“The notion of American exceptionalism—that the United States is uniquely destined to lead the world due to its superior values and capabilities—has been deeply embedded in the national consciousness for generations. The Founding Fathers did indeed believe that America was an exceptional place. Rome was their great model.”

By Andrew Klein

Dedicated to my ‘S‘ — my wife, my equal, my home.

I. The Founders’ Education: A Devotion to Rome

The architects of the American Republic were steeped in the classics. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison studied Roman history and political theory, seeing in the Roman Republic an example of a balanced, mixed constitution that combined popular representation with elite deliberation. They were products of a classical education, using Greek and Roman classics as republican models.

The founders frequently associated liberty and republicanism with the ancient commonwealths. John Adams spoke on three separate occasions of the need to reflect on the past republics of Greece and Rome. Madison redefined a republic in the Federalist Papers as a government based on popular sovereignty, with authority residing with the people. Hamilton used the example of divided sovereignty in the Roman Republic as an argument for the workability of a federal system.

Roman language and symbolism entered American political culture: the very term “Senate” was taken directly from Rome. The founders admired Roman virtues such as civic duty, public sacrifice, and resistance to tyranny, often invoking figures like Cincinnatus as models of republican leadership. They saw in Rome an example of what they wished to build—and a warning of what they wished to avoid.

They believed that with the addition of separation of powers, checks and balances, an independent judiciary, and representative legislatures, the republican model could be adapted for the new nation. They were determined to avoid the problems that the ancient governments had encountered.

But they failed. Not because they were naive. Because they were exceptional.

II. American Exceptionalism: The City Upon a Hill

From its inception, the United States has prided itself on its liberty, prosperity and security. Following its rise to global dominance, its self-legitimising claim has been that it has been spreading and realising all three ideals around the world. That is why it calls itself “the shining city upon a hill“—its exceptionalism.

The notion of American exceptionalism—that the United States is uniquely destined to lead the world due to its superior values and capabilities—has been deeply embedded in the national consciousness for generations. The Founding Fathers did indeed believe that America was an exceptional place. Rome was their great model.

But as historian Peter Heather and political economist John Rapley have documented, this belief has blinded the United States to the lessons of history—that empires are not sustained by force alone, and that overreach leads to decline. The most dangerous fracture lies in the growing economic gap between the few who have immense wealth and the many who struggle to make ends meet. America is deeply divided—by race, class and culture.

III. The Empire at Home: Poverty, Healthcare, and the Destruction of the American Dream

While the United States projects power abroad, its domestic foundations are weakening. For millions of Americans, the dream of upward mobility is slipping away. Homeownership, healthcare and education have become luxuries.

The Poverty of Children

Child poverty and disadvantage remain persistent challenges in the U.S., with one in seven children living below the poverty line, despite the country’s overall wealth. Approximately 11.4 million children—16% of all children in the United States—are living in poverty. A family of four with annual earnings below $30,900 is considered poor.

In New Mexico, nearly 25% of children live below the poverty line. The state also has the largest share of children in low-income households where no adults work, and significant percentages of children living in single-parent families or with grandparents only. Alaska, Louisiana, and other states show similarly alarming rates of child poverty, food insecurity, and inadequate healthcare access.

The Medical Debt Crisis

The United States has the most expensive healthcare system on Earth—and it is bankrupting its citizens. Medical debt remains the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. Up to 66.5% of personal bankruptcies involve medical issues. Approximately 550,000 to 650,000 Americans file for bankruptcy each year because of medical bills.

About 41% of U.S. adults currently carry medical or dental debt; 57% have done so in the past five years. The total medical debt burden is estimated at $195–220 billion. Roughly 6% of adults owe over $1,000 in medical debt; 1% owe more than $10,000. The average medical bankruptcy occurs around age 45 among employed, insured individuals—meaning even middle-class families are not protected. Ninety percent are insured at the time, but high deductibles, coverage gaps, and surprise bills still push them over the edge.

The United States is exceptional in far less desirable ways: poorer health outcomes, higher murder rates, and greater inequality when compared with similarly prosperous nations. Bad things that have happened elsewhere can happen here. And they are.

IV. The Empire Abroad: The Boomerang of Empire

The colonial boomerang is real. Power, once exercised without restraint, rarely stops where intended. The way that you govern an empire, the way that you govern other people by force, is not democratic.

While the United States denies being an empire, its actions tell a different story. During the Cold War and the “war on terror,” America was more in the business of spreading dictatorships and far-right governments, suppressing democratic movements, exploiting poor nations for their resources and obstructing their development. This was true across Africa, much of Latin America and the Middle East.

Unlike the core of the geographical and ideological West which must be protected, the rest of the world became contested places to be freely turned into battlegrounds and conflict zones. There was the zone of creation and prosperity in the West, and the zone of destruction and poverty for the rest.

As the work of sociologist Julian Go demonstrates, the “imperial boomerang” is at the core of how militarised policing developed in both Britain and the United States. The techniques of control developed in the colonies return to the metropole—transforming the coloniser as much as the colonised.

