- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion
- cross-posted to:
- nottheonion
Donald Trump has said that he will not become a dictator if he becomes US president again except “on day one”, after warnings from Democrats and some Republicans that the US was in danger of becoming an autocracy if he wins the 2024 election. Fuck, well at least he’s honest on this statement
The original office of dictator as defined in the Roman Republic was exactly that,
It was literally the office of “we have tried literally everything else and still have a problem, you there, you seem like a not idiot person, you can do basically anything you want for the next six months or until you solve the problem, after that we’ll make cool statues of you if you do a good job.”
I’m so happy that a fellow history nerd came here and said it before I could.
Given how the reality can get modified over long periods of history, I have to wonder how much those old dictators stepping down were motivated by threats of stabbing if they didn’t.
Well one of them was Cicero, who would have been VERY loudly indignant had there been such a threat,
Not because he intended to defy it, but because he’d be so personally insulted by any insinuation he’d be that kind of dirty politician.
You knew him personally?
No, he was just an extremely prolific writer and a far more prolific narcissist
One of the benefits of writing about yourself, you’ve got an absolutely amazing subject who can do no wrong.
That’s fair :)
Honestly it’d probably work better than our current system.
Just give one random guy carte blanche to run everything. Get immortalized if you do a good job. Get executed if you don’t.
And I’m sure lots of people would take it up, and think that they’d do a good job. And more than likely, they wouldn’t.