The Romans Tried to Save the Republic From Men Like Trump

[gotsnowgotslush]

The Romans Tried to Save the Republic From Men Like Trump. They Failed

January 17, 2017

He's a man of wealth and power, but he tells the people he is an outsider, just like them. He insists the system is rigged against them by the influential few. He rails against the people, too: "You've given up everything in exchange for laziness and apathy, thinking you've got freedom in abundance because your backs are spared the lash. The elite will fight and enjoy their victory, and regular people will be treated like a conquered nation: This will be more the case every day, so long as they work harder for total power than you do to get your freedom back.

That's not Trump, though it sounds like him. It's a politician called Licinius Macer, haranguing a crowd in Rome in 73 BCE. It was with men like Macer in mind that in the first of the Federalist papers, Hamilton identified the claim to fight for popular freedom as the demagogue's most insidious and effective tactic. "Dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people," he wrote. Far from the innocent meaning of the original ancient Greek word, "leader of the people," for Hamilton the demagogue paves a "much more certain road to the introduction of despotism."

: "Over the past fifteen years you've been sport for the pride and arrogance of the few; your defenders have perished unavenged; your own spirit has been so rotted with weakness and cowardice that you can't stand up even now.... Who are these people who have occupied our country? Criminals with bloody hands and outrageous greed, totally guilty and yet totally arrogant, who have transformed everything — loyalty, their good names, religious piety, everything both honorable and not — into a source of personal gain."

Does it sound familiar? This is the kind of speech that pleases a fractured, alienated republican audience — one that feels ignored by the authority figures they traditionally trusted.


http://www.villagevoice.com/news/th...ublic-from-men-like-trump-they-failed-9575234

 

[Iceprincess12]

To me it sounds like SSDD. There is nothing new under the sun and you have just proven it. You have a right to your opinion, but you never really give your opinion. You just give links to what other people say. Parrots are good at reciting what they are told, once they are trained. Why don't you stop linking, everyone has Google, we can all look it up and give an opinion that belongs only to you. Make an argument you can stand up against. No one can argue with Licinius-he is dead.

For the record, I have never thought Trump would make a good President because he doesn't have any humility. He is just like everyone else in a position of power. He has forgotten that he works for us, he doesn't rule us. He is the President though and I respect what the office stands for.

American freedom gives you the right to despise, hate, distrust, condemn, etc...the office, but you should use your words, not repeat what everyone else thinks.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

"When I notice how carefully arranged his hair is and when I watch him adjusting the parting with one finger, I cannot imagine that this man could conceive of such a wicked thing as to destroy the Roman constitution."

”Note: This is in reference to Caesar, who had a reputation for being a bit vain.


20 Great Quotes From Cicero
http://listverse.com/2012/02/17/20-great-quotes-from-cicero/

If Cicero could only have seen Trump's hair...

 

[mark_j]

To me it sounds like SSDD. There is nothing new under the sun and you have just proven it. You have a right to your opinion, but you never really give your opinion. You just give links to what other people say. Parrots are good at reciting what they are told, once they are trained. Why don't you stop linking, everyone has Google, we can all look it up and give an opinion that belongs only to you. Make an argument you can stand up against. No one can argue with Licinius-he is dead.

For the record, I have never thought Trump would make a good President because he doesn't have any humility. He is just like everyone else in a position of power. He has forgotten that he works for us, he doesn't rule us. He is the President though and I respect what the office stands for.

American freedom gives you the right to despise, hate, distrust, condemn, etc...the office, but you should use your words, not repeat what everyone else thinks.

Don't waste your breath.GSGS is an echo chamber.

 

[tnman03]

To me it sounds like SSDD. There is nothing new under the sun and you have just proven it. You have a right to your opinion, but you never really give your opinion. You just give links to what other people say. Parrots are good at reciting what they are told, once they are trained. Why don't you stop linking, everyone has Google, we can all look it up and give an opinion that belongs only to you. Make an argument you can stand up against. No one can argue with Licinius-he is dead.

For the record, I have never thought Trump would make a good President because he doesn't have any humility. He is just like everyone else in a position of power. He has forgotten that he works for us, he doesn't rule us. He is the President though and I respect what the office stands for.

American freedom gives you the right to despise, hate, distrust, condemn, etc...the office, but you should use your words, not repeat what everyone else thinks.

