Posted on 11/13/2024 6:18:51 AM PST by Starman417
Now that that’s settled… From a historical perspective, there’s some virtue in killing all of your enemies. Julius Caesar didn’t and was killed almost immediately after having himself declared dictator for life.
In 49 BC dictator meant something different than it does today. Dictator was an honorable, temporary position that was only implemented when the Republic faced some dire or existential threat that required a firm hand to fix. Although vested with almost absolute power, a dictator would often be appointed for a finite period, perhaps 6 months, to deal with the problem and then would return to being whatever he was before, a senator, a general, a citizen, whatever. Caesar’s problem was that he kept extending his dictatorship until he had himself declared dictator for life. A month later he was killed by senators, some of whom were his friends, including, famously, Brutus.
His reign stands in stark contrast to that of his adopted son, Caesar Augustus. Augustus reigned for 41 years (the longest of any emperor), ruled over a relatively peaceful period of consolidation and prosperity, and set the stage for the Romans to remake the Western world, saying: “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” While speaking literally about the city, he was also metaphorically speaking about the Empire, having prepared the way for its long life.
The difference between Caesar and Augustus? Augustus killed all of his enemies when consolidating power. By the time he took absolute control over the Republic and transformed it into the Empire, he had no enemies left, or at least none who were willing to stick their necks out to challenge him. Unlike most Emperors, Augustus died of old age…
As appealing as killing all of his enemies might sound from a historical perspective, I would advise Donald Trump to avoid doing so today. Some reasons are obvious, like the fact that Augustus didn’t have to deal with hostile media and the army of lemmings who followed it. A more substantial reason is that again, unlike Rome, might not make right, we have laws traditions, and morals that prohibit doing so. But more persuasively is the simple fact that it’s unnecessary.
Augustus isn’t known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he killed all his enemies… no, he’s known as Rome’s greatest emperor because he laid the foundations for relative peace and prosperity throughout the Roman world for two centuries. Donald Trump can do the same in America without killing his enemies.
Last week I gave a list of 10 somewhat high-level things Trump should do immediately upon taking office. These included sealing the border, deporting illegal aliens, and cleaning houses in the justice / military departments. Here I’ll suggest two specific things Trump can do that will set America up to prosper, and do so without rivers of blood.
First Trump should target those people in government who have weaponized the state to delegitimize him and keep him from office. That doesn’t mean people who disagree with him, even if they do so vociferously. No, the people he needs to investigate are those people who used the police power of the state to persecute him and illegally jail his advisors and J6 defendants.
Of all of the things that distinguish a tyranny from a free nation, freedom of speech is paramount. A close second is a police power that is exercised based on actual laws, not on the whims and lies of politicians. If citizens cannot feel confident that they will be unmolested if they do not break laws, what is their motivation to obey any laws?
I’m not suggesting people like Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Chaney, etc. be jailed unconstitutionally. On the contrary, I’m suggesting they be investigated, legally and transparently, and, if appropriate, charged. And it’s not only the household names that must be investigated, so too should the leadership of every agency that played a role in putting the country through the last 8 years of unconstitutional hell and bringing her to the brink of becoming 3rd world tyranny.
Second, Trump should immediately rescind JFK’s most infamous legacy, from 1962:
“That year, JFK signed executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal workforce. This changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public workforce in many states and cities.That Executive Order, more than perhaps any in the 20th century, changed American history for the worse. From that point forward, federal employees – and later state and local employees – could and did unionize against the American people. Rather than carrying out the directives of the Executive Branch, their goal was to extract as much money and benefits as possible from the American people and do so while accomplishing the least amount of actual work possible.This, in turn, led to the fantastic growth in membership of the public employee unions—The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Teachers' National Education Association.
They broke the public's bank. More than that, they entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues and spending it on political campaigns. Over time, this transformed the Democratic Party into a public-sector dependency.”
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...
” Julius Caesar didn’t and was killed almost immediately after having himself declared dictator for life.”
Dictator for life means just that. There is no time limit.
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