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class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:Bethlehem_Steel.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Bethlehem_Steel.jpg/220px-Bethlehem_Steel.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="147" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Bethlehem_Steel.jpg/330px-Bethlehem_Steel.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Bethlehem_Steel.jpg/440px-Bethlehem_Steel.jpg 2x" data-file-width="1500" data-file-height="1004" /></a><figcaption>Disused <a href="/w/index.php?title=Bethlehem_Steel&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bethlehem Steel (page does not exist)">Bethlehem Steel</a> plant in <a href="/w/index.php?title=Bethlehem,_Pennsylvania&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (page does not exist)">Bethlehem, Pennsylvania</a>. At the height of its success and productivity, the company was a symbol of American manufacturing leadership in the world. The company suspended most of its steelmaking operations in 1982 and declared bankruptcy in 2001; this factory is now part of the <a href="/w/index.php?title=Bethlehem_Works&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Bethlehem Works (page does not exist)">Bethlehem Works</a> development site.</figcaption></figure> <p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_decline" class="extiw" title="w:American decline">American decline</a></b> is the idea that the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States of America</a> is diminishing in power on a relative basis <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/geopolitics" class="extiw" title="w:geopolitics">geopolitically</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/military_of_the_United_States" class="extiw" title="w:military of the United States">militarily</a>, financially, <a href="/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States" title="Economy of the United States">economically</a>, and technologically. It can also refer to absolute declines demographically, socially, morally, spiritually, culturally, in matters of healthcare, and/or on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/environmental_issues_in_the_United_States" class="extiw" title="w:environmental issues in the United States">environmental issues</a>. There has been debate over the extent of the decline, and whether it is relative or absolute. </p> <figure class="mw-default-size" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_(50820534063)_(retouched).jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg/220px-2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="135" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg/330px-2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg/440px-2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol_DSC09254-2_%2850820534063%29_%28retouched%29.jpg 2x" data-file-width="4887" data-file-height="2998" /></a><figcaption>Perhaps <a href="/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville" title="Alexis de Tocqueville">de Tocqueville's</a> most profound insight was that the "greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." Twenty-first century America is putting this thesis through a searing test. Our nation is in decline—and the world will find out, soon enough, whether or not de Tocqueville's insight is still true. ~ William Cooper</figcaption></figure> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quotes">Quotes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=American_decline&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Quotes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="C">C</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=American_decline&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: C"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li>A new Gallup poll showed that just 33 percent of Americans are satisfied with the nation's position in the world today. This is down from 65 percent in 2000. As <a href="/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump">Donald Trump</a> and <a href="/wiki/Joe_Biden" title="Joe Biden">Joe Biden</a>—two historically old and deeply unpopular presidential candidates—square off yet again for America's top job, it's not hard to understand these sentiments. America is in decline in the 21st century in measure after measure, from numerous public-policy failures, to increasingly dysfunctional politics, to an epidemic of mental health issues among young people.<br />This predicament raises two essential questions: Is America's downturn merely another dip in a long arc of non-linear, yet essentially upward, progress? Or is it, rather, the first phase of steep and irreversible national decline?<br />The answer lies with the American people. Like all nations, America is, above all, the hearts and minds of its people. And the trend line is moving hard in the wrong direction: Things are getting worse, not better. Tribalism is intensifying. Social-media platforms are getting smarter at manipulating human cognition. The political system's defects are worsening. And America's public-policy failures are deepening. <ul><li>William Cooper, <i>Newsweek</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/america-is-in-decline-opinion/">"America Is in Decline"</a> 19 April 2024</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>The remedies are easy to prescribe. We must improve civic education in schools, raise awareness about cognitive biases throughout society, spend more time with people from other political tribes, reduce and regulate the use of social media, rework the political structure to foster more political parties and equal representation, double down on free speech, feverishly guard election integrity, and support a new Republican champion other than Donald Trump.<br />Yet in practice these goals have been impossible to achieve.