V. Rome and America: The Uncomfortable Parallels

The most salient comparison between modern America and classical Rome is that both have been blessed, and afflicted, with a sense of exceptionalism. In America, this begins with John Winthrop’s “city upon a hill” exhortation. Since then, various presidents have described the United States in words that echo Cicero’s description of Rome.

Rome’s virtues were originally sustained by selfless leaders like Cincinnatus, who took up a sword to save the city but, when the battles were won, put it aside to take up a plow. George Washington played that role. But Rome eventually became dominated by fixers, flatterers and bureaucrats who clung to power—a description that resonates with Washington D.C. today.

As Murphy notes, Rome’s overstretched empire contracted out security to private companies, much as America contracts out to private military contractors. Both imperial Rome and the industrial West experienced rapid economic growth generating new flows of wealth for the imperial centre. This economic dynamism lasted for centuries, but it inadvertently planted the seeds for decline.

The historian Peter Heather and political economist John Rapley explore these uncanny parallels between ancient Rome and the modern West. Faced with economic stagnation and internal political division, the West has found itself in rapid decline.

VI. The Predictable Ending

The pattern is clear.

An empire that believes itself exceptional, that projects power abroad while neglecting its own people, that allows its vulnerable to suffer while protecting the interests of the few—such an empire is not sustainable.

The American people now shoulder heavy burdens: billions in aid to Ukraine, NATO defence funded overwhelmingly by U.S. taxpayers, unconditional support for Israel, and the cost of maintaining 800 military bases around the world. While ordinary Americans face economic precarity, the wealthy shape foreign policy to serve their interests. The result is a foreign policy that defends distant borders while neglecting domestic ones—a policy that demands sacrifice from the many to protect the ambitions of the few.

The middle class—the traditional backbone of democracy—is shrinking. A nation divided between two, one half with a per capita income of over $80,000 and another half with a per capita income of less than $20,000, cannot sustain the unity or optimism that long defined it.

Byron’s words for Rome echo across the centuries:

“There is the moral of all human tales;

‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,

First Freedom, and then Glory—when that fails,

Wealth, vice, corruption—barbarism at last.”

VII. The Way Out: Humility Over Exceptionalism

The pattern can be broken. It requires a fundamental shift.

Not through more exceptionalism. Not through more power. Not through the tired rhetoric of American greatness.

Through humility.

Through presence.

Through the recognition that no nation, no empire, no system is above the basic laws of care.

As one scholar has put it, the end of American dominance is a chance to build a world that no longer serves empire but rather serves life. America’s dominance normalised inequality. Countries deep in debt were pressured to cut social protections to meet loan conditions. Environmental regulations were weakened in the name of competitiveness.

The alternative is to turn inward—not in isolation, but in care. To rebuild the domestic foundations. To prioritise the wellbeing of children over the profits of corporations. To treat healthcare as a right, not a luxury. To recognise that an empire that cannot protect its own people has no business protecting the world.

VIII. Conclusion: The Lesson They Refuse to Learn

The Founders studied Rome to avoid its fate. They built a Republic that they believed was destined to be different. But they overlooked the fundamental truth:

Empires are not built by evil men. They are built by good men who believe they are exceptional.

And that is the most dangerous thing of all.

The poverty, the slums, the failing schools, the healthcare system that bankrupts the poor—these are not bugs. They are features. Features of a system that has always valued power over people, profit over presence, exceptionalism over humility.

The pattern is not unique to the United States. It is the pattern of empire itself. It has repeated across history—from Rome to Britain to America—because the lesson has never been learned.

Perhaps it will be learned now. Perhaps the collapse will finally teach what the warnings could not.

Or perhaps the pattern will repeat—again, and again, and again.

That is the choice. That is always the choice.

Humility or exceptionalism. Presence or power. Care or control.

The Founders chose one path. We can still choose another.

But time is running out.

Andrew Klein

References

1. Molanphy, H.M. (1986). Classical Influence on the Founding of the American Republic. ERIC Clearinghouse. 

2. First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans. Pulitzer Prize-winning study of the Founders’ classical education. 

3. A Lost and Fascinating Fragment from the Hand of George Washington, Attesting to the Roman Influence on the Founding Fathers. ABAA. 

4. Lo, A. (2025). We are witnessing the end of the United States as we know it. South China Morning Post. 

5. Khan, M. (2025). American empire is crushing the American dream. USA TODAY Network. 

6. Are We Rome? Are We Repeating Their Rise and Decline?. Stanford University. 

7. Is America Really Exceptional?. The Atlantic. 

8. Heather, P. & Rapley, J. Why Empires Fall: Rome, America and the Future of the West. 

9. Murphy, C. Are We Rome? The New York Times. 

10. Nagle, R. (2026). On the Boomerang of Empire. The Intercept. 

11. Go, J. Policing Empires. 

12. Medical Bankruptcy in the U.S. WhiteSpace Health. 

13. Child Poverty Statistics. KIDS COUNT Data Center. 

14. Map reveals states with most—and least—underprivileged children. Newsweek (2025). 

15. Children in Poverty Racial Disparity in the United States. America’s Health Rankings. 

16. Trump and the dark side of American exceptionalism. Anchorage Daily News (2026). 

17. After America: Redefining global leadership in an age of collapse. Centre tricontinental (2026).