“One of the things that – I’m saying this now, some other people across the world have apparently said it too – I believe that one of the signs of America’s decline is the election of people like the current and the former president,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with students. “A country of 300 million, 300 million-plus people almost destroys itself and elects a president in the previous term - somebody like Trump whom the world considers being crazy and after he was defeated, a man like this current one comes to power, and well, you know the stories about him. This is evidence of the decline of a nation. This is evidence of the decline of a civilization. So, this was [matters] related to America.”
The fact that the United States is on the decline has been reiterated by many pundits and politicians, including those inside the United States.
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump described the United States as “a country in decline” in a campaign speech in Western Pennsylvania. “If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American dream, then on Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant red wave,” he told supporters.
On the other hand, President Joe Biden is now warning that America is on the path to chaos. “As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America – for governor, for Congress, for attorney general, for secretary of state who won’t commit to accepting the results of the elections they’re in,” Biden said. “That is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it is un-American.”
He also warned that democracy in America could not be taken for granted anymore.
“Nearly half of Americans fear their country will erupt within the next decade,” the Guardian reported, citing three American political scientists who warned of another civil war breaking out in America. “Look for the next civil war to take place after the 2024 election cycle, when the next wave of violence is likely to emerge. Similar to the original civil war, there’s too much at stake for both sides. Then, as now, the threats are existential,” Christopher Sebastian Parker, professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, wrote for the Guardian. “America is rushing headlong into another civil war, and it’s a matter of when not if.”
Barbara F Walter, an American political scientist, is of the opinion that America will continue to decline due to a variety of factors. “America’s democracy declined rapidly between 2016 and 2020. Since 6 January 2021, the US has failed to strengthen its democracy in any way, leaving it vulnerable to continued backsliding into the middle zone,” she said.
By Mehran Shamsuddin
First published in Tehran Times
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