Is the United States Becoming a “Banana Republic”?

The latest Trump indictment led to another round of conservatives describing the United States as a “third world country” and a “banana republic.”

At the same time, Al Sharpton questioned whether Republicans wanted “George III or the confederacy” for their continued support of Trump.

American politics are historically stupid.

The Untied States isn’t in danger of becoming a “banana republic.” The analogy doesn’t work.

Nor is Donald Trump either King George III or Jefferson Davis.

He’s a 1940s New Deal Democrat.

More importantly, the best historical analogy for the modern United States is Imperial Rome.

The “republic” died a long time ago, killed by Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party.

The Imperial United States will eventually meet the same fate as Imperial Rome.

The process has already started:

1. Unchecked political corruption at the highest levels with general ambivalence by the voting populace.

2. Government sponsored persecution of political opponents.

3. High inflation and a devalued currency.

4. A massive imperial army and wide ranging foreign policy commitments.

5. A hollowed out military with sagging “native” interest in recruitment.

6. Decadence and moral decline with a lack of public ethics.

7. A government that lacks accountability and hides behind “bread and games.”

8. Massive immigration and declining urban centers.

9. Tremendous government expenditures and payouts to government cronies and wealthy sycophants.

Sounds about right.

Rome did not fall apart overnight. It took centuries, just as the United States will continue a slow decline unless a major military or economic shock forces the issue.

Even then, the reaction won’t be a revitalization of the original federal republic and founding principles unless more is done to educate the general public.

That is a tedious process and continually undone by proposition nation mythologists on both the left and the right.

This is why “think locally and act locally” is so important.

One of my first episode of The Brion McClanahan Show focused on the parallels between Rome and the United States.

I thought it was as good time to revisit that argument.

I cover our current slow implosion on Episode 861 of The Brion McClanahan Show.