Krugman: Trump Is Making Caligula Look Good. [View all]

[kpete]

For one thing, Caligula did not, as far as we know, foment ethnic violence within the empire. For another, again as far as we know, Rome’s government continued to function reasonably well despite his antics: Provincial governors continued to maintain order, the army continued to defend the borders, there were no economic crises.

Finally, when his behavior became truly intolerable, Rome’s elite did what the party now controlling Congress seems unable even to contemplate: It found a way to get rid of him.


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The fact is that white supremacists have long been a key if unacknowledged part of the G.O.P. coalition, and Republicans need those votes to win general elections. Given the profiles in cowardice they’ve presented so far, it’s hard to imagine anything — up to and including evidence of collusion with a foreign power — that would make them risk losing those voters’ support.


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So the odds are that we’re stuck with a malevolent, incompetent president whom nobody knowledgeable respects, and many consider illegitimate.If so, we have to hope that our country somehow stumbles through the next year and a half without catastrophe, and that the midterm elections transform the political calculus and make the Constitution great again.


https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp8J36Y.html?mktgrfr=gw_mob&campaignId=67LWR&EXIT_URI=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F08%2F18%2Fopinion%2Ftrump-caligula-republican-congress.html

via:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/18/1691162/-Paul-Krugman-Trump-Is-Making-Caligula-Look-Good