We have heard it all over the Arab world, ‘death to America.’ No one asks why they hate us, and no one has an understanding of the fact that our nation could be destroyed. It has nothing to do with military action, it has to do with the elimination of the principles under which our nation was founded.

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln.

Is this the path our nation now faces? The rise of political power in a destructive form is indicative that we are nearing the death of our nation. The power of our elected officials has become aligned with the death of the Roman Empire. The needs of the great majority of our people are being ignored. Just as ancient Rome, our wealthiest citizens are thriving, while those who perform the actual labor are experiencing a decline in their quality of life.

The Roman Empire lasted for approximately 500 years; The United States is only 239 years old. Are we half way to the end of an idea, or could it come more quickly?

The two most destructive vices in existence are money and power. The decline of America began when those in power aligned themselves with the wealthiest of Americans. Our government originated with men who volunteered their time to serve the new nation’s people. Politics was never meant to be a career. With very few exceptions, the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are millionaires. If the base salary for a Congressman is $174,000 per year, how do they become so wealthy? I don’t need to tell you; very few rich men and women have accumulated their wealth honestly.

An oligarchy is defined as ‘rule by the few.’ At present the Congress of the United States has become just that. Regardless of what the polls reveal, our legislators vote only for laws which benefit them and their supporters, not for the wishes or needs of the American people. The next step in the death of America is a plutocracy; rule by the rich; and it’s very near.

Donald Trump called Bernie Sanders a ‘communist.’ He is very wrong, and obviously knows very little about political ideologies. But Senator Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He simply believes in an America where no single class should live privileged lives while the working class is declining as the poverty level grows.

The Arab world would love to see the demise of our nation; and they have some valid reasons. What they have realized today is a change in our nation, which has been perpetuated by the government.

9/11 accomplished much more than the murder of thousands of innocent men and women, it poisoned our people and they are dying a slow and painful death. Thanks to our political leaders the people of our nation continue to live in fear; fear creates anger, and anger become hatred. We are no longer a nation of hope and believers in freedom and equality for everyone. We are divided as never before, and the politicians benefit from this fact. They no longer have to prove their qualifications to become elected officials, they merely need to choose a party.

I am not someone who lives in a ‘gloom and doom’ existence, but the facts are there. Growing up in the 1950’s, I was proud of my country. Maybe it was John Wayne movies, or maybe it was the fact that my uncles and my father had served in WWII and remained loyal and patriotic to the nation. But that was a different country. The America of today has no relationship to the America of 50 or 60 years ago. Our nation is not moving bravely into the future, and accepting change as the natural order of things; some are trying to move us backwards and remove all of the accomplishments made by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Our people have an age old choice; ‘grow or die.’

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Photo Courtesy of Phil Roeder