One of the favorite allegorical nations for our country is the Roman Empire. It isn't a perfect fit. Mark Twain once said, history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.

Rome's "Crisis of the Third Century" could well rhyme with USA's "Crisis of the Twenty-First Century." From some stalwart Wikipedia historian,

In the 3rd century, however, the Empire underwent military, political and economic crises and began to collapse. There was constant barbarian invasion, civil war, and hyperinflation.

GW Bush has done a pretty good job of knocking down the pillars of government--by infesting its offices with ideologues intent on drowning government in a bathtub. What exactly did they think was going to happen in the vacuum that they left? They literally destroyed the government and infrastructure in Iraq, and they figuratively destroyed it here. Literal anarchy in Iraq, figurative anarchy here.

How bad could it get? Say McCain, or Romney, or Clinton, or Obama, become president? They all say they will make "changes." Yet, are any of them likely to have the will or capacity to change the momentum of the course that the Bush Administration has set? What are they going to do about the Iraq conflict, privatization of societal institutions, destruction of civil liberties, reduction of capacity by the public to participate in government, and lack of will to reign cannibalistic capitalism (the wealthy feeding on the poor)?

This is where my political bickering fatigue takes hold--I am not going to waste precious resources in screaming fights about which person to elect to move the deck chairs around on the Titanic.