2024 Election - Thread #1

[Labster]

This is definitely the darkest timeline.

Checks and balances are dead, and the voting public as a whole has always been a flock of idiot sheep running at the call of the dog who barks the loudest, so basically "fall of the Roman Empire" time this century I guess. Only at least Nero played his violin while Rome burned, instead of sitting around eating fast food and calling the rioters "wonderful people."

I think your weakness in Roman History is showing here, since Nero, despite ruling like a tyrant, didn't hasten the fall of the Roman Empire — it marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors, but nothing so troubling like the Crisis of the Third Century.

I think the best parallel is to Sulla's role in the end of the Roman Republic. Although Sulla was using dictatorial powers to try to do the right thing, rather than enrich himself, what he did was weaken republican norms enough that the next dictator could sieze power for the rest of his life. And that was a young Julius Caesar, whom you may have heard of. Trump is dumber than all of these people (who throws away a hegemony?), but all of these rulings and practices established to suit him have made it much more likely for the next, more competent dictator to succeed.