Pretty Americentric line of thought considering us dirty gaters have international "membership", but this also applies to the West in general.
Call it China or the Globalists -- 'and' is probably more appropriate, but there's been a deliberate decades long attack on our educational institutions, our government, our economy, the Christian religion, our borders, Communist infiltration of key positions in government and industry, etc. etc. etc.
And it's been so effective, I just don't see a reversal of course. Even if the moderate collective pulled the wool from their eyes and took action, we're still due for an economic implosion as the debt bubble eventually pops, and we'd have to deal with the indoctrinated masses who would violently resist being jacked out of the Matrix.
Personally, by this point I'm not even thinking about saving the republic, but rather what actions will need to be taken to build something better from its ruins.
Why should anyone join the army and risk dying? Why should anyone be led by the politicians who don't give a shit about them?
You're thinking in too modern terms.
Conceptually the US wasn't supposed to have a standing army or engage in foreign war. If we'd needed to mobilize, it would have been for defense.