Yes, Kings, Shahs, And Emperors - Donald Trump And The Rightful Return Of Monarchy

The United States dismissed monarchy in 1787 when it broke away from Britain and established a democracy. However, despite Winston Churchill's famous line, 'Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest', democracy has fallen into disrepute, and the United States has led in its sorry decline. It is no more a republic of polity, civil order, and respect for the common weal.  It is a divided, divisive, contentious place, one whose only ethos is the cult of identity, and the sanctity of race, gender, and ethnicity.   

 

The bathos was during the recent Biden Administration which, with its Congressional supporters, cancelled history in a revisionist sweep, denied both historical and Biblical injunction with its programs of gender fluidity and sexual deformity, championed 'people of color' and derogated the white descendants of Europe, whose monarchs, inspired by the tenets, principles, and logic of Greece and Rome, extended the reach of high civilization throughout the known world. 

The 'No Kings' movement, organized to protest the alleged arrogation of power by Donald Trump, was a losers' sequel to the pre-election campaign to derogate, demean, humiliate, and discredit the former, now sitting President. Years of hysteria, unhinged ad hominem attacks, lawfare, and charges of fascism, misogyny, and homophobia and years of political smearing not seen since the bottom-feeding Jackson-Adams Presidential campaign of 1828, had no effect whatsoever. Trump was re-elected by a political base who supported him with even more passion and unalloyed support. 

The No Kings affair came and went without notice, seen as nothing more than a desperate revival of political energy, weakened and lost with the surprising - to progressives at least - victory of an unashamed conservative. 

What galled these frantic protestors most was what they saw as a supreme arrogation of power, a misuse of Constitutional authority, and a disregard for the law - the first step to autocracy, demagoguery, and a secular monarchy. 

Of course none of these accusations had any merit, and were nothing more than ther howls of a humiliated, defeated opponent. Yes, as he had done in Hollywood, Wall Street, and the mean real estate streets of New York, he stretched the boundaries of the law, tested, probed, and challenged the system.  The art of the deal was agreement based on posture, threat, intimidation, and strength for both buyer and seller. 'So, sue me', was the meme of the streets, and became the meme of the White House during Trump's first six months in office. 

It was democracy at work.  A dirty brawl, a bare-knuckled down and out fight to the finish, but the very heart and soul of the Republic, the ethos, the core of American enterprise from the Wild West to the Robber Barons.  

At the same time there is no doubt that Donald Trump admired his counterparts in Russia and China, strong leaders who based their rule, their popularity, and their political ambitions on their nations' history.  Their Emperors and Czars created civilizations of high culture and imposing confidence, and thanks to them the best of human enterprise was realized.  Each of the many Chinese dynasties created new wealth, conquered more territory, and extended moral philosophy, principle, and culture in a vast empire.  The Russian czars were no different and the reigns of Alexander and Peter established the foundation for enlightened imperial rule. 

 

Putin and Xi are embodiments of their nations' patrimony, and are historically patriotic as well as aggressive promoters their future.

The great monarchs of Europe - Henry VIII, Louis XIV, Victoria, Victor Emmanuel III - were responsible for the same extension of empire, promotion of high civilization, and the colonial rule which brought enlightenment to their colonies.  No historian denies the exploitive nature of colonial rule, but neither do they deny the introduction of modern ideas to formerly primitive peoples. 

The emperors of Rome created an empire the likes of which the world had never seen, and while there were duds - Caligula and Nero were memorable only for their dereliction - in the main the empire ruled with great enterprise and influence. 

 

It it is with admiration for this brand of monarchy - one based on sound moral principles and high secular ambition - that Trump admires. Athens, Rome, Persepolis, Alexandria, St. Petersburg, and Beijing - human society at its most evolved. 

Despite this storied history, this millennia-old tradition of imperial rule and high culture, American progressives want to erase it, pretend that it never existed, airbrushed because of colonialism. Progressivism is a one-note Charlie political movement - history needs to be erased based on the secular idealism of 'inclusivity'.  The black and brown peoples of the world were victims of monarchy and that alone is enough to delete them from the record.   

In the place of Western civilization, progressives turn to Africa, a continent which has produced nothing of empire, complex, sophisticated culture or vast acquired wealth. Its empires - Gao and Ghana - left nothing after their disappearance. No architecture, no infrastructure, no records of culture extension. The adulation is fictitious, faux, meaningless. 

So it is no surprise that a president who has inherited a mess, a society gone awry, one devoid of ethos and respect for its past, one characterized only by clashes of identity and a secularism which has no need for faith, traditional morals, or universal ethical principles might look to Caesar Augustus or the Sun King for inspiration; and why he is understanding of the historical imperatives of Russia and China. 

 

Might he like a less inhibited presidency, one less restricted by a venal politically-minded judiciary, one less obliged to listen to the rattling of Congressional hacks? Of course. Who wouldn't? Would he like to be freer to pursue his vision of restoring America to its originalist principles? Definitely.

The No Kings protestors would like to engineer a coup to topple Trump before he destroys democracy - a Brutus-Cassius pre-crime murder to keep Rome and America safe from unlimited monarchy.  These armchair insurrectionists have no understanding of history, political philosophy, or patience for it.  They simply want a world of happy miscegenation and Utopian largesse.  A fantasy.  An impossibility.  A pipe dream.  No Kings has faded away as quickly as Occupy Wall Street - both adolescent dreams of a more just, equitable, and generous world which has never ever been. 

Democracy still has a chance if it gets real about surviving, for survive it cannot if it continues in the American incarnation.  Trump and fellow conservatives are on the right track attempting to curb the worst distortions of democracy and restore some semblance of originalist thinking - to reset the balance between strong and right.