3/3/2018 - John Hawkins Townhall.com
The Romans spent almost
500 years as a republic before Julius Caesar’s adopted son Augustus became the
first Roman emperor. The Romans moved on from having kings to becoming the
first republic, to sliding backward into monarchy and tyranny and it’s not
impossible that America will follow a similar trajectory. In fact, if you
study Roman history, it’s not hard to see the parallels.
1) It’s Extremely
Dangerous To Introduce Violence Into The Political Process: Tiberius Gracchus was
an arrogant Roman Populist who cared little for the niceties of tradition and
even less for the opinions of his opponents. He proposed confiscating land from
the rich to give to soldiers and poor Romans. This was a terrible policy which
helped lead to the fall of the Roman Republic, but unsurprisingly it was quite
popular. However, there was quite a bit of resistance to the policy in the
Senate and passing legislation of this sort without the approval of the Senate
simply wasn’t done in ancient Rome. That is until Tiberius Gracchus found a
loophole and did it anyway, earning him the outright hatred of the Senate.
Later, a misunderstanding made the members of the Senate believe that their
hated enemy was going to overthrow the government and make himself king.
They responded to this
misunderstanding by surrounding him, ripping the legs off benches and beating
him to death. This was the start of a long, violent, slippery slope in Rome as
political violence became ever more common. In time, politicians had their own
gangs that fought in the street. Senators were knifed on the floor of the Senate
and eventually, the leadership of the nation was determined by who could bring
the biggest army to Rome. Here in America, we are now starting to see
politically-motivated violence. Riots at Berkeley to keep conservatives from
speaking. A white supremacist driving his car into the crowd. A Bernie Sanders
supporter shooting up a Republican softball game. Protests where the protesters
and counter-protesters bring weapons. This goes nowhere good and we would be
wise to clamp down hard on this sort of violence before it gets out of
hand.
2) When Governance
Becomes A Means Of Personal Enrichment First, Good Governance Comes Last:
As
the Roman Empire declined, something called the Crisis of the Third Century
occurred. For the most part, it followed a pattern like so: the current emperor
would be assassinated, usually by his own troops. Then, the strongest governors
for the outer provinces of the Roman Empire would marshal their forces and
march on Rome. After a bloody struggle, one of them would become the Roman
emperor.
Unfortunately, while
the troops who manned the edges of the empire were fighting in Rome, barbarians
would storm across the borders to pillage, loot and rape everything in their
path. Soon thereafter, perhaps frustrated by the incompetence that allowed this
to occur, some of the soldiers who put the emperor in power would then murder
him and the cycle would start again. This led to Rome having something like 20
emperors during a 50 year period as the Empire fell into further disrepair.
Thank God that John
McCain and Dianne Feinstein don’t have their own personal armies, but are they
– and the rest of the members of Congress – really putting the country first
anymore? Is good governance a bigger concern than pleasing special interest
groups and getting TV time? Do our leaders make anything more than a
grandstanding surface attempt to tackle the tough issues that confront America?
Are our politicians the best among us? Are they men like Washington, Jefferson
and Adams who were determined to make this a better country for future
generations or just top-of-the-line con artists smart enough to think bigger
than bilking old ladies out of their pension checks?
Good governance doesn’t
just happen. It takes the right kind of people in office to make it happen and
for the most part, those are no longer the sort of men and women we have in
charge.
3) If You Stop Doing
What Makes You Successful, The Success Won’t Continue Forever: In the early days of
the Roman Republic, the soldiers tended to be the WEALTHIER people in society.
That was because they needed a certain amount of money to buy the equipment
needed to fight. Back then, being a Roman citizen meant something. No
politician dared mistreat a citizen of the empire for fear of retaliation from
Rome. For most of the Roman Republic, there was no welfare and people were
expected to take care of themselves.
The republic was
certainly challenged during these years, but it stayed free and strong and it
was the driving force of the civilized world. Eventually, things changed for
the worse as the Roman elite became more interested in using the government to
become rich and powerful instead of using it for the good of the people. Later
on, the rich seldom fought unless it was at the head of an army, which was a money-making
venture in those days. Roman emperors had citizens put to death solely because
they wanted to repossess their lands and money to give to their supporters.
