I have just returned from Washington, DC for follow up meetings in reference to the Alliance of Responsible Citizens (ARC) conference held in London the week of October 30th. Very little has changed in our nation’s capital, and therein lies the problem.
Lobbyists mill about advocating very narrow special interests. Young staffers and Congressional committee lawyers are the gatekeepers to the influence so desperately sought from elected officials. The issues of most important concern to the citizens are seldom the priority, objective, or moral consideration.
An opinion piece in the Washington Post written by Robert Kagan was the point of discussion among Congressional aides beguiled by their own false sense of authority. The compendium of the article was that America is on course for a Trump dictatorship. The caricature depicted was a bust of Julius Caesar morphing into Donald Trump.
The author points out that nothing seems to curtail the former President’s popularity. He deems it inevitable that Trump will win the Republican Party nomination. And, believing that eventual conviction of a crime or further exposure of his true agenda, regardless of how his intentions may imperil individual liberty, will result in his defeat in a general election is paramount hope in reason yet realized. In other words, if nothing stops him, it is wishful thinking that he cannot become the next President and challenge the precepts of democracy.
Kagan fails to recognize government’s role in the societal conditions that set the stage for the rising of a strong man. The analogy to Julius Caesar does have context in history. Caesar rose through the ranks of the military to become the Emperor of Rome. He found the Senate unmanageable, without vision, unaware of the true needs of society, and disconnected in moral relationship with the average citizen. His solution was to declared himself dictator in 44 BC. Members of the Senate assassinated him one year later without conviction for reform. Senators weren’t worried about the people, only their own authority. They were concerned that Caesar would ultimately become King. A trivial splitting of the political hairs, if you will, meaning that as King, his heirs would have hereditary rights further usurping their power to choose a succeeding Emperor. Never did they see themselves as the problem.
Alexander the Great, as the leader of an outlying Roman province decried Rome’s incompetence in governing. He traveled to Rome to plead his case for better government. He found Rome led by self-serving hedonistic elites. History reports that he found the leadership so weak that his solution was to just sack the provinces.
Napoleon Bonaparte followed a similar career path as Caesar. He rose through the military ranks to General. The French monarchy became without vision, unaware of the true needs of society, and disconnected in moral relationship with the average citizen. The French Revolution ensued. The monarchy was overthrown. And the succeeding revolutionary government failed in a reign of terror leading to the rebel Robespierre’s own beheading. A council of five commissioners evolved to make up a governing Tribunat. They were weak and ineffective. Napoleon’s solution was to declare himself Emperor with unlimited power. It took the combined forces of 19th century European monarchies to ultimately defeat him and remove him from authority.
In the absence of sound government, the people will seek the leadership of a strong personality. It is the natural instinct of society to accept a dictator when all hope is lost in the relevant competency of an existing government. Today, 72% of the American public not only does not trust national government, they believe that elected officials are corrupt and simply pursuing their own personal agendas. Government today is without vision, unaware of the true needs of society, and disconnected in moral relationship with the average citizen.
The debate in Congress over a continuing resolution to extend deficit spending is partly a quagmiry discussion on particulars of appropriation. The question the public asks is, how can aid to Ukraine be more critical to our national security than defending our southern border? Lately, images of illegal immigrants swarming the border, only being stopped to give minimal information before being released into the United States is, in most people’s eyes, tantamount to an open border. Progressives in the Senate refuse to discuss the situation, let alone negotiate a budget compromise. They are disconnected in moral relationship with the average citizen.
Elites in power in Washington, DC seem flummoxed by the rejection by the people of their intellectual superiority. Lord Acton famously once said that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What goes hand-in-hand with this principle is “absolute government authority diminishes government common sense absolutely.” In this loss of relationship with the people, government becomes above accountability. What is obvious becomes opaque. No matter how febrile the outcry of the people, any opposition to the existing intellectualism becomes politically immoral.
In the next Presidential election cycle of the United States of America, the decision made by the citizens at the ballot box will determine whether the government is accountable to the will of the people or not. Either national leadership of elected officials will be reformed to reflect the people’s vision in reference to the true needs of society and connected by purpose and moral relationship with the average citizen …
Or the rising of a strong man is inevitable.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?