On Independence Day: Heed the example of the Fall of the Roman Republic

I've been listening to a series of podcasts on the history of Rome by Mike Duncan. He does them in a very conversational style and so they're very entertaining and informative as well. I've gotten up to the time of Julius Caesar and the fall of the Roman Republic. I just see so many parallels between what's going on in America today and what was happening at the time that the Roman republic fell apart. In Rome they had a breakdown in their traditions and in their adherence to laws. We see that today in America. You had the rise of demagogues in Rome (can you say Barack Obama?). There was this fellow Clodius in Rome who was a populist and had the support of thugs to get his way (again, can you say Obama and ACORN?). Clodius also started the grain dole- giving out grain for free to the mid and lower classes (look at Obama taking more people off the income tax roles and trying to get nationalized health care which would make everybody a ward of the state). Rome wasn't able to do anything to halt its slide into dictorship and then imperium. Can we stop our trend in that same direction?