“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
— Benjamin Franklin
One of the earliest recorded examples of a disgruntled people turning to a king to save them is in 1 Samuel 8. The people’s new leaders “…turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.” (1 Samuel 8:3). Notice the situation starts with the people believing that the current leadership was failing at their job. After talking about the failings of the current leadership, the verse’s next words are, “So all the elders of Israel gathered together….[and said]…now appoint a king to lead us…” (1 Samuel 8:5). The ‘so’ meaning, that because the current political situation had failed, the elders gathered together to choose a completely different form of governance.
Rabbi Ken Spiro writes, “To ask for a king “like all the nations” suggests that the Jews wanted a big strong guy, like the rest of the nations-an all-powerful leader who would make all the decisions so that they could sit back and throw off that heavy burden of responsibility that they’ve had to deal with on a day-to-day basis.”
In 1933, Germany was in disarray. No one had jobs, money, the birth rate was plummeting and the native Germans were worried about the restrictive Treaty of Versailles. “All the previous chancellors who had undertaken to get Germany back on her feet — including Brüning, Papen and Schleicher – had failed. Only a genius or, as some believed, a madman, could revive a nation that had fallen into such a state of complete disarray.”—The Institute for Historical Review.
We hear similar woes today from many conservatives. The extremely conservative online newspaper, The Blaze, says,
“Generally the Republicans and Democrats are indistinguishable from each other. They choose to dodge the issues that might give offense. Let us not offend the organized interest groups. Let us just offend the silent, complacent majority. Let us not protect the small business owners in Ferguson, Missouri. Let us protect the rioters…All these policies unobtrusively reveal burning truths about what really is happening in America. In the process, they are causing a vast seething rage among the people who obey the law, pay their taxes, and never set flame to anything but a bar-b-que.”
In other words, the current leadership has failed. They have taken care of themselves and not their people, and it is time to elect someone who actually takes the people’s problems seriously.
Trump’s followers cite his brutal honesty, willingness to put Americans above others, and the fact that “something would finally get done in the country” as reasons they believe in him. These reasons can also be read, complete disregard for other people’s feelings, avoiding other nation’s problems and an unwillingness to work with others, and a blatant disregard for the checks and balances system that is supposed to keep all members of government in check. All of which are at their best, not traits of a democracy, and at worst, the hallmarks of tyranny.
There is, in fact, ample evidence that Trump himself views his presidential run as a kingly run. In an Op-Ed, Michael D’Antonio piles up evidence supporting this and then ends with,
“The racehorse theory of human development explains Trump’s belief in his suitability for political leadership, despite the fact that he has never held office. He’s absolutely convinced that America’s problems will be solved by his God-given management skills, bankruptcies notwithstanding. You are either born with superior qualities — the right DNA — or you are not. And people get what they deserve. In his case, that includes the White House.”
The Israelites got their king. The Germans turned to someone who promised strength, fast returns and the ability to get things done. It is worth noting that the article from The Blaze does not resist comparisons to Hitler’s Germany. From later in the same article, “The genius of the propaganda of the German fascists was that they actively engaged all the issues the mainstream parties would not touch. Germans, lost in economic dislocation, wanted those questions addressed.”
Let’s see how that worked out for Israel: “[Samuel] said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.” The long list of all the things a king will beat down the Israelites continues, and all of these things come true. In the Biblical example, the Israelite people chose their king, and they themselves suffered.
When Hitler was elected the Jews suffered, and the warning signs that this would happen were not hard to find. Hitler from Mein Kampf in 1923, “Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: ‘by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
“The means of defense against a foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”
—James Madison
It is not hard to guess who would suffer in a Trump-run government. In fact, a better question would be to ask who wouldn’t suffer. CNN reports that, “A large group of black students attending a Donald Trump rally at Valdosta State University Monday were escorted out by law enforcement before the event started…Another Secret Service agent told CNN the protesters were “asked to leave by the host committee and local law enforcement.”
Add to this Trump’s inability to articulate what the KKK stood for, saying he would send all Syrian refugees back into danger to war-torn Syria, and promising he would document all Muslims who stay in country, and it is easy, even without the help of history, to see where Trump is headed. To assume that no one will suffer Trump is at best naïve, and at worst, a complete and total disregard for history.
In his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1801, almost exactly 215 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said: “Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of Others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
The response to this question is clearly rhetorical, and surely no one can say that Trump, of all people, is an angel.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” –John Dalberg-Acton. America was designed the way it was, yes, even with its clunky forced dialogue with the other side, even with its system of checks and balances that means that often nothing gets done, because the Founding Fathers believed that the government they created needed to be able to combat tyranny.
Has America failed after all then?
Because here are “we the people”, asking for a king.
Julianne says
Powerful …