J.D. Vance and the Augustan moment
Among not quite a few people, Gaius Julius Caesar is still seen as a hero. He's not seen as the destroyer of the quasi-democratic Roman Republic.
Apparently, J.D. Vance is one of those people.
“We are in a late republican period,” Vance said later, evoking the common New Right view of America as Rome awaiting its Caesar. “If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.”
This is where we are. We have half of a political class which is pining for a Caesarian strong man to wipe away all the so-called rot of the Republic. Democracy no longer works for these people, because they're not longer at the till of power. Other groups are rising up which don't look like white, Christian males. And that can't be allowed.
Caesar is taken as a model for both left and right. For example, Michael Parenti wrote a book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome, in which he wrote glowingly of Caesar's "populist revolution" overthrowing the old sclerotic patrician order. I read the book years ago, and he glossed over that after Caesar, his grand-nephew and adopted son Gaius Octavius turned Rome into an oligarchic dictatorship. Not much for "democracy" and "the people" there.
But, as you'll discern from the title of this piece, while the Left might year for a Caesar to enact populist reforms, the right yearns for an Augustus, who will trample on the Republic while maintaining its outward façade.
What the likes of Vance and his ilk want is not a populist revolution, but an oligarchic revolution which cements the rule of the rich, while still maintaining the trappings of "freedom". Much like the "managed democracy" of Vladimir Putin, before he turned to outright dictatorship.
Vance and his conspirators ache for a polity in which elections are for show, and the outcome is determined. They ache for the power they believe is rightfully theirs, now being stolen by untermenschen. This was a country founded for the white race, and they will make sure it remains that way.
There's a problem with this.
For all it's ailments, American in 2022 is not Rome in 49 BCE. The fruits of empire which flooded Rome were poisoned. Its ad hoc government couldn't deal with the power it was amassing, and was ripe for a strongman. Since at least the Gracchi, the Republic was in an untenable position. Landless peasants flooded the city, prone to the blandishments of whatever leader would pay them the most. The Roman Republic was in a state of decay, and its most energetic members had no interest in saving it. The booty and wealth flowing into the city upended a government which barely existed.
America is not that. America is not a collection of conflicting warlords. This country has a tradition of government which Rome didn't have. It doesn't have an overseas empire, and its representatives don't extract loot from satellite states. And the idea of Romanitas is not the same as what it means to be American. For all our faults, democracy is at the core of our being.
Vance and his sort underestimate the staying power of democratic republicanism in this country. They believe that because they're disaffected, the majority must be as well. But when they talk about "the majority", they mean the white majority, which is declining. And the white majority is not monolithic. Democracy's roots are deep in this land, and won't be torn out with ease. They are betting on a losing horse, and their demise will be a signal lesson.
No, the war isn't won. The war is never over. Maintaining liberty—true liberty, not the pabulum prattled by the right—is a never-ending struggle. But the struggle is worth it. Everything else we wish to accomplish stems from that prime struggle.
Vance warned that Trump would become "America's Hitler". He wasn't wrong, and he didn't change. He just decided that was the winning team. We proved him wrong in 2020. We will prove him wrong again this November.