Now that that’s settled… From an historical perspective there’s some virtue in killing all of your enemies. Julius Caesar didn’t and was killed almost immediately after having himself declared dictator for life.
In 49 BC dictator meant something different than it does today. Dictator was an honorable, temporary position that was only implemented when the Republic faced some dire or existential threat that required a firm hand to fix. Although vested with almost absolute power, a dictator would often be appointed for a finite period of time, perhaps 6 months, to deal with the problem and then would go back to being whatever he was before, a senator, a general, a citizen, whatever. Caesar’s problem was he had kept extending his dictatorship until he had himself declared dictator for life. A month later he was killed by senators, some of whom were his friends, including, famously, Brutus.
His reign stands in stark contrast to
that of his adopted son, Caesar Augustus. Augustus reigned for 41 years (the
longest of any emperor), ruled over a relatively peaceful period of
consolidation and prosperity and set the stage for the Romans to remake the
western world, saying: “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of
marble.” While speaking literally about the city, he was also metaphorically
speaking about the Empire, having prepared the way for its long life.
The difference between Caesar and
Augustus? Augustus killed all of his enemies when consolidating power. By
the time he took absolute control over the Republic and transformed it into the
Empire, he had no enemies left, or at least none who were willing to stick
their necks out to challenge him. Unlike most Emperors, Augustus died of old
age…
As appealing as killing all of his
enemies might sound in an historical perspective, I would advise Donald Trump
to avoid doing so today. Some reasons are obvious, like the fact that Augustus
didn’t have to deal with a hostile media and the army of lemmings who follow
it. A more substantial reason is that again, unlike Rome, might does not make
right, we have laws and traditions and morals that prohibit doing so. But
more persuasively is the simple fact that it’s unnecessary.
Augustus isn’t known as Rome’s
greatest emperor because he killed all his enemies… no, he’s known as Rome’s
greatest emperor because he laid the foundations for a relative peace and
prosperity throughout the Roman world for two centuries. Donald Trump can
do the same in America without killing his enemies.
Last week I gave a list of 10 somewhat high level things Trump should do immediately upon taking office. These
included sealing the border, deporting illegal aliens and cleaning house in the
justice / military departments. Here I’ll suggest two specific things
Trump can do that will set America up to prosper, and do so without rivers of
blood.
First Trump must target those people in government who have weaponized the state in an effort to delegitimize him and keep him from office. That doesn’t mean people who disagree with him, even if they do so vociferously. No, the people he needs to investigate are those people who used the police power of the state to persecute him and illegally jail his advisors and J6 defendants.
Of all of the things that distinguish
a tyranny from a free nation, freedom of speech is paramount. A close
second is a police power that is exercised based on actual laws, not on the
whims and lies of politicians. If citizens cannot feel confident that
they will be unmolested if they do not break laws, what is their motivation to
obey any laws?
I’m not suggesting people like
Clinton, Pelosi, Schiff, Chaney etc. be jailed unconstitutionally. On the
contrary, I’m suggesting they be investigated, legally and transparently, and,
if appropriate, charged. And it’s not only the household names that must
be investigated, so too should the leadership of every agency that played a
role in putting the country through the last 8 years of unconstitutional hell
and bringing her to the brink of becoming 3rd world tyranny.
Second, Trump should immediately
rescind JFK’s most infamous legacy, from 1962: “That year, JFK signed
executive order 10988 allowing the unionization of the federal work force. This
changed everything in the American political system. Kennedy's order swung open
the door for the inexorable rise of a unionized public work force in many
states and cities.
This in turn led to the fantastic
growth in membership of the public employee unions—The American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) and the teachers' National Education Association.
They broke the public's bank. More
than that, they entrenched a system of taking money from members' dues and
spending it on political campaigns. Over time, this transformed the Democratic
Party into a public-sector dependency.”
That Executive Order, more than
perhaps any in the 20th century, changed American history for the worse. From
that point forward, federal employees – and later state and local employees –
could and did unionize against the American people. Rather than carrying
out the directives of the Executive Branch, their goal was to extract as much
money and benefits as possible from the American people, and do so while
accomplishing the least amount of actual work possible.
Skeptical? In 2021 the average American private
sector employee earned a compensation (salary + benefits) of $88,152 while the
average federal employee earned $143,643, fully 62% more. And federal employees
quit at a rate that is 75% lower than private sector employees. Today there are 2.95 million federal
employees, or one federal employee
for every 118 Americans, whereas in 1962 it was one for every 226. This is the enforcement arm of the
regulatory state that has a chokehold on America.
And this is where Trump has the
opportunity to change the trajectory of America’s future. The Heritage
Foundation states that federal regulation costs America somewhere between $300 & $700 billion a year. If Trump can rein in the federal
leviathan, that money would stay in American pockets, potentially adding 1% to
our GDP annually. To put that in perspective, GDP has grown by 2.1% over the past 20 years. A 1% addition result in a
doubling GDP in 24 years vs. 36 years at that rate. (Rule of 72) If he were to cut the federal
workforce back to 1962 levels, Trump would eliminate another $200 billion from
federal spending which would add to productivity.
There is no single bigger opportunity
today than freeing up Americans and American industry to compete and create.
Create better widgets, write smarter AI, make more efficient cars or develop
the next Pet Rock or Christmas antlers. As Johan Norberg chronicles in The
Capitalist Manifesto, it’s not capitalism per se. that creates prosperity, its
free markets and choice. History shows that there is no one better at
finding and filling opportunities than American businesses, no one better at
creating products and services consumers desire than American
entrepreneurs. If Donald Trump can unleash American creativity and
productivity even back to the 1980s levels (3.1% GDP growth) nevermind 1950’s levels (4.2%) he will vanquish his enemies to the
dustbin of history far more effectively than he would by turning them into
martyrs…