But for me his badness is almost beside the point. Given the alternative of the [using the terms loosely but they are merging] neocon-liberal-libertarian-corporate wing of the GOP, and the Progressive-identity-technocratic vision of the Democrats, anything is better — even disorder, up to this limited degree at least.

Any candidate even willing to pretend to oppose the Seldon Plan, so to speak, is OK by me.

By comparison, here in Ontario I live in flatland.

Check this video for some great Slovenian scenery and a nice WW2 story on top of that; it’s in English.

Thank God my visa to the USA was declined. I’m not religious but thank God almighty…

I should send the US embassy a fruit basket!

Do you actually live in Slovenia? I’ve occasionally wondered. How are things there, if so?

I read Z Man with profit and agreement but haven’t been back for a while. I probably should be doing so.

I think of Trump as a more garish, even clownish figure than that. I’d have to run through the list of emperors to come up with a comparison, but I concede the larger issue.

Apologies if I have said something similar on this site in the past, but when Roman comparisons come up I tend to think something like “Dream of Augustus, cheer for Constantine, obey Vespasian with dispassion, follow Diocletian with grim resolve.” I’d probably back Septimius Severus at this point, but then it’s that kind of week.

If republican era comparisons are needed, I’d have to dust off my Colleen McCullough novels. I’m not seeing a Cicero, Cato, Pompey, or indeed Caesar in today’s America. Nor a Marius nor a Sulla. I’d be torn by any of those options being placed before us. Nor is there a Brutus or even a Cassius in sight. Trump is a bit like Crassus, which wouldn’t be the worst thing, but with a lesser mind and temperament by some large margin.

Cromwell as played by Richard Harris might fit the bill, save that I have split sympathies tending to the other side of the cousins’ wars.

Ahh. That felt better. Appreciate the space to woolgather.

I’d add two tangents.

One, that although the blogger’s ‘ruling class’ analogy is extremely valid, in the last century it applies to the western societies as a whole. Where broadly united in identity, customs, culture, ideas of law, and values, we have epic battles over issues within a relatively narrow spectrum, whose boundaries may evolve but are determined by our particular histories. When we are no longer united in identity, customs, culture, ideas of law, or values, we have different kinds of battles with the tone different, the stakes different, and some choosing to take stronger measures and others checking out.

And two, and on a much more specific level, my pet thesis is that both conservatism and liberalism, as those things evolved in the Anglo-Saxon world for around 300 years [with feeble tangents at best into the political lexicons of the most closely comparable societies], died in the 1990s. They can’t exist in the current demographic, ideological, and even perhaps technological and economic framework. I can’t even decide if the Cold War political spectrum was their last glorious hurrah or just froze them in amber.

I tend to view everything from Francis Fukuyama to transhumanism with reference to that, so FWIW…

“Trump is the guy tasked by history to impose order on a chaotic American political world. Much in the same way Julius Caesar was faced with a choice between obeying the rules and permitting chaos, Trump is faced with the choice of letting things go on as usual or imposing the rule of law. If he yields to the will of the Senate, so to speak, he risks undermining the constitutional order. If he goes against the political class and business as usual, he risks war with the old guard and all that comes with it.

Trump is both the tribune of the people and the defender of the prevailing order. He is in a strange position, in that he is pushing for the sorts of reforms popular with the Populis faction and tasked with defending the order that makes it possible for the Optimate faction to exist. He is Lucius Junius Brutus, overthrowing the current order, but he is also Marcus Junius Brutus, motivated by a desire to defend the old order. It’s like the confluence of two rivers of Western history. Time will tell if we have the Brutus to save the republic.”

Hail Trumpus!