Americans No Longer Believe Their Own Country Will Last 250 Years—And They Have a Point
Nearly 40% of Americans doubt their country will last another 250 years. The reason isn’t China or climate—it’s the dawning fear that American exceptionalism was a temporary product of luck, not virtue. From botched White House renovations to a police-guarded, peeling reflecting pool, the symbols of power are crumbling. For a nation that has never known life without global dominance, every domestic failure feels existential. This is the psychology behind America’s irrational response to a rising China.