This Is How You Get Caesar ｜ 11⧸20⧸25
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Summary
Julius Caesar was a Roman dictator who ruled for a short period of time in the first century CE. He was a man of few words, but he was a dictator for all of them. And in the modern era, a similar figure is emerging in the United States: Donald Trump.
Transcript
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Political solutions feel increasingly out of reach in the United States. Congress can't pass a budget
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and has offloaded most of its legislative duties to lobbyists and the permanent bureaucracy.
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The judiciary spends more time blocking lawful presidential action than interpreting law.
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Executive agencies drag their feet under activist judges and rebellious career staff. Inflation
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continues to punish households the healthcare system teeters and American workers watch themselves
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replaced by imported labor. In moments like these, people look for someone who can simply make
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the system function again. And that's how you get Caesar. While dictator carries a purely negative
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meaning today, the term originally described a legitimate emergency office in the Roman Republic.
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Rome elected two consuls who shared executive authority. But when a true crisis struck, invasion,
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rebellion, rebellion, famine, Roman law allowed the temporary selection of a dictator who ruled
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alone for six months. The point was efficiency during an existential threat. Rome famously revered figures
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like Cincinnatus, elected dictator twice, who relinquished power immediately when the crisis ended.
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They begged him to be king, but he refused because Rome was not to have a king. His restraint,
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not his authority, made him a civic hero. Tradition demanded his behavior. Violating it meant disgrace
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and often enough assassination. Early Americans honored Cincinnatus by naming the city of
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Cincinnati after him and George Washington followed Cincinnatus' example when he stepped down
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after two presidential terms, even though he could have served for the rest of his life.
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The end of the Roman Republic is often associated with Julius Caesar being named dictator for life.
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The underlying crisis, however, predated him. Rome's elites consolidated land, squeezing citizens
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out of ownership, imported a large slave class that drove down wages, and ignored the growing unrest.
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The Senate refused to act and violence broke out. Any of this sound familiar?
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Caesar marched on Rome, won a civil war, and took power. He reformed the calendar, overhauled the
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justice system, cut welfare, and enacted land reforms. He was popular with the public,
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but enraged the ruling class by destroying their privileges. His assassination ended his rule.
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But not the transformation he initiated. The Republic was finished. It would be an empire from here on out.
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In his book, Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler argued that civilizations follow a life cycle,
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birth, growth, decline, and death, just like any living thing. In the late stage, societies fall
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under the control of bureaucratic oligarchies powered by money. Rules remain on paper, but decisions
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always serve wealthy interests, economic mobility collapses, the public is effectively locked out.
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These eras are marked by deep cultural divide. A decadent urban elite begin to live in ways
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utterly foreign to the people they rule. Wealth concentrates in cities, cosmopolitan values take
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hold, and citizens no longer recognize their own country. When legislative bodies fail,
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bureaucracies become unchallengeable, and moneyed elites block ordinary people from their own
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society. Spengler argued that a Caesar figure reliably emerges, a leader who sweeps aside
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gridlock and imposes order. Not necessarily a tyrant in the cartoonish sense, but a figure who
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commands enough power to break the stalemate. Now the danger is obvious. Once such a leader
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accumulates that power, nothing guarantees that he'll give it back. Caesar may save the nation,
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transform it, or accelerate its decline. What's certain, however, is that once he arrives,
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the political order changes rapidly. It's hard not to look at today's United States and see a similar
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pattern emerging. Donald Trump isn't Caesar, but he's been forced to govern through executive order
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because Congress refuses to act and the bureaucracy works to undermine him. Activists hold no kings rallies
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while Steve Bannon urges Trump to return in 2028. Passionate positions create momentum,
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and what begins as rhetoric can become a real possibility. Once an idea becomes a constant
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point of reference, even in its opposition, it gains a form of inevitability. That's the nature
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of political hyperstition. If Americans want to avoid a real Caesar, the only solution is to fix the
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problems that make one appealing. Caesar doesn't appear because the existing powers pushed too far,
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but because they refused to act decisively when action was needed. The borders must be closed.
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Replacement labor through expanded visa programs must end. Inflation must be crushed. Foreign
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adventurism must stop. Policy must shift away from elite wealth extraction and towards enabling young
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Americans to buy homes and start families. The cultural divide must narrow and shared values must be
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restored. None of this is easy. All of it is essential. If these challenges remain unanswered,
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no one should be surprised when Caesar finally arrives.
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my shows and read all my columns at The Blaze. Thanks for watching, and as always, I'll talk to you next time.