China’s Long Game

“China is betting that American decline will continue,” Ryan Hass writes. This is why China believes that the surest path to international power is not through a direct confrontation, but through patience:

 https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/china-trump-american-decline/687087/

Southern Baptists membership FALLS for 19th straight year!

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/frYH86l1V2I

 

Lawrence: The image of Trump and Mamdani perfectly captures the decline and fall of Trump

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odyMpCkQ_3k

 

Why American children are less healthy now than nearly two decades ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ElCYJsfOR8

 

Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age -- New York Times

With the passage of time, the 78-year-old former president’s speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past, according to a review of his public appearances over the years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/trump-speeches-age-cognitive-decline.html

Why Religion is Declining in Modern Societies | Ryan Cragun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPp-NTE6QwQ

Opinion | Why Does the Right Hate America? - The New York Times

And if you would prefer a society with more traditional social relationships, more people practicing traditional forms of religion and so on, that's your right. But don't claim, falsely, that society is collapsing because it doesn't match your preferences or blame liberalism for every social problem...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/06/opinion/columnists/united-states-right-social-change.html

Opinion | America Is an Empire in Decline. That Doesn’t Mean It Has to Fall. - The New York Times

…America will need to give up trying to restore its past glory through a go-it-alone, America First approach. It was the same impulse that pushed the Roman Empire into the military adventurism that brought about its eventual destruction. The world economy has changed, and the United States will never again be able to dominate the planet as it once did. But the possibility of building a new world out of a coalition of the like-minded is a luxury Rome never had. America, whatever it calls itself, should seize the opportunity...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/opinion/america-rome-empire.html

'Allergic reaction to US religious right' fueling decline of religion, experts say

Percentage of churchgoing Americans is steadily falling, and the swirl of rightwing politics and Christianity is playing a key role...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/05/americans-religion-rightwing-politics-decline

Trump-Biden debate stokes global perception of a United States in decline, mired in chaos - The Washington Post

The first U.S. presidential debate Tuesday night — run through with interruptions, personal insults and chaotic exchanges — has reinforced the perception in many foreign capitals that the Trump presidency has undermined U.S. democracy to an extent that it has become difficult to recognize. “The spiteful debate mirrors a country that is no longer even capable of having a dignified discussion,” read a scathing editorial published by Switzerland’s right-leaning, German-language Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper Wednesday morning.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/30/trump-biden-debate-global-reaction-us-decline/

It Was All a Lie review: Trump as symptom not cause of Republican decline

A consultant for Bush and Romney laments the fate of his party and sees heavy defeat as the best medicine to hope for
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/02/it-was-all-a-lie-review-trump-republican-party

Opinion | The nation is in a downward spiral. Worse is still to come. - The Washington Post

Because of his incontinent use of it, the rhetorical mustard that the president slathers on every subject has lost its tang. The entertainer has become a bore, and foretelling his defeat no longer involves peering into a distant future: Early voting begins in two states (South Dakota and Minnesota) 61 days from Sunday, which is 107 days before Election Day.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-what-national-decline-looks-like/2020/07/14/ef499fd4-c5f0-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html

The coronavirus shows how backward the United States has become - The Washington Post

America no longer leads.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/18/coronavirus-shows-how-backward-united-states-has-become/

North America has lost 29% of its birds in 50 years - The Washington Post

Slowly, steadily and almost imperceptibly, North America’s bird population is dwindling.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/09/19/north-america-has-lost-billion-birds-years/

How Marco Rubio’s sad decline explains the Republican Party - The Washington Post:

Once the Republican savior, now he sends out Trumpian conspiracy tweets. ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/11/19/how-marco-rubios-sad-decline-explains-the-republican-party/

30 Years of Moral Decay: A Short History of the Republican Party - Mother Jones

As a sort of PS to my post yesterday about the decay that's overtaken the Republican Party, I'd like to make clear just how long this has been brewing. I know this is hardly news to anyone who reads this blog, but as I approach my 60th birthday I can say that half my life...
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/08/30-years-of-moral-decay-a-short-history-of-the-republican-party/

Blame Evangelicals for the Decline in Christian Faith

Polls show that in a classic example of religion gone wrong, evangelicals' slavish devotion to right wingers is the chief cause of the decline of religious belief....

https://www.thedailybeast.com/blame-evangelicals-for-the-decline-in-christian-faith

Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It. -- POLITICO

If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham. ....
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/24/billy-graham-evangelical-decline-franklin-graham-217077?cid=apn