Donald Trump was inaugurated today. The speech was ungracious and disturbing. He attacked the outgoing president while Biden sat six-feet away. No grace in this man’s being. He declared an emergency at the Southern border. He exercised his authority under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to use the military to combat immigrant gangs and criminals. The last time this wide ranging and empowering act was invoked was during World War II. It was used to round up Japanese Americans and intern them in American concentration camps. But it was also used to investigate and intern German and Italian Americans, too.
For over six decades George Will has been a political essayist. He is a scion of conservative thought, an inheritor of Edmund Burke Whiggism. Will said of the speech, "Those who today recoil against an exuberant urban vulgarian should accept that popular sovereignty is not the sovereignty of good taste...neither euphoric nor despairing be. Trump too shall pass."
Later in the day Trump entered the Capital One Arena like the Sun King. His indoor Inaugural Parade reminded me of what a Pro Wrestling Federation designed imitation of a 1930s Nuremberg rally might look like. Trumps wields power effortlessly and effectively; his body language and his pronouncements communicate that the "state" is vested in him by the will of God. Anointed to serve. Trump declares he has the divine right to rule us.
During his inaugural speech earlier in the day, Trump, while referencing the attempt on his life in July 2024, said, "I felt then and I believe even more so now that my life was saved by God to make America great again." Epic demagoguery.
WTF?
This is how Republic's unravel. Ask Thucydides the Greek. Read the Roman Cato's denouncement of Caesar seizing power. When strong men ignore law and constitutions for political expediency the mob is excited because something is finally happening. Forget the niceties of law and tradition. It's too late when the Republic crumbles to undo the damage these rash shortcuts inflict on the compact of the people. Benjamin Franklin knew what fragile things Republics are; he reportedly intoned to a woman, maybe apocryphally, who asked what form of government he was making, “A Republic madame. If you can keep it.”
As a cliche Cassandra might say, "Beware demagogues." Well America. Watch your top knot. Shit's about to get real.
