Last year I wrote a post entitled The Wounding of the Great Republic (5 Oct 2025), where I discussed my opposition to a written constitution and how it can be abused, especially as we see happening in America. I’ve always believed in the strength of Common Law and that it was a better system than written “black letter law.” Likewise, I am a staunch believer in the advantages of our parliamentary system — with all of its flaws — over the bi-cameral republican model devised by the colonies to our south.

The constant refrain from Americans that their system of “checks and balances” was superior to all others seems to have been put to the test — and failed. Arguably, no one could have predicted that millions of American citizens would believe a convicted felon and inveterate liar and put him in the White House. But they did and now they have had a taste of what their blind faith in his stupidity has wrought.

There has been an almost blind faith in that individual’s ability to get things done. Really? An objective investigation demonstrates that of ALL of his projects over his 60 yr business career, he has only ever successfully hosted a reality TV show (which quite frankly was childishly asinine). It appears that the bubble may finally have burst with his “deal” with Iran. He demanded “unconditional surrender” and we have now seen it: The United States of America, the world’s GREATEST hyperpower has unconditionally surrendered to a broken down theocracy. Even better, the president signed the terms in the Palace of Versailles!

The mindboggling fall from pre-eminence of our southern neighbour has been best described by The Financial Post in its Summer 2026 print issue, “The End of the World as We Know It”:

The United States is … acting as a predatory power and exploiting what remains of its privileged position, it is simply accelerating its own relative decline, especially with respect to an illiberal China. This is crystal clear in areas such as trade, energy, and even diplomacy. Beijing’s ascendancy is only being propelled by Washington’s self-inflicted wounds: tariffs, a stubborn reluctance to embrace the energy transition, and a catastrophic war in Iran.

So much for leading the Free World. What we are watching in real time is the dark side of American Exceptionalism, the fervent belief that the law of historical gravity does not apply to America. Chanting “we’re number one” does not make it so, no matter how fervently you may believe it. Having a president tell you that he doesn’t care about you or that the pain you are feeling is not real because he is stealing billions of your dollars while you take your family to a food bank should be a wakeup call; maybe it has finally roused a complacent electorate from its slumber. We can only hope, because as much as many of us may dislike the current administration, we have friends and family south of the 49^th parallel and we do not want to see them abused any longer.

In the meantime, the current MAGA administration continues to dismember a system that took 250 years to build. Last week several courts applied brakes to many of its idiotic ideas, but not all. The headlong rush into the political abyss continues apace.

America has wounded itself before and it has recovered. It has turned its back on the world and then saved it — twice in the span of 30 years. As I said in my aforementioned post, I believe that they can do it again. The question is, how big will the butcher’s bill be?

There has been one important success by this administration for those who care to take note. The myth of the “competent dictator” has proven itself once more busted, but this time by an American speaking autocrat. Mussolini did not make the trains run on time. Hitler was not a military genius. Stalin and Mao killed more of their “followers” than any foreign invaders in the benighted history of those two nations and now the “stable genius” running the American executive branch is in the process of making America irrelevant again.