A New Year in America: Will We Continue Down the Road to Decline?

by Bruce Thronton

Frontpage Magazine

 

Looking back over 2012, one could be forgiven for thinking that if America goes on at this rate, the nation must be ruined. But as Adam Smith replied to a young man who said those same words about British losses during the American Revolution, “there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” A mighty power will not collapse overnight, and the course of decline can always be halted by a renewal of patriotic vigor. But absent that, ruin will eventually come. As we look ahead to 2013, signs abound that we may be reaching the point where decline accelerates. Continue reading “A New Year in America: Will We Continue Down the Road to Decline?”

2012: When Dreams Died

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

The year 2012 saw the triumph of cold reality over pie-in-the-sky dreams.

Barack Obama in 2008 won an election on an upbeat message of change in the hope that the first black president would mark a redemptive moment in American history. Continue reading “2012: When Dreams Died”

Conservative Populism

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The conservative failure in 2012 was not an inability to appeal to hyphenated groups on the basis of ethnic, gender, and age identification. Instead, there was a general cluelessness about how to reach the middle and working classes of all races and ethnicities by explaining how conservative principles are not just for the rich. Continue reading “Conservative Populism”

Let the Real Fat Cats Pay Their Fair Share

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Who exactly were the rich who, as the president said, were not “paying their fair share”? The rapper Jay-Z (net worth: nearly $500 million)? The actor Johnny Depp (2011 income: $50 million)? Neither seems to have heard the president’s earlier warning that, “at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” Continue reading “Let the Real Fat Cats Pay Their Fair Share”