O Tempora, O Mores

 

I have been reading SPQR by Mary Beard in recent days, and in its light I can see that we live in very Ciceronian times. On January 20^th of next year we will cross a major threshold as a nation, much as the Romans did when Caesar crossed the Rubicon. What will our transition look like?

 

We can only see that future right now as if through a glass, darkly. I do not pretend to be able to predict the specific contours of that new land. I would only venture one prophecy: the second presidency of Donald J. Trump cannot, on balance, bring us any good.

 

How can I be so confident? For the same reason that I was genuinely surprised by the results of November’s election. There is much about Trump over which reasonable people can disagree. Should there be tariffs or not? Is he a loathsome boor or a charming eccentric? These are questions that are open to debate.

 

But should Trump be president? Emphatically not. There are so many reasons this is true, but one moment that millions of us saw suffices to demonstrate the point. During his one debate with Kamala Harris, when he began ranting about how Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are “eating the dogs…eating the cats,” he showed us that he cannot serve in the office to which we have elected him. Setting aside how gratuitously hateful and destructive those words were, no one who is so careless with the truth can possibly perform the duties of President of the United States in any way that will not be disastrous. That is not a matter for debate or of opinion, it is simple empirical fact.

 

I do not pretend to know what disaster Trump will bring us. He is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates- you never know what you’re gonna get. Will he cause rampant inflation and economic distress? A global recession or depression? A world war? A fascist dictatorship? Simple garden variety chaos and political distress? Any are possible. All of us will be faced with tough choices as citizens. Resist or flee? Speak out or lie low? Only one thing is clear: we should all hope for the best (which will still be pretty bad), but prepare for the worst.