The Trump Indictment
Caesar and Cato, wisdom from a rally goer, and Donald -- now more than ever
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to indict President Trump is foolish and dangerous. Democrats spent four years accusing President Trump and his administration of “violating norms,” “destroying the rule of law,” and transforming the USA into a “banana republic.” Hello, projection, and welcome!
American politics is awash in hyperbole, but this is a time when seemingly hyperbolic comparisons aren’t that at all. The indictment of President Trump really is an American equivalent to Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, and in ways that may not be just rhetorical.
Cato the Younger had great enmity for Caesar — and one might even say a deranged obsession with him. Cato recklessly argued that the Senate should strip Caesar of his command in Gaul and prohibit him from running for office in absentia. The latter act would terminate his legal immunity and almost certainly result in his prosecution upon his return to Rome.
The Senate complied, illegally enacting Cato’s requests over the objections of Caesarian tribunes. Caesar, correctly surmising what would occur if he returned to Rome as a private citizen, led a legion from Gaul into Italy. This act initiated a long civil conflict, which lasted (in fits and starts) until the Senate declared Augustus “first citizen” almost 22 years thereafter. Rome was never the same again.
Trump’s indictment is not going to cause a civil war. Nor should anyone want it to. But it is an historical event of which future generations will take note and may see as epochal. Bragg’s criminalization of political disagreement — it is unimaginable that Trump would have been charged with these offenses if he had not been president — may be replicated by prosecutors across the country.
Such actions will degrade respect for the law by undermining the notion that it is equally applied. They will also promote instability by raising the stakes of political disagreement. If defeat means prosecution, possible imprisonment, and likely bankruptcy, then there is no alternative to victory.
This mindset was (until recently) alien to Anglo-Saxon countries, which value fair play and the neutral application of legal principles to individuals of equal standing. By contrast, it is frequently found in Latin and Latin American countries — not the most stable of places. Its importation into the United States does not bode well for the nation’s civil cohesion and stability.
This is why it is important for all Americans to reject Bragg’s reckless act and all those who favor it — or are silent about it. To paraphrase Trump himself, it’s not him they’re after, he’s just in the way. The politician he most resembles campaigned under the slogan “Now more than ever.” It is time for Trump to do the same and for Americans to embrace his candidacy and second term as president.
To get you AMPED UP to do so, check out this video, of one of the greatest moments from the 2016 campaign. At a rally in South Carolina, two of the attendees ejected a communist goon who was seeking to shout down Trump and prevent him from speaking. Trump invited the two gentlemen on stage to address the crowd:
The first man provides the most succinct and accurate endorsement of Trump imaginable.
Do not let them intimidate you! You back this man right here to the hilt!
They will say anything, they will do anything, to keep in power, OK? We don’t need who we’ve got in there now. I’m talking Republicans and Democrats.
We need to get some fresh bunch up in there. Some fresh blood. Some fresh thinking.
And my man Donald Trump! I’ll tell ya, I ain’t gonna lie to you Donald, when you first got into this, I kinda was a little iffy! I ain’t gonna lie – I don’t know, Donald Trump?
You the best we got by far.
It was true in 2016. And it remains true today. MAGA!