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The Caligula Candidate
Many people have expressed concern with the remarks that Donald Trump made in the recently released videotape, demonstrating as they do the candidate’s extreme crudity and his contempt for the humanity of women. However there is another aspect of the Don’s character readily observable in the celebrated tape that should be even more alarming. This is Trump’s complete inability to restrain his primal impulses.
Trump is clearly an aspiring dictator, and so has sometimes been compared to Adolf Hitler. However, while sharing Hitler’s national socialist method of invoking the tribal instinct to mobilize mob support for a program of unlimited government, socialistic policy, and one-man rule, Trump has a very different personal character. Until he went insane late in the war, Hitler was capable of a certain amount of intellectual focus and self-discipline. Trump, on the other hand, is completely lacking in those traits. Rather, he is a man of unlimited appetites who sees no reason to control himself, even when an appearance of such control is required to achieve his own strategic ends. Instead of Hitler, the mad Roman emperor Caligula serves as much closer historical model for the dissolute Don.
Trump’s lack of self-control, repeatedly demonstrated through such self-destructive behaviors as his late night defecations into the twitterverse, has long been an annoyance to his campaign staff, who find it objectionable because it decreases his chance of winning the election. However those whose priorities center upon the good of the nation rather than merely the good of a candidate may wish to consider the implications of Trump’s infantilism in a broader context.
The nation’s founders set a Constitutional minimum age requirement of 35 years for the office of president, because they recognized that the Chief Executive of the United States and the Commander-in-Chief of its Armed Forces needs to be a mature adult. Clearly a person who says that he cannot stop himself from spontaneously grabbing and kissing attractive women cannot be described in such terms. Indeed, he would not even qualify as an acceptable adolescent, since anyone who acted in such a manner would not meet the behavior standard required to remain enrolled in a public high school.
The human mind can be described as having three levels of operation, defined by animal lust, practical reason, and moral conscience. You see a desired object. Lust urges you to steal it, reason advises otherwise to avoid prosecution, while conscience tells you not to steal because stealing is wrong. An infant is born with only the lustful part of the mind operational, but we hope over time develops the capacity to act in accord with reason, and ultimately conscience.
An examination of Donald Trump’s life shows that he has not developed well in this respect. Rather, his entire business career has been one cheat after another, swindling his investors, his lenders, his vendors, his workers, and his customers. As a result, there are currently several thousand different lawsuits being processed against him by those he has wronged. Clearly he has no interest in acting according to moral conscience. For Trump, right and wrong are not relevant categories; only winning and losing matter. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the number of suits he has incurred, his practical reason exerts only weak influence in restraining his animal lust to take whatever he wants.
This brings us back to the subject of Caligula, the exemplar of a ruler with unconstrained appetites. According to Wikipedia,
Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor, as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate … Caligula reviewed Tiberius’s records of treason trials and decided, based on their actions during these trials, that numerous senators were not trustworthy. He ordered a new set of investigations and trials. He replaced the consul and had several senators put to death. Suetonius reports that other senators were degraded by being forced to wait on him and run beside his chariot..… Philo of Alexandria and Seneca the Younger describe Caligula as an insane emperor who was self-absorbed, angry, killed on a whim, and indulged in too much spending and sex. He is accused of sleeping with other men’s wives and bragging about it, killing for mere amusement, deliberately wasting money on his bridge, causing starvation, and wanting a statue of himself erected in the Temple of Jerusalem for his worship.
Much of the above account is startlingly reminiscent of Trump. But while in Caligula’s day the Roman Empire was completely secure against all external threats, and so his lack of restraint and desire for absolute power could only wreak serious harm on the internal soundness of the commonwealth, an infantile ruler of such character today could quickly lead the nation, and indeed human civilization, to quick and total destruction.
Say what you will, Hillary Clinton is an adult. Many of her policies are mistaken, but she is demonstrably sane. The same cannot be said about Trump.
America requires a president with a mental age over 35, not under two. Trump does not meet that criterion. Accordingly, he is unfit for office.
Published in General
The section where he compares Trump to Hitler is quoted above. After saying “others” he makes the comparison himself. It’s a typical gas-lighting method. He thinks he’s being clever by suggesting he’s reporting the thoughts of others. He’s reinforcing the Hitler comparison while suggesting it doesn’t go far enough because Hitler was a better person than Trump with a more noble character.
@robertzubrin, even those wholeheartedly agreeing with your point have found that these comparisons detract. It may be worth bearing in mind that some forms of rhetoric may alienate even allies here on Ricochet.
The author neglects the fourth level of operation of the human mind: The innate desire to use the IRS to suppress political opposition.
But Caligula didn’t have an IRS, did he?
