Ep #137: The End of the American Nation-State: Lessons from the Holy Roman Empire

​​In this episode of the Professor Liberty Podcast, Mr. Palumbo kicks off 2026 by exploring whether the United States may be drifting toward a political structure similar to the Holy Roman Empire, using history as a lens to analyze modern American diversity, federalism, and national identity. After defining the concept of the nation-state, he examines the Holy Roman Empire as a long-running but fragmented political system that governed deep cultural and religious diversity through negotiation rather than centralized authority. Drawing on the ideas of commentator Auron MacIntyre, Palumbo argues that modern liberal democracies often mask elite rule while struggling to maintain cohesion amid expanding bureaucracy, immigration, and ideological fragmentation. He contrasts historical assimilation in the U.S. with contemporary immigration patterns, raises questions about culture, religion, and shared identity as binding forces, and suggests that America may be evolving from a unified nation-state into a looser, negotiated union. The episode ultimately asks whether this transformation represents decline—or simply the cost of holding together a society that no longer shares a single story about who it is.