While most scuttlebutt now centers on who the all-but-certain GOP nominee Donald Trump may pick for VP, a more intriguing focus—drawn from Roman history—is with whom Trump may complete his triumvirate.
The Second Triumvirate or triple alliance was formed in 43 B.C. by Octavian (later: Caesar Augustus), Mark Antony, and money bags Marcus Lepidus. They began with the Lex Titia giving them absolute dictatorial powers including the right to proscription or marking off for banishment or death all of Rome’s most prominent men, including the orator Cicero, who had opposed them.
Now that we have Trump and Christie, some speculation centers on Trump advisor—former NYC “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani—as a third. Giuliani is presenting himself as Trump’s chief “anti-terror” guru. Will he really stoop to endorsing the man who just recently blamed the 9/11 attacks on our government and claimed that President George W. Bush “lied us into” the Iraq War?
The invocation of Roman history—when the Triumvirs rubbed the names of the proscribed off a list and then has them rubbed out, literally—no doubt seems extreme, but consider this. With Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, at his shoulder, Trump yesterday suggested gutting the First Amendment so that he and other potentates could use their wealth and the libel laws to close down the newspapers and media empires of those who oppose them. This follows on Trump’s joke at a rally that a heckler deserved to be taken out and beaten senseless, just like “in the good old days.”
Trump, our budding Octavian, can’t abide, among other things, any hint that he was launched financially by a $200 million inheritance from his daddy. Possibly, when he makes the transition to the American Augustus, AG Chris Christie will have any reporter who suggests it thrown into jail. Could zillionaire Michael Bloomberg, if he has the temerity to run against Trump on a third party ticket, be proscribed? Or just audited. Trump–who some suggest isn't really worth $1billion–must hate and envy him.
Bear in mind that Trump yesterday claimed that his “Christian faith” was the reason he was audited 12 year running. If Trump considers that a precedent for how the IRS should operate, what chance has Bloomberg—despite or because of his billions?
The American Republic, after 228 years, is in a bad way, if you haven’t noticed. Recent presidents have not done well by the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Senate has been supine. Will The Donald in glittering robes from the steps of Vegas' Caesar's Palace rub out what’s left of our republican system of government, Roman fashion?