And a rational adult can do more harm than an impetuous child. I offer Stalin, a very serious dude, as an example.
Not saying that Clinton is even in that league.
Clinton clearly is in the realm of those who pursue the “common good”, which can only be achieved by minimizing the individual and eliminating individual liberties.
And once that wall is breached, that liberties are now temporary temporary privileges, you cannot regain them.
Well, I must say, the article certainly seems to have hit the mark.
Well, if your mark is to foster ridicule and derision at your expense, then consider it job well done.
Which mark do you presume to have hit?
From my read of the comments even the people who agree with you about Trump seem to think that your over the top hyperbole is not helpful to your argument.
Is the “mark” getting widespread consensus that Hitler comparisons are not helpful?
Haha! That’s a very fair point!
Well, it’s hardly a secret that some “news” outlets fawn over Hillary, but there are also some that fawn over Trump. Read breitbart.com lately? The nice thing about living today, as opposed to 25 years ago, is that you can pay attention to whichever side you like. Or, if you are open-minded, you can pay attention to both. Yes, the three MSM networks are loaded to the gills with Democrats who will do whatever they can to promote Hillary. But you don’t have to pay attention to them. If you don’t like the NY Times, read the NY Post. They’re both right there on the newsstand.
To me, our side’s whining about media bias is getting a bit old. There is liberal media, and conservative media. It’s not as if the undecided, low-information voters are paying attention to either one. But you can take your pick. Your presence here on Ricochet tells me that you already have.
When an article is this poorly received, even by those who generally agree with the author, and the author considers that to constitute ‘hitting the mark’, does this begin to cross over in to trolling territory?
I would say it certainly seems to have left a skid mark…
Every government since the beginning of time has had an IRS. And a cemetery. The only things that are inevitable are death and taxes.
It’s certainly hit some mark, but I’m not sure it’s the one you were aiming for.
@robertzubrin, I agree with you that Trump is unworthy of the presidency and am frustrated and angry for many of the reasons you are; as I’ve said for months, I ain’t voting for him and don’t think anyone else should, either.
But I also don’t think it’s either productive or accurate to compare Trump to history’s worst monsters. Even if you do think it’s accurate — as you clearly do — it doesn’t seem to be persuading anyone else to our side.
While I agree with this, it’s overwhelming how many people still rely on the big 3 networks for their info. It’s hard to believe, but there are a lot of people who are unaware of the Clinton Foundation scandal, for instance.
I wonder where all this anger was when other posters on this site were calling Hillary “Satan”.
Huh…
I had a more… scatological image in mind.
Martian Hitler is just one Marvin the Martian Kaboom away.
Yeah, where were all the Hillary supporters then?
Ah, so this is only out of bounds for partisan reasons and not the high-minded ones espoused on this thread. By all means continue your team sport.
And for the record, I didn’t personally ever call Hillary Satan, I just said I would more likely vote for Satan than Hillary…
This needs to be repeated over and over again. It’s also an egregious insult to the members who disagree with each other and struggle daily to maintain civility in their comments.
Could you please point to the Contributor, on the Main Feed, who called Hillary “Satan”?
I consider member posters and contributors to be different things and feel they should be held to different standards.
I am wondering if @jamielockett is thinking of the Churchill quote which I am fond of posting?
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
Marvin the Martian’s attorneys are none too pleased, either.
Nah, I would object to anyone comparing a candidate to Hitler, it is insulting to the millions murdered in his name. Caligula is a bit less offensive, but very nearly as overwrought and unfounded.
On a conservative site, Hillary bashing is understood to be in a different vein than bashing of the Republican candidate is. But Hitler comparisons are over the top, counter productive, and somewhat juvenile. Even of Hillary. And she is in a class by herself…
As I have said more than a few times over these months, I’ll worry about Trump being the next Hitler when he promises to annex the Sudetenland.
And I’m disappointed in his lack of veganism. Hitler Steaks and Hitler Water were never big sellers at Oktoberfest
Ed Grimley! I knew it!
One of my favorite op-ed pieces is titled “Who goes Nazi?” by Dorothy Thompson in 1941 August issue of Harper’s. I think of it often in the Trump/Never Trump debates.
I think her advice to play this unusual parlor game is still valid.
The real Caligula candidate? From the people who brought us the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter story.
“I arranged a meeting for Hillary and a woman in an exclusive Beverly Hills hotel,” the man, who was hired by the Clintons, via a Hollywood executive, to cover up their scandals.
The Enquirer will reveal the fixer’s dossier of smoking gun proof, including 24-years of documents, notes, and journals.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/hillary-clinton-lesbian-sex-claims-vince-foster-fixer/