Be ignorant and disengaged, interacting primarily through hands off trade rather than hands in mud direct control of corporate subsidiaries, very little standing army, essentially a professional cadre for a slight larger National Guard to form around, and a Navy that focused on halfway across and Ocean from an American coast.

That'd be OK.

Or be heavily engaged and have voters ready able and willing to kick the SOBs out when they engage in moronic acts or, even, well meaning and well informed acts that somehow turned out badly.

Its the heavily engaged and running blind combination, that's the really heavy going for everyone else, and gradually for more and more Americans as the costs escalate beyond 6% of GDO as current account deficit.

Of course, Rome conquered Greece, and when the Roman half of the Roman Empire fell, the Greek half lasted on for quite a bit longer. If that is a precedent, Europe may well do better out of the fall of the American Empire than America does.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.