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Wednesday
There is a frightening new development in rightwing intellectual circles called “Red Caesarism.” As explained by Lindsay Beyerstein of the The Editorial Board, “Caesarism means one-man rule, halfway between monarchy and tyranny. It’s supposed to end democracy while preserving small-r republican rule.”
The term has been coined by Michael Anton, a former Trump national security official and a onetime fellow of the Claremont Institute. Beyerstein lays out Aton’s reasoning:
If current trends continue, conservatives will become electorally irrelevant. Simply put, their policies aren’t appealing to voters. Rather than developing a more attractive policy agenda, Anton would prefer to end voting. And he’s not alone. On Fox, Greg Guttfeld recently proclaimed that “elections don’t work” and suggested civil war as an alternative.
So what insights does Shakespeare’s famous play provide us into Red Caesarism? I think first of what Allan Bloom, in Shakespeare’s Politics (1964), says about the leader. As he reads the play, Brutus and Cassius, defenders of the Roman republic, fail to grasp Caesar’s genius:
Caesar seems to have been the most complete political man who ever lived. He combined the high-mindedness of the Stoic with the Epicurean’s awareness of the low material substrate of political things. Brutus and Cassius could not comprehend such a combination…
I don’t know if the American right, who at one point lionized Bloom, is thinking along these lines in their rejection of democracy. Of course, other than his charisma and willingness to flout norms, Trump has little resemblance to Caesar, who was both a brilliant military leader and a gifted writer. I imagine Mark Antony getting up and saying to the former president, “I knew Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Julius Caesar.”
The problem with Julius Caesars, no matter how exemplary, is that they invariably bring ruin upon their countries. Mussolini modeled himself on Julius Caesar, as did Napoleon, and France and Italy suffered the consequences. And look at what Vladimir Putin, who models himself on the tsars of old (“tsar” is derived from “Caesar”) has done to Russia.
Few truisms are truer than “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The genius of democracy is that, inefficient though it may be, it provides checks and balances on wannabe strongmen who invariably weaken their countries. As Jay Kuo, writing for The Big Picture, said yesterday of wannabe authoritarian Benjamin Netanyahu,
Netanyahu’s self-absorption and corruption led directly to disastrous policy choices, including the elevation of extremists willing to destabilize Israel in order to pave the way for Netanyahu’s autocratic policies.
Kuo warns that the same awaits America if Trump is reelected or if insurrectionist Jim Jordan, currently seeking to become Speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency, succeeds in his effort.
Looking closely at Shakespeare’s play, one sees a number of unsettling parallels with Trump. First of all, there is the man-in-the-street support. Julius Caesar opens with a carpenter and a cobbler on their way to celebrate Caesar’s overthrow of Pompey. “But indeed sir,” the cobbler says to an official, “we make holiday to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph.”
These men are unaffected when the officials point out that, not long ago, they were celebrating Pompey. “And when you saw his chariot but appear,” Murellus notes,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks
To hear the repoication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?
The fickle mob, as the official sees it, will follow anyone who sways their passions in the moment. And in fact, anti-Caesarite Casca at one point makes an observation that sounds a lot like Trump boasting, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Casca is reporting on Antony’s attempt to crown Caesar and on Caesar’s moment of weakness (he suffers from a brief fit):
Three or four wenches where I stood cried “Alas, good soul!” and forgave him with all their hearts. But there’s no heed to be taken of them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.
Swaying the mob (or as the Romans called them, “hoi polloi,” the common people) continues on after Caesar has been assassinated. In their competing speeches, Brutus speaks to his countrymen’s higher values, Mark Antony to their narrow self-interest. In Brutus’s words I am reminded of those NeverTrumpers who, like Liz Cheney, plead with their fellow Republicans to honor the ideals upon which America was founded:
If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:–Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country?
Mark Antony, by contrast, talks about all the goodies that Caesar handed out. He reminds me of Trump’s populist appeals, especially his defense of Social Security. When his Republican competitors in the 2016 primaries were railing against government handouts, Trump ran to their left:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff…
Later, after teasing them about whether or not he should read Caesar’s will, he reveals tangible benefits:
Antony: Here is the will, and under Caesar’s seal.
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.Second Citizen: Most noble Caesar! We’ll revenge his death.
Third Citizen: O royal Caesar!
Antony: Hear me with patience.
Antony: Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbors and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs forever, common pleasures,
To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Caesar! when comes such another?
There are Trump supporters who are convinced that he cares for them, even though it’s clear to any objective observer that he cares only for himself. Caesar and Antony manipulate crowds even better than Trump, and we see Antony inciting the mob to storm the Capitol hunt down “the traitors” and, essentially, overthrow the Roman Republic.
The “traitors” in our own situation are any who resist Trump—Democrats, of course, but even more those Republicans who can’t stomach what their party has become. In Brutus, we see some of the internal struggle NeverTrumpers went through before choosing to align with the opposition. Brutus, who at one point says that he is “with himself at war,” articulates his resolve should “the people” crown Caesar king. The “general good,” he declares, must come first:
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honor in one eye and death i’ the other,
And I will look on both indifferently,
For let the gods so speed me as I love
The name of honor more than I fear death.
Instead of “death” for today’s Republicans, substitute “electoral defeat.” A number were in fact defeated after choosing honor, including Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, those who voted to impeach Trump, and various state officials who stood up to his attempts to steal the election. In the end Antony, looking down at the dead Brutus, describes him as “the noblest Roman of them all,” and these have proved worthy successors.
Of course, even after winning, Mark Antony himself will die in the subsequent civil war as former confederates turn on each other, just as Caesar and Ptolemy turn on each other. Violence is an invariable feature of authoritarian societies.