Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

Financial Times ^ | August 14, 2007 | By Jeremy Grant

[Sir_Humphrey]

Every part of me wants to scream this is pointy headed BS until I take a sober look at things. Listen to any Democrat and realize they control the congress and are odds on favorites to win the White House. (Don't flame me, I am going to everything in my power to fight the poltical fight against this)

Can this really happen to us on our watch?

[Old Sarge]

Mr Walker, who was appointed during the Clinton administration to the post

'Nuff said. Another Clintonista holdout that W. failed to purge.

And don't think, Mr. Grant, that we missed the reference to "imperial Rome = imperialist America =
hate-Bush-get-Bush-stop-Bush-impeach-BushBushBushBushBushBushBush
BushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBushBush!"

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Who was appointed during the Clinton administration

Nuff said

[BallyBill]

Not like there is anything new in there. You hear the same warnings over and over. Hearing them combined with the declining morals is new though.

[facedown]

Nothing more than standard socialist talking points.

...inter-generational equity ...

The most glaring tip off, i.e. income redistribution.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Simply go look at your school district’s budget, your county’s budget, your state’s budget and any other taxing entity’s budgets. You will see such great uber spending and fluff, it will turn your stomach. One major problem is each person who is elected and leaves office has usually gotten retirement AND also invested their time in office to support them comfortably with some new legal add on to an agency. Hence, the uber requirements to hold a plumber, electrical, real estate, CPA, etc. license. Many of these “certified classes” are run by ex-legislators or their close friends....

[353FMG]

“Learn from the fall of Rome..”

One of the many differences between us and Rome is that the latter did not have a death wish while we do. It is called globalization, multiculturalism, PC and the desire for diversity and not unity.

[billbears]

One of the many differences between us and Rome is that the latter did not have a death wish while we do

Rome had its own special vices, however some of the ones you mentioned they faced as well. And inevitably the result will be the same

[the invisib1e hand]

so why did he have to get FT to run his story? /rhetorical question.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Don’t lie to yourself, High-On-One’s-Laurels...all the signs are there and you’d rather blame the currently popular enemy than see the larger problem. Both parties are equally complicit in that problem and our nation is imperiled by it.

Can you act on that information or would you rather see everything brought down just to see one’s traditional enemy denied victory?

[SteveMcKing]

I’m watching to see if we lose a third space shuttle. I see it as a microcosm.

Any one example is meaningless, but many small measures can add up to something more meaningful than the dramatic parallels that Walker is making.

[the invisib1e hand]

we're all doomed!

not.

[af_vet_rr]

Can this really happen to us on our watch?

I'm not going to agree with the pointy head over our being over-extended with the military (although I really believe Bush not increasing the size of the military after 9/11 when he had a friendly Congress was a mistake that will haunt us for years to come), but I will agree that morally we are on a decline, and Congress and the Federal Government are spending way too much money on useless programs, and that we should care more about immigration than we do (I don't give a damn if Bush considers them "guest workers", his wanting to legalize them would be a drain on this country).

Rome should be studied very closely - Rome didn't fall in a few days, and many of the factors that contributed to its decline are impacting us now - out of control spending, corruption, immorality, immigration problems, etc. Sure, maybe many centuries separate us, but many of our problems are the same.

[kabar]

Walker is right. Our entitlement programs with an unfunded liability of $60 trillion and a flood of immigrants, legal and illegal, combine to make a giant train wreck ahead. It may already to too late to avoid the consequences. Congress must act prior to 2017 to “fix” Medicare and SS. It is just a matter of what “fix” they employ, but they must do something.

[brigadoon]

I hear alot of this “Fall of Rome” meme rattling around from the left these days. High taxes, lack of entreprenuerial spirit, moral bankruptcy, a weakened military, a loss of cultural identity- all these define the Democrat party, so they must be experts on the “Fall of Rome”. They are plotting it every day. The antidote to decline is liberty, decentralized government, low taxation, the entrepreneurial spirit, traditional morality and an elite volunteer military. Check, check check check. Sounds like conservatism.

[the invisib1e hand]

The antidote to decline is liberty, decentralized government, low taxation, the entrepreneurial spirit, traditional morality and an elite volunteer military. Check, check check check. Sounds like conservatism.

Hear, hear.

May all the doofus bellyaching stop right there.

[RobbyS]

What is it with people and Rome? The “Empire” was the salvation of Rome, if one is referring to the period 30 BC to 180 AD. Augustus and the later Emperors turned Rome from a great slum with a few public buildings into the
great metropolis of the Empire, outstripping even Alexandria.

[One_American]

Another striking similarity is that Rome had “Caligula”, and we had “Clintigula”.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

I agree. Pretty much every single headache we have can be traced to liberal policies. This guy will talk about underfunded health care as a fiscal crisis, but as a Clintonista will back a huge government takeover which will become a bottomless pit for expenditure. He talks about extended involvements around the globe, but as a Clintonista supports ‘globalization’ and intervention in such places as Kosovo and Haiti. The answer to our problems starts with term limits and an end to government patronage.

[Jaysun]

Rome became liberalized and lost her ability to wage war. So much so that a vagabond like Attila the Hun kicked Rome’s ass.