Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Historical Parallels Rome - USA



It appears that the United States are bound to repeat the history of ancient Rome. The parallels are overwhelming and allow us to male predictions for the future with quite a high probability.
Currently the US is in a situation that can be compared with the end of the Roman Republic in the first century BCE.
The country is extremely polarized after extreme political leaders. In the US these were George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in Rome C. Marius and L. Cornelius Sulla. In the US it is between conservatives (including the Tea Party movement) and the liberals. In Rome it was between the Optimates (establishment) and the Populares. Even the names are scaringly similar, since Donald Trump has repeatedly been called a "populist".
The country is dominated by political violence and neither side respects the democratic constitution, in Rome as today in the US. The latest example is the disrespect for the elected president and the attempts to deligitimize him. In turn Donald Trump calls a federal judge a "so called judge" questioning his legitimacy.

So what can we expect for the future, if history follows the precedent of Rome?
We have already seen that many liberals consider to impeach Trump, before his term is over. In ancient Rome the Pompey faction in the Senate deposed C. Julius Caesar as proconsul of Gaul and declared him "enemy of Rome".

If Trump is impeached by the US Senate, we can be quite sure that he will not just accept this decision, but instead question its legitimacy as it seems to be his habit. Just like Caesar he has the major part of the military behind him. Trump is improving his relations with the US military and law enforcement almost daily, while the liberals have alienated the police by their support for the "Black Lives Matter" movement that is responsible for several terror attacks against the police. Caesar in his time had the command of the best Roman legions and they believed in him personally. When he was formally deposed, he took his elite Legion XIII Gemina, crossed the Rubicon and marched to Rome. The Pompey faction had not enough forces to oppose him and abandoned the capital. Caesar declared himself dictator and defeated Pompey afterwards in the resulting civil war.
This is exactly the scenario the US is heading for, if the liberals continue with their idea of impeaching Donald Trump.
He is not going to accept an illegitimate impeachment. He will use the military that is loyal to him to occupy Washington D.C. Then he will rule with martial law. Even if there is an armed uprising like in ancient Rome, the odds are on his side.


The example of Rome also shows us the inevitability of history. Even when Caesar was murdered, it only resulted in a new civil war, and at its end Augustus was Emperor. Even if Trump is killed, nothing will stop the course of history. His followers will use even more force and at the end the US will be an Imperium ruled by an emperor.


The end of the republic is inevitable, if the US follows the current course. Only overcoming the polarization and the violent extremism of the leftists and normalizing the presidency of Donald Trump could stop this development. But it does not look like this is to happen.