That's a very astute assessment.

 

[oggbashan]

"When I notice how carefully arranged his hair is and when I watch him adjusting the parting with one finger, I cannot imagine that this man could conceive of such a wicked thing as to destroy the Roman constitution."

”Note: This is in reference to Caesar, who had a reputation for being a bit vain.


20 Great Quotes From Cicero
http://listverse.com/2012/02/17/20-great-quotes-from-cicero/

If Cicero could only have seen Trump's hair...

But Caesar was notorious for being bald. Cicero was referring to Caesar's comb over.

 

[phrodeau]

But Caesar was notorious for being bald. Cicero was referring to Caesar's comb over.

But which Caesar? Julius, Augustus? Septemberus? Sid?

 

[DooleyDarter]

more of the same Libbie Waa Waa Waa

 

[KingOrfeo]

Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

 

[oggbashan]

But which Caesar? Julius, Augustus? Septemberus? Sid?

The one and only self-made Julius.

http://fascinatinghistory.********.co.uk/2005/05/julius-caesars-bisexuality.html

He never hesitated to "borrow" other noblemen's wives and also "lend" his own wife Pompeia. He was notorious for this and a typical ditty of the time, after his triumph in Gaul, says:

"Look to your wives, ye citizens, a lecher bald we bring,
In Gaul adultery cost thee gold, here 'tis but borrowing."

Yes, he was bald and although this did not deter him from his conquests, it was a source of constant bother to him as he was often ridiculed for his baldness, by his enemies.

 

[Chris_Michael]

To me it sounds like SSDD. There is nothing new under the sun and you have just proven it. You have a right to your opinion, but you never really give your opinion. You just give links to what other people say. Parrots are good at reciting what they are told, once they are trained. Why don't you stop linking, everyone has Google, we can all look it up and give an opinion that belongs only to you. Make an argument you can stand up against. No one can argue with Licinius-he is dead.

For the record, I have never thought Trump would make a good President because he doesn't have any humility. He is just like everyone else in a position of power. He has forgotten that he works for us, he doesn't rule us. He is the President though and I respect what the office stands for.

American freedom gives you the right to despise, hate, distrust, condemn, etc...the office, but you should use your words, not repeat what everyone else thinks.

Damn, IP. I agree 100%

 

[JackLuis]

A political scientist looks at the similarities between Trump and the sultans of the Ottoman Empire

As a comparative political scientist who studies different types of governments, I’m particularly interested in whether Trump’s way of governing will fit into what we call “sultanism” where the rule of law, procedures and institutions are eroded by personal loyalties. Such a system, history shows, has eroded institutions and – in a democracy – could lead toward authoritarianism.

Let me explain.
What sultanism means

It was over a century ago that the famous political sociologist Max Weber developed the concept of sultanism, which, he wrote, “operates primarily on the basis of discretion.”

“Sultans,” or kings, of the Ottoman empire were absolute rulers, their power made legitimate by theology. They used arbitrary and despotic powers. Their lifestyles were lavish and decadent. And over time they lost their power. While rival European empires such as the Hapsburgs’ Austro-Hungary and Weber’s native Germany were rising in the 19th century as they developed impressive civil and military bureaucracies and procedures, the Ottoman Empire was declining.

I was up late last night and slept in. Did Trump say anything intelligent in his speech,or was it only 140 words tweeetable?

Internet rips Trump speech over ‘Batman’ villain quote: ‘At least Bane stood up to Wall Street’

In addition to mocking the anemic crowds at Donald Trump’s dark, ominous inauguration, internet users noted that the incoming president may have cribbed parts of his speech from a highly unusual source.

Fans of the Batman franchise film The Dark Knight Rises were startled to hear the words of the movie villain Bane coming out of Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s mouth as he made his inaugural address — purportedly written by Trump himself — on Friday.

“We’re giving the power back to you. The people,” Trump said Friday, a nearly verbatim quote from Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s screenplay for the 2012 film starring Christian Bale as Batman and Tom Hardy as Bane.

Oh God help us!

 

[Carnal_Flower]

Of course not.

In fact, he said Americans are way too smart and he's going to fix that.

A political scientist looks at the similarities between Trump and the sultans of the Ottoman Empire



I was up late last night and slept in. Did Trump say anything intelligent in his speech,or was it only 140 words tweeetable?