<br />Two broad and overlapping global trends will only make reversing the free-fall harder as the 21st century marches on. First, technology is getting more sophisticated—at a dizzying pace. The positives are huge. The internet democratizes education. Streaming innovations like Netflix enrich entertainment. New products like self-driving cars revolutionize transportation. Highly sophisticated research dramatically improves medicine. Pioneering technologies substantially broaden the distribution of necessities like food and clothing. <ul><li>William Cooper, <i>Newsweek</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/america-is-in-decline-opinion/">"America Is in Decline"</a> 19 April 2024</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>As former United States CIA Director and Defense Secretary <a href="/wiki/Robert_Gates" title="Robert Gates">Robert Gates</a> wrote in a September 2023 Foreign Affairs essay, <i>The Dysfunctional Superpower</i>, geopolitical threats to America are multiplying: "The United States finds itself in a uniquely treacherous position: facing aggressive adversaries with a propensity to miscalculate yet incapable of mustering the unity and strength necessary to dissuade them."<br />According to Gates, "The United States now confronts graver threats to its security than it has in decades, perhaps ever. Never before has it faced four allied antagonists at the same time—Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran—whose collective nuclear arsenal could within a few years be nearly double the size of its own. Not since the Korean War has the United States had to contend with powerful military rivals in both Europe and Asia."<br />But it's not just America's biggest rivals that matter. Within a few decades it's likely that even small countries will have military capacities that in key respects exceed those of the superpowers today. Given the dominance and cohesion of America's military, another civil war is highly unlikely. The worst-case scenario arising from America's dysfunction isn't domestic mismanagement; it's foreign policy miscalculation. <ul><li>William Cooper, <i>Newsweek</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/america-is-in-decline-opinion/">"America Is in Decline"</a> 19 April 2024</li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li>These dynamics establish a striking truism that looms over humanity: The world's pre-eminent democracy and most powerful nation is in decline precisely when the challenges faced by the world are mounting and its need for rational leadership has never been more urgent.<br />Somewhere beneath the thickening surface of tribal bedlam and political fervor, however, is still a core national impulse to confront and overcome big challenges. The question is how strong that impulse remains.<br />The French political scientist <a href="/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville" title="Alexis de Tocqueville">Alexis de Tocqueville</a> visited America in 1831 and 1832. A close observer of human behavior, de Tocqueville traveled across the country taking copious notes on what he saw. His book, <i>Democracy in America</i>, is a classic text in political science. And he's been revered for capturing the true essence of America like few others have, either before or since.<br /><b>Perhaps de Tocqueville's most profound insight was that the "greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults." Twenty-first century America is putting this thesis through a searing test. Our nation is in decline—and the world will find out, soon enough, whether or not de Tocqueville's insight is still true.</b> <ul><li>William Cooper, <i>Newsweek</i>, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/america-is-in-decline-opinion/">"America Is in Decline"</a> 19 April 2024</li></ul></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=American_decline&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/American_benevolence" title="American benevolence">American benevolence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/American_exceptionalism" title="American exceptionalism">American exceptionalism</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=American_decline&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="noprint" style="clear: right; border: solid #aaa 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; font-size: 90%; background: #f9f9f9; width: 250px; padding: 4px; spacing: 0px; text-align: left; float: right;"> <div style="float: left;"><figure class="mw-halign-none" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Wikipedia"><img alt="Wikipedia" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/50px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="46" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/75px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/100px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="103" data-file-height="94" /></a><figcaption>Wikipedia</figcaption></figure></div> <div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> has an article about: <div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_decline" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:American decline">American decline</a></b></i></div> </div> </div>    </div><noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; position: absolute;"></noscript> <div class="printfooter" data-nosnippet="">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=American_decline&oldid=3508029">https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=American_decline&oldid=3508029</a>"</div></div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Foreign_relations_of_the_United_States" title="Category:Foreign relations of the United States">Foreign relations of the United States</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:History_of_the_United_States" title="Category:History of the United States">History of the United States</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Economy_of_the_United_States" title="Category:Economy of the United States">Economy of the United States</a></li></ul></div></div> </div> </main> </div> <div class="mw-footer-container"> <footer id="footer" class="mw-footer" > <ul id="footer-info"> <li id="footer-info-lastmod"> This page was last edited on 29 April 2024, at 02:51.</li> <li id="footer-info-copyright">Text is available under the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License</a>; additional terms may apply. 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