USA vs Imperial Rome

[dead0man]

from time to time you'll hear someone argue that the US and the Roman Empire are alike and we are doomed for the same reasons they were.  I'm just not seeing it.  Just from the leadership position, Emperors had WAY more power than POTUSes do, and when it was time to get a new one, it was crap shoot in every way.  There was (often) no orderly power change, many, MANY times there was a years long civil war to find out who was going to lead next and that guy might be (and occasionally was) a mentally ill maniac (yes, we all thought of Trump just now, but forgetaboutthat).  The US has no Praetorian guard equivalent and the military isn't full of foreigners.  Our Congress, ok, that might be where we are close to Rome.  Ours is full of rich old dudes that don't do anything good and like to give their power up to the Big Guy, but at least in theory (and sometimes in practice) we can remove the sh**ttiest of them.


Some other people compare us to the Roman Republic, and maybe that fits better in some ways, but then there is less to "doom" about with that angle (and apparently Trump is Caesar in this one, and I have a hard time accepting that).