The Economist Magazine recently asked a provocative question.  What would America fight for?

 In the body of the analysis, The Economist editorialized:

"Mr. Obama has still made a difficult situation worse in two ways.  First, he has broken the cardinal rule of superpower deterrence: you must keep your word.  In Syria he drew a red line -- he would punish Bashar Assad if he used chemical weapons.  The Syrian dictator did, and Mr. Obama did nothing.  In response to Russia's aggression, he threatened fierce sanctions, only to unveil underwhelming ones. ... [T]he cumulative message is weakness."

And there is little doubt about that.

In Iraq, the al Qaeda off-shoot ISIS is sixty miles away from Baghdad.

President Obama has done little to degrade the ISIS army.

And now it is taunting the president.

A series of videos on ISIS shows the jihadists on the move, telling the world they are not afraid of America or anyone else.

The translation of this video says,

"The Islamic caliphate has been established and God willing it will not stop until we raise the flag of Prophet Mohammed in the White House"

Again the U.S.A. has taken no military action against this group when it could have easily bombed their movements from Syria into Iraq, and used drones against its leadership.

President Obama told us weeks ago that he is studying the ISIS situation.

We have not heard anything since, and that is the pattern.  The president studies, discusses, analyzes ... then does nothing.

Again, this shows America's weakness.

You all know about Putin's aggressive moves.  China is threatening to take islands in the far East, and all over the world there is fear in the air.

Back home, weakness is being shown in two vital areas:

First, the earning power of the American worker continues to decline.  

Median income, down more than seven percent since president Obama has been in office.

Meantime, the cost of gasoline has nearly doubled and food prices in the U.S.A. are at their highest level in history.

This weakens the average American home, causing millions of Americans to turn to the federal government for financial support.

That of course raises the debt, which is now projected to be more than twenty trillion dollars by the time Barack Obama leaves office.

The combined economic weakness, the debt, and Americans' diminishing earning power is a devastating story that the media has been derelict in telling.

And then there is social weakness.

We are now living in a society that is largely secular, where selfish pursuits and narcissistic behavior are on the rise.

Millions of Americans are now addicted to the internet, spending vast amounts of time texting, tweeting and watching dubious entertainment on their machines.

The crusade to legalize marijuana is almost hysterical -- pot proponents almost making it a constitutional issue that we Americans have the inherent right to inebriation by using drugs because alcohol is legal.

Coupled with that is the incredible sympathy some on the left have for drug dealers of all kinds, wanting to classify their conduct as non-violent so they can avoid harsh punishment.

When a society goes soft on evil-doers, it becomes weak.  And people who sell drugs are evil; they bring harm and don't care.

How about American children?

In many public schools, they are getting an inferior education.

American test scores compared worldwide are mediocre at best.

We no longer teach children discipline, values or perspective.

Instead the kids are immersed in cyberspace, subjected to all kinds of pernicious behavior that in the past they could not access.

The cold truth is American society is growing weaker, and anyone who challenges the trend is demonized by the liberal media.

Politically, we are a divided nation.  Congress rarely solves vexing problems because both parties are trying to destroy one another.

The right sees President Obama as the devil, a man bent on destroying America.  It is very personal.

The left screams about income inequality when its policies are downgrading job development and failing to help the poor.

That means more dependence on big government, which is only too willing to provide excuses for individual failure.

Thus the have nots demand more from the haves because somehow they are entitled to other people's money.

And the Obama administration stokes that fire.

Rather than laying out a road map of self-reliance, liberal politicians and the media encourage social justice and income redistribution.

Millions of American workers are buying that, signing up for disability payments at a record level even though some, if not many, are far from disabled.

The nation's motto "out of many, one" might soon be changed to "if I don't have mine, I want yours."

That is weakness.

So summing up, President Obama ran on a platform of prosperity, uniting America and a bold new progressive vision that would provide for the poor and ensure a permanent level playing field.

That has not come to pass.

What we have now is declining power overseas that has emboldened those who attacked us on 9/11.

An enormous debt that is not being controlled.

A porous southern border that the feds cannot solve, and a population of 320 million, many of whom are apathetic and ill-informed -- stimulated only by individual pursuits even if those pursuits harm them.

I've been in the media business for about 40 years.  I have never seen America weaker than it is today.

And that's the memo.