With the presidential election plugging annoyingly along, there’s one idea, among the many piles of dung that offend the senses during this abhorrent exercise in egomaniacal drivel, that I don’t wish to come within earshot of ever again.

If I hear another candidate, or some other political party slug that gets dragged to a podium, utter words to the effect of, “We’re going to make America great again,” or “I’m going to bring back the America you grew up in,” I just may wrap a towel around my head and begin praising Allah.

America? Great?

That boat has sailed, boys and girls, and it ain’t docking in this harbor ever again.

It’s a simple history lesson, duckies. Every dynasty has its heyday.

The Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, they’ve all had their shots at being the center of the universe. And they all eventually folded, just as the good ol’ USA is in the throes of doing now.

Now, no one is going to own up to that, and therein is a lesson in the desperation of humanity - no one is going to admit to being a loser, an ass watcher, the bitch.

“We’re still the greatest country, we’re still the land of the free and the home of the brave,” they’ll crow. But the fact is, kiddies, it’s over. We’re still near the top rung, but we’re slipping badly and soon we’ll be rocketing down the hill, pell-mell, on roller skates.

And certainly no one elected president, senator or dog catcher, regardless of party, can prevent what’s barreling at our windshields at breakneck speed.

You want evidence?

Look around.

The country has, essentially, been ripped in half with the haves living like kings and the rest of us barely living at all. Pay raises? Decently priced essentials such as gas, electric, food, water? Kindness? Care for the elderly? Charity? Generosity?

These things barely exist anymore, and soon will not exist at all.

Folks are starving, innocents are being butchered, people are being denied jobs and/or decent wages, wars drag on and on while no one is quite sure why they began in the first place and savings accounts are dwindling to nothing while every business is pleading shortages and hiking prices. And what are the citizens doing about it?

Why, they’re busy voting for the latest contestants on TV dance shows. They’re guessing the genders of babies being spat out by celebrity whores. They’re examining, contemplating and debating the merits of some actress’ haircut.

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns, Americans are watching white-hot pokers being yanked out of the fires and shoved up their collective asses, and they’re marveling at the height of the flames.

At this point in time, that famous American spirit of fighting until the bitter end has very little to do with fight and a lot more to do with bitter. No one believes you can take on the powers-that-be. Instead, they pray the powers will take them into their circle.

It’s going to be over soon, Mouseketeers, maybe not in what’s left of my lifetime, but my kids and grandkids may live long enough to see China or Japan or some Muslim nation rise to power.

It’s inevitable, it’s death and taxes.

But hey, we still may have four or five decades left to wave one finger in the air and proclaim ourselves kings. Then it’ll be up to the next center of the universe to call the shots and name the tunes everybody else will be dancing to for the next couple of hundred years. The new leader of the pack will even have to deal with being hated by virtually every other country on the globe. It comes with the territory.

And then whatever country it is that assumes the mantel of power will proceed to bollocks it up. Like their predecessors they’ll eventually go down in flames, doomed by the same culprits that have doomed America and every other world leader – greed, power and greed.

I don’t believe people are born with prejudice, or the thirst to take a life or the desire to be loved. I do, however, believe all humanoids are born with greed in their souls.

Drop a pie in front of two hungry humans and it won’t be long before that duo will be ripping each other’s eyeballs out to have it for themselves. No matter that the pie could be shared and feed both – one of them absolutely has to possess it.

That’s what’s become of America. Everybody wants their slice of the pie and 10 more. I mean, isn’t it our heritage? Came here to avoid being dumped on by the British (and what became of their reign as leaders of the world?) and just kept killing every native in sight (breaking every treaty that was ever agreed upon in the process) until we got to the Pacific Ocean.

Then we raised a flag and proclaimed ourselves good, peaceful, God-fearing folk.

With no other red men around to kill, we snatched up the black people from Africa, greedily made them work for us and started in screwing each other to make sure we had the biggest house, the most land and more of everything than our neighbor.

Now, that greed-fest has almost reached its inevitable conclusion. The biggest pricks have all the marbles, and everyone else barely has a pot to piss in. And the “great” America is rotting from the inside out.

When the decay is complete, it’s only a matter of time before that handful of money grabbers sees their power usurped by another band of greedy bastards from some other point on the world map and America winds up looking at some foreign nation’s butt.

It’s coming ladies and germs, and no matter what some schmuck of a politician promises you, that doesn’t sound so great to me.