Is America In Decline?

Monday, former President Trump's Palm Beach home, Mar-A-Lago, was raided by FBI agents.

Trump responded, "These are dark times for our nation...as my beautiful home...is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."

He said, "Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before."

Former Harvard Law professor and democrat Alan Dershowitz criticized the raid as "misconduct."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the raid saying, "We believe in the rule of law, that's what our country is about. And no person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States."

Really, Nancy?  Hillary Clinton essentially ran her communications as Sectary of State through a server in her home, and when she was questioned and subpoenaed by Congress to turn over her email, she deleted and acid-washed 33,000 of them. She remains to this day "above the law" ---no consequences.

And Nancy, have you ever heard of Hunter Biden?

The Leftist, widely read "Atlantic" is suggesting that they and the world believe that America is in decline.

Is it? If so, how should we respond?

Be informed, not misled.

Different responses from different views. 

Fox News reported this yesterday:

Former President Trump on Monday said that his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was "under siege" by a "large group" of FBI agents conducting a search warrant.

"Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," Trump said. "It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections." 

"Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those countries, corrupt at a level not seen before," Trump said, alleging that the FBI agents broke into his safe. 

Alan Dershowitz, former Harvard Law professor and liberal Democrat characterized the raid as "misconduct" noting that this type of raid is normally a "method of last resort, and the onus will be on the Biden Administration to show justification or anything in the raid would be suppressed."

Many on the left are justifying the raid by explaining that the FBI could not have conducted the raid unless a judge signed off on the raid, and no judge would have signed off unless they were certain the feds were on to something in Trump's home.

Ironically the judge who signed off on the raid is a donor to Barack Obama and is linked to Jeffery Epstein the convicted pedophile.

The New York Post reported yesterday that "The Florida federal magistrate judge who signed off on a search warrant authorizing the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort donated to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign — months after he left the local US Attorney’s office to rep employees of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who had received immunity in the long-running sex-trafficking investigation of the financier."

Sources tell The Post that Judge Bruce Reinhart approved the warrant that enabled federal agents to converge on the palatial South Florida estate on Monday in what Trump called an “unannounced raid on my home.”

Reinhart's record is less than sterling. He was sued by two of Epstein's victims who accused him of violating Justice Department policies by switching sides in the middle of the Epstein investigation, suggesting he had spilled inside information about the probe to build favor with the notorious defendant, who was, as you know, later found dead in his jail cell. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of course, has her own view of the raid. She told NBC Today Show, "We believe in the rule of law. That's what our country is about."

But is it really still about the rule of law?  

I hope it is. I regularly pray it is. Nancy pompously told NBC, "No person is above the law. Not even the president of the United States. Not even a former president of the United States."

This while reports are now circulating that a judge in Napa Valley is working to reduce her husband's drunk driving charge that was initially filed following his collision with another car in the early morning hours a week or so ago.

And should we believe that she and her husband have made millions in buying and selling stock using the knowledge that only someone in her political position could have in advance?

Apparently, she believes Hunter Biden is above the law. And what about President Biden's clearly proven knowledge about son Hunter's business dealings---and his lying to the American public claiming to know nothing about Hunter's dealings?

And I suppose she's okay with Hillary being sort of above the law.

Is America in decline?

The fact that the world is beginning to think so doesn't make it so, but it should cause every person who loves this country to give it some serious thought. And prayer.

The Leftist, widely read "Atlantic" published a lengthy article last week asking this very question.

"A peculiar cognitive dissonance seems to have taken hold in the world. The Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—led and propped up by the United States—has reminded the world that the international order is, if anything, more dependent on the American military, economic, and financial might now than only a few years ago. Yet everywhere you turn, there is a sense that the U.S. is in some form of terminal decline; too divided, incoherent, violent, and dysfunctional to sustain its Pax Americana."

The writer says he was talking to a former French ambassador who remains well connected in Europe's diplomatic network recently and asked if  America's apparent implosion was ever discussed at the highest levels of government in Europe. The former ambassador replied, "We never 'stop' talking about it."

This person says, "From outside the U.S., many now see in America only relentless mass shootings, political dysfunction, social division, and the looming presence of Donald Trump. All of this seems to add up in the collective imagination to an impression of a country on the brink, meeting all the conditions for a descent into civil unrest."

I don't spend a lot of time analyzing what Europeans think about us or our country---you probably don't either.

But there is a sense that something is very wrong in the most powerful, free, prosperous nation in the history of the world.

And the rest of the world knows it because they feel it in their lives and their countries.

While most Europeans have been talking about America's inevitable decline, they have looked to themselves to save themselves. The idea was that as the US declined, the EU would step up and fill the gap.

The Atlantic piece acknowledges that in Asia the United States remains the only superpower capable of standing up to China's bid for global power.

In Europe, there was a growing dependence on Russia for energy. Then Russia attacked Ukraine and everything changed.

The Atlantic concludes that "America today is both mightier than it was a decade ago and more vulnerable; the guarantor of the world order and the greatest potential source of its disorder. As long as this continues the rest of the world, they say, will continue to 'obsess,' but be able to do anything about it."

Takeaway

Does anyone have the answer? Biblical prophecy tells us in the end times a man---an anti-Christ, will arise. He will convince the world he has the answers, yet he will usher in what the Bible calls the "Great Tribulation." The greatest human suffering ever known to the human race will be put upon the world. And the end will come.

Daniel Webster, (1782-1852), a second-generation political son of the American Founders foresaw such a time as this.

Webster, a US Senator, said "Hold on my friends to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands...Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."

He said if we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering. 

However: if we neglect to do so "no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

And he explained to his generation that our forefathers brought forth to this land a high veneration for the Christian religion and how that conviction caused them to infuse biblical Truth and principles into all our institutions.

I believe we stand at the most critical juncture in the history of this nation. And the most vulnerable time in recent human history.

We can repent and return. Or we can slouch on toward Sodom and the forgotten dust bin of insignificance.

To whom much is given, much shall be required.

Be Prayerful. Be Informed. Be Engaged. Be Vigilant. Be Bold.