How Pompeius Magnus, Cato, and the Roman Senate were taken so completely by surprise by Julius Caesar’s decision to cross the Rubicon with a single legion that wasn’t even his best or his most loyal. Now, at long last, I finally understand, thanks in part to this random comment from Twitter, posted in response to President Trump’s speech on December 2nd.
We are seeing the last desperate flailings of a truly frightened and trapped animal. He knows what is waiting for him on the other side of Biden’s inauguration – humiliation in front of the whole world, many civil lawsuits, State and Federal charges, asset seizure and prison.
Is that how the speech struck any of you? Because it certainly didn’t sound that way to me. But given the way it almost certainly reflects the attitudes of both the Establishment and the conservative political elite, which is that President Trump wouldn’t dare depart from the current norms concerning respect for the public perception of democracy created by the media narrative, I don’t think any of them are even remotely prepared for what now appears to be the most probable outcome.
The courts have been warned. The legislators have been warned. But I don’t think they are listening to the warnings, any more than a big tech company listens even when it is bombarded by hundreds of notices from its users, because they simply don’t believe that anyone will dare to think, let alone step, outside the normality box.