Ass Hat
Home
News
Events
Bands
Labels
Venues
Pics
MP3s
Radio Show
Reviews
Releases
Buy$tuff
Forum
  Classifieds
  News
  Localband
  Shows
  Show Pics
  Polls
  
  OT Threads
  Other News
  Movies
  VideoGames
  Videos
  TV
  Sports
  Gear
  /r/
  Food
  
  New Thread
  New Poll
Miscellaneous
Links
E-mail
Search
End Ass Hat
login

New site? Maybe some day.
Posting Anonymously login: [Forgotten Password]
returntothepit >> discuss >> 8 Striking Parallels between the USA and Roman Empire by arilliusbm on Jan 2,2013 2:31pm
Add To All Your Pages!
toggletoggle post by arilliusbm  at Jan 2,2013 2:31pm edited Jan 2,2013 2:37pm
http://www.blacklistednews.com/_8_striking...Roman_Empire/23343/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Lawrence Lessig’s Republic Lost
 documents the corrosive effect of money on our political process. Lessig persuasively makes the case that we are witnessing the loss of our republican form of government, as politicians increasingly represent those who fund their campaigns, rather than our citizens.
Anthony Everitt’s Rise of Rome
 is fascinating history and a great read. It tells the story of ancient Rome, from its founding (circa 750 BCE) to the fall of the Roman Republic (circa 45 BCE).
When read together, striking parallels emerge — between our failings and the failings that destroyed the Roman Republic. As with Rome just before the Republic’s fall, America has seen:

1 — Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources: Our 2012 election reportedly cost $3 billion. All of it was raised from private sources – often creating the appearance, or the reality, that our leaders are beholden to special interest groups. During the late Roman Republic, elections became staggeringly expensive, with equally deplorable results. Caesar
 reportedly borrowed so heavily for one political campaign, he feared he would be ruined, if not elected.

2 — Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth: During the late Roman Republic period, one of the main roads to wealth was holding public office, and exploiting such positions to accumulate personal wealth. As Lessig notes: Congressman, Senators and their staffs leverage their government service to move to private sector positions – that pay three to ten times their government compensation. Given this financial arrangement, “Their focus is therefore not so much on the people who sent them to Washington. Their focus is instead on those who will make them rich.” (Republic Lost)

3 — Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US – for the past 100 years — has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.

4 — Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic’s Leaders: Foreign wars lead to growing influence, by foreign powers and interests, on the Republic’s political leaders — true for Rome and true for us. In the past century, foreign embassies, agents and lobbyists have proliferated in our nation’s capital. As one specific example: A foreign businessman donated $100 million to Bill Clinton
‘s various activities. Clinton “opened doors” for him, and sometimes acted in ways contrary to stated American interests and foreign policy.

5 — Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic’s Internal Policies: As the fortunes of Rome’s aristocracy increasingly derived from foreign lands, Roman policy was shaped to facilitate these fortunes. American billionaires and corporations increasingly influence our elections. In many cases, they are only nominally American – with interests not aligned with those of the American public. For example, Fox News is part of international media group News Corp., with over $30 billion in revenues worldwide. Is Fox News’ jingoism a product of News Corp.’s non-U.S. interests?

6 — Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republic’s fall, the Roman middle class was crushed — destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, we’ve witnessed rising income inequality
, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.

7 — Gerrymandering: Rome’s late Republic used various methods to reduce the power of common citizens. The GOP has so effectively gerrymandered
 Congressional districts that, even though House Republican candidates received only about 48 percent of the popular vote in the 2012 election — they ended up with the majority (53 percent) of the seats.

8 — Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people)
. Sound familiar? Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example
, “There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined.”
As Benjamin Franklin
 observed, we have a Republic — but only if we can keep it.

Star and flag.



toggletoggle post by trioxin245  at Jan 2,2013 2:41pm
The lack of a will to compromise in modern American society is one of the main things that has led me to lose faith in Democracy more than anything else.



toggletoggle post by barren ark at Jan 2,2013 2:49pm
9 -- Unchecked expansion of executive powers



toggletoggle post by givemeedtilimdead at Jan 2,2013 2:49pm
Republic becomes Democracy, which then becomes Oligarchy, which eventually becomes Dictatorship, (but a Dictatorship is really still sort of an Oligarchy, since a Dictator always has a group of people around him.)

America was founded as a Republic, now they say we are a Democracy, so perhaps it's only a matter of time before we become an Oligarchy.



toggletoggle post by trioxin245  at Jan 2,2013 2:52pm
It essentially is an Oligarchy. We vote on who leads us, but only from a small pool of candidates who are for the most part chosen by those already in power.



toggletoggle post by dead AA batteries at Jan 2,2013 2:59pm
ye olde news



toggletoggle post by trioxin245  at Jan 2,2013 3:00pm
very old



toggletoggle post by dead AA batteries at Jan 2,2013 3:08pm
No mention of swords & sandals in this thread...



toggletoggle post by arilliusbm  at Jan 2,2013 3:22pm
Lame troll



toggletoggle post by DADROSS at Jan 2,2013 3:36pm
In my day white men eagerly compromised in an effort to keep women and colored folk out of the political process.



toggletoggle post by trioxin245  at Jan 2,2013 3:39pm
That does sound quite adequate, indeed.

QUITE



toggletoggle post by the_reverend   at Jan 2,2013 3:40pm
no mention of the rise of sodomy, no care.



Enter a Quick Response (advanced response>>)
Username: (enter in a fake name if you want, login, or new user)SPAM Filter: re-type this (values are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E, or F)
Message:  b i u  add: url  image  video(?)show icons
remember:today will turn for the worse
[default homepage] [print][6:43:51am Mar 29,2024
load time 0.01021 secs/12 queries]
[search][refresh page]