“I expect a Tiberius and a Caligula pretty soon.”
There has to be a Julius first. A very popular dictator to blow the lid off and break the expectation of republican government.
After him, we are condemned.
Of course we’ll all vote for him as he will make the trains run on time and clear the rioters from the streets.
Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m a DJT fan to the max. Even a better POTUS than Ronaldus Maximus Reagan by my estimate. But he fit all the elements of GJC minus the minus military victories. Gaius Julius Caeasar was a populist and had the support of the common man. And as you said, the Senate was corrupt and the bureaucratic machine run by the Patrician and Equestrian class was rotten to the bone. That is why his murderers (Cassius, Brutus, et. al.) skidaddled out of town with Pompeii and sent Cicero and Cato off to the winds (they were stout defenders of the Republic but the Republic had metastasized into a cancer by the time GJC came along). They were living in their own bubble. Really hard to do a one-to-one comparison with the Roman and American republics. I’m not trying to say you are wrong, just have a different take.
Trump 2024!!!!