Americanum under Aurantius Dominus

Reports of America's decline are regularly said to be exaggerated. The trouble is, these claims themselves are exaggerated. The US is currently performing the full rattle and hum of imperial exhaustion. Like the Roman empire in its twilight, America insists it is eternal even as the barbarians - global markets, rising powers, climate chaos, military defeat - are already inside the gates.

The current POTUS, Aurantius Dominus, or the Orange Lord, a.k.a. Donaldus Rumpus, happily mistakes bluster for strategy and denial for governance. The decline of Pax America (sic) is televised, posted, even monetised by the tech barons from the princely states of the Valley and Texas. Yet, a chorus of pundits insists decline is a mirage. But as the grand sage Groucho Marx would have said, 'Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?'

The signs are everywhere. Alliances fray, debt balloons, infrastructure crumbles. The dollar still reigns, but like Rome's denarius, it buys less glory each year. Denial is the most American product of all: a refusal to admit that history applies to America, too. Decline, of course, need not mean collapse. Rome's legacy endured in law, language and architecture. America's should endure in technology, universities and movies. But the empire itself - both the shallow and deep state - is fading. Better get used to it, buster.