Will we fall?

History – The Fall of Republics
Are we next?

By: Timothy L. Kerofsky, MA


There was a question asked to me by one of my friends named, Doug Walson. He asked me, “Will society as a whole ever change for the good, or will it keep spiraling downward like it had been?” Well, society on earth will fall one day as it is foretold in Revelations 21.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
And all things will become new.
That is the day I am waiting for;
for it will be a glorious day.

As far as Republics, which the United States really is; I call it a democratic republic, every Republic has fallen. The worst was the fall of Rome! This can be compared to the United States today. Trump vowed to “Make America Great”, yet America was already great.
Instead we are now like Rome in the 1st century.

Our politics have broken down. There are bad faith arguments between the political parties. And the government is not working together to get anything done. And elections are rigged, just like it was rigged with Trump by Russia in 2016.
The Roman Republic lasted for over 400 years,
But it never recovered.
Will we, the Republic of the United States, recover?

The United States of America is younger than Rome was when it fell,
but we are in a bad predicament.
Will we overcome this political nightmare? If the parties work together like during the times of Kennedy, or even Reagan, though a Republican he was respected by both parties,
like Kennedy.
They worked together for the good of America - For the good of our Republic.

Americans have overcome many obstacles; the fall of the twin towers during 9/11, the bombing in Oklahoma by Timothy McVay, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and many other atrocities on our homeland. But can we overcome this?
Is our time coming?

Here is some history of the United States of America: the first settlers came here in 1619. And then the Pilgrims came here in 1620. Sadly we slaughtered many Indians and took their land. I did a report in one of my college sociology classes about us being the first terrorists. Andrew Jackson made the Indians march on the trail of tears. Then in 1776 our constitution was ratified and we became a nation. The nation –
The Republic of the United States of America.

The founding fathers were well versed in Roman culture and literature. In fact our constitution is based off the Roman Republic. The historian Polybius laid out the clearest description of the Roman Republic’s constitution where representatives of various social classes, the power of the elites and the power of the mob, was the heart of Rome; which is like the United States today. The top one percent of the billionaires controls the other 99 percent of this nation. There is very little middle class today.
It is mostly the rich or the poor.

  Rome was ruled as a Republic for 482 years and fell. And was ruled as a monarchy. Before that Rome was a vast Empire which lasted for 1500 years. It is the longest the world has ever seen, but not the biggest.

The biggest empire was the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1322 to 1922. It fell during World War 1. The empire consisted of; Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Hungry, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Macedonia, Romania, Syria, Parts of Arabia, and northern Africa.
It was truly a vast empire.

Rome chose to let their democracy die. Then it became very violent and unstable. This was due to the growing wealth inequality, partisan gridlock – no bipartisanship, political violence, and pandering. They did not protect their political institutions, so the Romans turned to the perceived stability of their vast empire. However, the violence grew unstoppable and the degraded republic fell. The midterm elections in the United States of 2018 talked about many of these exact topics.

Watts states, “Above all else the Roman Republic teaches us modern citizens the changes that come from condoning political obstruction, and courting political violence.” I add that furthermore when leaders and presidents engage in corrosive, abusive behaviors, the republic that they represent, if the behavior is not changed, will truly fall!

Only if the blind can truly see what is really going on in this world and in this nation.
There are kids in cages. There are Muslims being tortured in China. There is Russian interference in our nation. There are camps that were just like Nazi camps in North Korea. There are mass shootings in America in schools, mosques, and churches.
Hate, sadly, is on the rise.

Paul Krugman states, “It takes a willful blindness not to see the rise of fascism and our current political nightmare.”

Republic institutions do not protect against Tyranny! And when tyranny comes it flourishes.
Even when maintaining a republic façade.

Adrian Goldworthy states, “…no disappointed Roman politician sought the aid of a foreign power.”

Sadly, Trump in 2016 asked for the aid of Russia to smear Hillary Clinton. Today he is doing the same thing with Joe Biden in asking the aid of Ukraine and China to smear his good name.
In  my opinion, in Trump’s view winning domestic political struggles is all that matters.
The good of our republic be damned.

It is getting worse today. Trump’s bad example for America; the bullying, the name calling on twitter, and the hate he spews. It is not the America I grew up in! I grew up in an America in which there was bipartisanship in the parties, in which Democrats and Republicans worked together to resolve issues for the good of America – for the good of the United States Democratic Republic.

Today it is the total opposite.
The process of destroying the democratic substance is, sadly, underway.
It is the discouragement of minority voting; a de facto one party state with the fiction of a democracy. It is a rigged political game in which the other side can never win.
“Redistribution from the poor and middle class to the wealthy is a consistent theme in the modern Republican party.” Paul Krugman

In conclusion:

Sadly the erosion of our democracy is well underway and there is no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover. If there is to be hope in the redemption of the American Republic it has to start with the recognition of how bad things really are. Our Democracy is on the edge and that is for certain. If things continue the way they are going in America – the Republic of the United States will one day fall! If we do not replace hate with kindness, bullying with compassion, acceptance with action; especially on things like climate change, immigration reform, our infrastructure, feeding the hungry, helping the poor, just being Godly, doing what Jesus would do. We are stewards of this earth; we have to protect it, and its society. If we don’t and we continue on this spiraling downward path, yes we, our republic will fall
and then the world will follow.