Rising From America's Decline

Much of our fall was do to our ignorance about the causes of the fall of nations, some of it was do the outright selfishness of individuals, and some was do to the deliberate destruction of our nation from within and without. We can't return to what we had, but we can actually come out of it the better for our fall.

Pat Buchanan recently quoted John Jay from the Federalist No. 2 who said that America is “a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs...” A nation rises with these connections, and falls without them.

But we do still have written in our Constitution the principles of government which affirm separate and largely independent states, with a light, protecting, federal government. That is what we must now affirm and follow if America is to continue as a nation. As Buchanan succinctly put it, “our peoples are going to need the freedom to live differently and the space to live apart, according to their irreconcilable beliefs.” That is the reality of our present condition.

This can actually be good from the perspective of real human nature and evolution. Human nature works best when group-selection and group-bonding are permitted to set the ethics according to the needs of the group, and small states, or ethnostates, are ideal for this sort of bonding of our now diverse people. Variety is best for new innovations and for evolution to take place. And a light federalism and subsidiarity can assure cooperative competition and ordered evolution. We can also have traditional “economic nationalism” protecting our manufacturing and our innovations, while trading with the world.

This is a healthy social configuration for moving into the future. We are lucky that our forefathers bequeathed it to us. Now we must see that we have it.