Free grain along with
extravagant games in the Colosseum were given to the mob, which became
increasingly demanding, irrational and violent. As many of the traditions,
practices and character traits that made Rome successful disappeared, Rome
became weaker. It moved toward decadence, weakness and tyranny. Eventually the
Western half of the Empire fell in 476 A.D. If you had to pick a period of
Roman history that today’s post-constitutional America is reminiscent of, it
would be that last stage of the Roman Republic when freedom was slowly, but
surely slipping away from the Romans while corrupt men fought to control the
spoils that running the government could bring. Don’t take the freedom we have
for granted because we could lose it one day just as easily as the Romans
did.
4) When People Can’t
Get Justice Under The Law, They Will Go Outside The Law: Many people have heard
of Julius Caesar’s famous decision to “cross the Rubicon” and begin a Roman
civil war, but the devil is in the details. You see at this point in Roman
history, the Republic was hanging on by a thread. Appearances were largely kept
up, but Caesar and his former partner-turned-rival Pompey were the two most
powerful men in the country and each feared the other intended to take over.
Yet and still, Caesar had not committed to that course of action.
So when Caesar returned
from Gaul, he made a simple offer. He would be willing to disband his armies
before crossing the Rubicon and entering Rome if Pompey did the same thing.
Although the Senate voted in favor of this proposal, a number of prominent
senators undermined it and encouraged Pompey not to disarm. Had Caesar returned
to Rome while his rival had an army at his back, he likely would have been
killed. So instead, he crossed the Rubicon with his own troops and that was the
beginning of the end for the Roman Republic.
As we have become ever
more tribal in America, we have started to simply not care about being fair to
our political adversaries. The “free press” is hopelessly hostile and biased
toward conservatives. The IRS and FBI have been used for political purposes.
The EPA has put draconian restrictions on what people can do with their own
land. Liberals openly advocate using the court system to implement laws that
can’t make it through Congress.
The federal government
has become ever more powerful and its reach has become ever longer and more
restricting. As we saw with Hillary Clinton and with illegal aliens, if you are
politically powerful enough or part of a catered-to group, the laws don’t apply
to you. This is all extremely dangerous because it undercuts the rule of law,
respect for law and the compassionate and fair application of the law.
When people conclude that only outlaws can get justice, people will
become outlaws.
5) Immigration Only
Works As Long As There Is Assimilation: Like the United States, the Romans
were great believers in bringing other people under the banners. Instead of
subjugating and enslaving the foreign nations they captured, the Romans usually
made them part of their alliance. In some cases they gave them full
citizenship, but even a lesser form of citizenship was no small thing given the
power of the Romans and how they could have behaved given their strength. This
was a big part of why the Romans became so successful.
However, as time went
on, things began to change. The Romans had at times allowed conquered tribes to
enter their territory, but they always split them up so they’d have no choice
other than to live surrounded by Romans and learn their ways. As the Empire
became more decadent, they allowed tribes of barbarians to move into Roman
territory as a group under their old rulers. Under those circumstances, the
barbarians kept their old culture. Eventually, the Romans started bringing
these foreigners into their military.
The Western half of the
Roman Empire was especially guilty of this. In time, the foot soldiers in the
military were largely German Goths who ironically were primarily needed to
fight other German Goths who surged across the borders. This was
problematic for a number of reasons, but just to name one, it sometimes led to
Roman cities being besieged and sacked by their own unassimilated German
troops. Eventually, the Western half of the Roman Empire fell as the foreign
troops decided they’d rather be ruled by a barbarian king named Odoacer.
Here in America, not
only do we have surging immigration, we no longer encourage immigrants to
assimilate to our culture. It has gotten so bad that we’d rather tell people to
press 2 for Spanish instead of insisting that they learn English. Immigration
has gotten so out-of-control that even suggesting that we should limit
immigration or only allowing immigrants who obey our laws to come here is
called “racist.” The Romans eventually lost their nation over that sort of
attitude and one day, the same thing may happen to us if we’re not careful.
