" Julius Caesar styled himself as a servant of the republic, claiming to speak for the people even as he disregarded laws and norms to govern by caprice. The Roman republic did not survive him.
The second Trump administration has revealed American Caesarism in nearly full bloom. Despite ambitions to fundamentally change the course of the country, this administration has no real legislative agenda. Instead, the president governs by executive orders, emergency decrees, and extortionate transactions, using his power to reward his friends and punish his enemies. He’s launched foreign military adventures and full-blown wars seemingly based on personal whim, and has made the military a political prop and a tool for domestic law enforcement. With Congress sidelined and the courts reluctant to check Donald Trump’s excesses, America has been left with what some legal scholars have described as an “executive unbound”—and with a president who threatens to supplant the republic in all but name.
Trump’s most fervent supporters justify his approach in terms reminiscent of Caesar’s. The White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has remarked that “the whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president.” Many Republicans argue that Trump’s policy preferences deserve support because he has a “mandate,” and they heap scorn on the “unelected” judges who have had the temerity to rule against him." {More}
The excerpt above is from an article in The Atlantic written by Gregg Nunziata. In it he writes about how the legal right has spent decades empowering the presidency, and how they must now reckon with the monster that they helped to create. As someone who has dedicated his life to studying, practicing, and understanding the law, I shudder at what I see happening in the legal profession. The highest court in the land is controlled by a majority that cares more about the man who put them there than they do the law and upholding the Constitution.
Mr. Trump is allowed to govern the way he does, because his handpicked court and the feckless right-wing politicians who fear him, will do nothing to stop him.
I hate to say it, but it's only going to get worse. The war in Iran will not be ending anytime soon, and I fear that by the end of this summer America will be closer to a literal civil war than we could have ever imagined. It's gotten that bad. And the man who is singularly responsible for all this division and turmoil is none other than Donald J. Trump. America's own version of Julius Caesar.
"Men really believe what they wish to be true"
"If you must break the law, do it to seize power"
Those two quotes were attributed to Caesar, not Mr. Trump. But at this point, who can tell the difference?
