider America’s parallels with previous expansive empires. Authors Peter Heather and John Rapley draw concrete comparisons between the fall of the Roman Empire and that of our own.

In their work from 2023, “Why Empires Fall: Rome, America and the Future of the West,” they emphasize the roles sustained economic uncertainties and internal political division play in the demise of an entire culture. Heather and Rapley find at least five identifiable waves of change overlapping the two: Emergence of new global powers; economic instability; government overreach and corruption; broad wealth inequality and; growing coalitions among rival or hostile nations.

Most alarming is the political arrogance and self-deceit that hastened the demise of the Roman Empire, just as they are our own. Foreign leaders and nations no longer danced to the tune of Roman emperors, embarrassing them as the tables of power began to turn without their even realizing it. Again, Trump is not the first, but he is the latest.

Today’s high-office liberals earn their money. They function in a continual circus with people no sane nation would bestow even a measure of power - something to remember the next time Democrat turns on Democrat.

Nonetheless, America needs a radical rethinking of its place in the world before the world decides for us. Democrats and other progressives don’t have to shout out that irreversible reality, but they can at least start whispering it.

Because somebody has to break the news.

Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio.

Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.