Over the last few years, with an economy in decline and the rise of certain developing nations, there have been murmurs of the end of American exceptionalism throughout the media.
Don’t believe a word of it, says syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer.
On the Christmas Eve edition of Fox News Channel’s “Happening Now,” Krauthammer was asked to reflect on the last two years. He explained there was similar rhetoric about the nation’s decline at the end of the 1970s.
“Well, I think this is mostly a reflection of the recession,” Krauthammer said. “The mood of the country going back 20, 30, 40 years, almost always reflects the state of the economy. The late ‘70s was a period of malaise. People were saying oh, the American era is over. The big dictatorships in the world are going to dominate us. That was a reflection of the terrible economic conditions, the stagnation and the inflation late ‘70s.”
With the 1980s, however, the economy came back and the calls of the end of the so-called Pax Americana went by the wayside. He predicted the same would happen this time around.
“When the economy recovered in the ‘80s there was a morning in America,” he continued. “So I would not over-read the move. People are talking about American decline — don’t believe a word of it. We are now in a recession. It will be over. There are signs the economy is strengthening. When this economy is back on foot you will not hear these lamentations.”
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