I wonder if the audiences ever listened to the dialouge. Maybe they would have discovered that Caesar is NOT the villain of the piece and his death was at the hands of the elites, the Senate, whose power and wealth his reforms threatened. Cassius rallies them, notably the patriotic Brutus, not by recounting Caesar’s crimes, for there are few or none of note, but by the fear of what he might do. Indeed the Senate are the Trump Haters. Impeachment their assassination.(At least I hope that is as far as they will go). But is civil war and an end to our Republic where they really want to go? They should really read the play.
Brutus is the hero of the play, Antony is the villain (or rather, antagonist). Caesar is neither, but his death is the catalyst for the play. If the play were actually about Caesar, he would not have expired in the middle of the play. You're right that Shakespeare does not portray Shakespeare as an out right villain. Much of the bad stuff we hear about him from Cassius seems to be based on envy rather than fact. When Caesar decides to go to meet with the Senate in spite of his wife's warnings, he says
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”
Pretty heroic stuff, in ringing iambic pentameter.
They really should read the play. And maybe with the law of unintended consequences at work some impressionable liberal mind will read it and start to understand. It may be unlikely given the indoctrination that passes for education in most places today. But I can hope. The humanity and political intrigue of the play is as relevant today as it was in Shakespeare’s and Caesar’s time. “Brutus is an honorable man” actually meaning the opposite still holds up for our modern Senate as it did for the Roman. Substitute the modern Senator or Congressman of your choice for Brutus.