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2017-07-03 Home Front: Politix
Kristol: US Repeating 'Decline and Fall of Rome' in Mere Months
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Posted by Fred 2017-07-03 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ]  Top

#1 There is nothing that the Roman Empire and the U.S. has in common. Britain and the Soviet Union were more like Empires. Nitwit.
Posted by Huporong Oppressor of the Weak3828 2017-07-03 02:07||   2017-07-03 02:07|| Front Page Top

#2 ...Wasn't this the same guy who was going to 'save' us from Donald Trump by pushing forward some nonentity for President last year?

Mike
Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2017-07-03 04:35||   2017-07-03 04:35|| Front Page Top

#3 "in mere months". Uh, yeah, sure. I can't wait for the Gibbon-like book on the "decline and fall".

Now, the decline and fall of the main-stream media? Now we're talking!
Posted by Clurong Glinetle7483 2017-07-03 04:47||   2017-07-03 04:47|| Front Page Top

#4  There is nothing that the Roman Empire and the U.S. has in common.
Are you sure about that? I've seen some pretty long faces in the Senate.
Posted by Classer 2017-07-03 05:23||   2017-07-03 05:23|| Front Page Top

#5 We certainly have our own version of bread and circus's along with internal barbarians
Posted by Cheaderhead 2017-07-03 05:54||   2017-07-03 05:54|| Front Page Top

#6 The 'end state' may be a bit different from that of Rome. Nearly everyone in the U.S. owns or has access to a Gladius.
Posted by Besoeker 2017-07-03 05:58||   2017-07-03 05:58|| Front Page Top

#7 More like Athenian empire, if you ask me.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-07-03 05:59||   2017-07-03 05:59|| Front Page Top

#8 No doubt Kristol blames everyone else...
Posted by Rob Crawford 2017-07-03 07:10||   2017-07-03 07:10|| Front Page Top

#9 Centuries before the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was the Fall of the Roman Republic. I trace the fall to the success in its most major conflict, the Second Punic War. Much like our success in the Second World War, it presented the victor with dominance in a vast area of the civilized world for which the constitution of Rome was not designed to handle. Ruling, influencing, garrisoning these new regions, totally distorted the checks and balances that could be operated within a city state political system. There you'll find the decline you are looking for, but one you won't like given how you enjoyed for so long playing among the Oligarchy which had displaced the old American republic, I doubt you want to cast yourself as part of the problem, not the solution. When the people in Washington decided to engage the world in '48, it poisoned itself, destroyed the checks and balances, to centralize power and resources. Looking around, you haven't 'saved the world'. It's been decades in the making, not months.
Posted by Procopius2k 2017-07-03 07:15||   2017-07-03 07:15|| Front Page Top

#10 Another example of Kristol going off in his quest for relevance. He has been wrong most of the time.
Posted by JohnQC 2017-07-03 09:54||   2017-07-03 09:54|| Front Page Top

#11 I could care less about Kristol but it makes me
sad that P.J. O'Rourke cashed in decades of Libertarianism and sided with Hillary.

Did the NeverTrumps truly go off the rails because of Trump or did we just notice it now?
Posted by rjschwarz 2017-07-03 10:54||   2017-07-03 10:54|| Front Page Top

#12 Kristol's only upset because his own empire is getting shut down.
Posted by charger 2017-07-03 11:55||   2017-07-03 11:55|| Front Page Top

#13 During the first part of my recent illness and convalescence I found myself listening to the first half of the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan. I'd like to take the opportunity to second what P2K said about the fall of the Republic. I'd also suggest listening to Duncan's account of the assasination of Caesar and its aftermath.

This keyboard is broken and annoying, so I'm going to stop typing now.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2017-07-03 13:36||   2017-07-03 13:36|| Front Page Top

#14 Ok, on my phone for a sec... I'll elaborate. After they killed Caesar, the Liberators left Pompey's theater and deckred their action to the city. They had killed Caesar and saved the Republic. Then everyone went home, locked their doors, and waited for the civil war to start back up.
Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2017-07-03 18:39||   2017-07-03 18:39|| Front Page Top

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