Trashing political norms ended the Roman Republic: Trump's unrepudiated insurrection leads US astray
Last edited Sat Feb 13, 2021, 06:23 PM - Edit history (5)
I've updated this post.
Today's impeachment vote (Feb 13) is another nail in the coffin of the American republic.
American Senators even 40 years ago would have voted to convict Trump, just as they forced Nixon from office.
The bloated self-interest of the GOP, their tolerance for lies, and love of authority will be the downfall of our republic.
The Trump-catalyzed insurrection cannot be allowed to stand unpunished, but it has. His minions were just following his incitement. Yet the Senate acquitted him.
Below is documentation of a historical example of what happens to a republic when the violation of political (democratic) norms becomes acceptable:
Trump may be our destructive catalyst, as he disregards our political norms-- from impeding the transition to the winning President-elect's government to even more serious lies about election fraud and then finally encouraging an insurrection against Congress that turned violent. He has already damaged our Republic with his lies and divisory actions and it looks like there's more to come, especially if he and his enablers go unpunished as he now has.
See:
How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic:
Augustus told Romans he was the only one who could save Rome. And they believed him.
https://www.history.com/news/rome-republic-augustus-dictator
"imagine a world in which political norms have broken down. Senators use bad faith arguments to block the government from getting anything done. An autocrat rigs elections and gives himself complete control over the government. Even stranger, many voters subscribe to the autocrat’s personality cult and agree that he should have absolute control.
Welcome to Rome in the first century B.C.E. The republic that had existed for over 400 years had finally hit a crisis it couldn’t overcome. Rome itself wouldn’t fall, but during this period it lost its republic forever."
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Also take a look at this article:
Lessons in the Decline of Democracy From the Ruined Roman Republic
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lessons-decline-democracy-from-ruined-roman-republic-180970711/
'The U.S. Constitution owes a huge debt to ancient Rome. The Founding Fathers were well-versed in Greek and Roman History. Leaders like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison read the historian Polybius, who laid out one of the clearest descriptions of the Roman Republic’s constitution, where representatives of various factions and social classes checked the power of the elites and the power of the mob. It’s not surprising that in the United States’ nascent years, comparisons to ancient Rome were common. And to this day, Rome, whose 482-year-long Republic, bookended by several hundred years of monarchy and 1,500 years of imperial rule, is still the longest the world has seen.
Aspects of our modern politics reminded University of California San Diego historian Edward Watts of the last century of the Roman Republic, roughly 130 B.C. to 27 B.C. That’s why he took a fresh look at the period in his new book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. Watts chronicles the ways the republic, with a population once devoted to national service and personal honor, was torn to shreds by growing wealth inequality, partisan gridlock, political violence and pandering politicians, and argues that the people of Rome chose to let their democracy die by not protecting their political institutions, eventually turning to the perceived stability of an emperor instead of facing the continued violence of an unstable and degraded republic. Political messaging during the 2018 midterm elections hinged on many of these exact topics."
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We have a choice, try to restore norms against the prevailing trend of unenlightened selfishness and self-interest from Trump-supporting Republicans and their fellow travelers or face fascism in America.
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