I know what you mean. America's become like that elderly relative clinging to his driver's license despite driving into the ditch every time behind the wheel. And we drive a really big car. With a nuclear engine.

So maybe it is a good thing that Trump is popping the bubble, and maybe we'll eventually feel relief at not having the burden of the world on our shoulders any more...and the even heavier burden of imagining ourselves the world's saviors. It might do us a lot of good to shed that egotistical notion.

But hank's right too, that we're going to miss the perks that come with being The Leader of the Free World, and we might not like our new overlord(s) so much.

Once upon a time I'd have said we should look to Britain to see how to adjust to losing an empire and a permanent place where the sun never sets. For a while it looked like they'd made the adjustment with good grace, but now, with Brexit and a rampaging right wing, I don't know, Britain's prospects of survival don't look so certain now either. But I'd emigrate to an independent Scotland in a heartbeat, so maybe at the end of the day this whole disintegration of the anglophone world might be a blessing in disguise.

A really cunning disguise.