[stuck_in_new_orleans]

The changing identification analysis as an explanation for the fall of the empire raises intriguing questions for the potential of the American "empire" (i.e., the diverse conglomerations of cultures that live in the U.S.) to do the same

I'd expect the fall of the "American empire" to be the result of a nuclear explosion in D.C. rather than diversity in American cities

[Cicero]

One explanation for the fall of the Western Roman Empire was higher and higher taxes and ever-expanding bureaucracy. Another factor was internal faction and what might be called party politics. Although there were barbarian incursions and invasions, they were prefaced by internal weaknesses.

If the American Empire falls, it will likely be caused by higher taxes, more government bureaucracy, a creaking, overloaded economy, and factional politics where seizing power becomes more important than serving the country.

The American constitution enables a certain resiliency in the face of partisan politics, but there is presumably a limit, which we have already seen tested under clinton and his scumbag supporters. There's no assurance that another clinton may not rise to power. There were certainly more than enough bad Roman emperors.

[yankeedame]

I'd expect the fall of the "American empire" to be the result of a nuclear explosion in D.C. rather than diversity in American cities

LOL! Silly, empirers don't fall like a brick heaved through a plate glass window.
Besides, when Gibbon's books were published the British chattering-class was full sure that he was talking about them, the decline and fall of the British Empire, etc., etc.; things like that.
It's the same as every generation being sure that their's is the time of the Apocalypse because of Bibical signs apparently coming true.
It's all a case of: "We see what we look for."

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

I'd expect the fall of the "American empire" to be the result of a nuclear explosion in D.C. rather than diversity in American cities.

Totally absurd. Nuke DC all you want; it will not destroy America if America is healthy. But America is not healthy.

You are, like Gibbon, making the classic mistake of only being able to see external enemies. Gibbon speculated on the possible fall of Western Civilization, and noting the vast power and health of Europe in the 18th century, and the puny powerlessness of the external "barbarians", predicated a rosy future for the West. He was right in the short term, wrong in the long term.

Rot begins from within. Accepting millions of strangers into our midst is just a symptom of the rot, but it will rapidly become not just a symptom, but a disease in its own right, when the sh!t hits the fan. Compared to what is coming, a mere nuke in DC will feel like a pinprick.