America’s financial mismanagement has gotten so bad that some say our country’s decline is now inevitable, drawing parallels to the Roman Empire’s collapse. That comparison is unfair for two reasons. First, Rome had good roads that lasted over a millennium. Second, and more seriously, America has changed course before and hopefully still has time to do so again.

At the moment, however, America is moving in the wrong direction. New York City, a hotbed of leftist ideology and a microcosm of what’s causing America’s decline, recently announced it would cut police funding to spend $12 billion more on illegal aliens. The streets may not be safe for U.S. citizens, but at least those here illegally will be comfortable.

New York was once the greatest engine of prosperity in the world, and now people are fleeing in droves. We haven’t quite gotten to cows grazing in the Roman Forum, but entire swaths of once-thriving cities are now abandoned. Even the inhabited cities are in decline, with rising taxes outpaced by the crumbling institutions they allegedly fund.