I’m sorry, folks. I really, truly wish I could be an optimist. I wish I could write positive articles, telling us that America’s golden days are yet to come, that a bright and shining tomorrow awaits our nation, and the reasons are A, B, C, X, Y, Z. I sincerely wish I could do that. But I’m a historian, and as much as that, a student of the Bible. I have degrees in both subjects, have taught both for literally half a century, and have written thousands of articles in each field. I confess, such tends to make me cynical.

But maybe, just maybe, America’s best days do still lie ahead of her; I’m a historian, not a prophet.

Yet, to be perfectly honest with you, I don’t have a lot of hope, and history is the reason why.

However, rather than me simply giving my opinions on the matter, let me recount some words of great men of yore. Let’s hear what they say about nations, their future, how they succeed and how they fail. Some of these quotes I’ve given before, but they will always be relevant.

Let’s begin with 18th-century historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From........

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