Spinor Info

I am neither the first nor the last to compare the politics of present-day America to that of the late Roman Republic and the early days of Empire.

But the Imperial Presidency did not begin with Trump. Its roots go back decades. And most recently, before Trump there was Joe Biden.

Imperial, you ask? The progressive, Democratic President?

You bet. The New Yorker‘s article reveals why. Not in power grabs or grandeur, but in its insularity, the stage-managed image, and the systemic shielding of the President’s decline.

When Biden showed up in the summer of 2024 at a fundraising event hosted by George Clooney, “Clooney knew that the President had just arrived from the G-7 leaders’ summit in Apulia, Italy, that morning and might be tired, but, holy shit, he wasn’t expecting this. The President appeared severely diminished, as if he’d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him, in December, 2022. He was taking tiny steps, and an aide seemed to be guiding him by the arm. […] It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney. […] ‘George Clooney,’ [an] aide clarified for the President. ‘Oh, yeah!’ Biden said. ‘Hi, George!’ Clooney was shaken to his core. The President hadn’t recognized him, a man he had known for years.”

Yet, Biden was shielded. His true condition was kept hidden even from members of his own party. Those around him — perhaps out of a sense of kindness, a sense of misguided loyalty — chose to gaslight their party, their country, the world. They even gaslighted Biden himself — encouraging him, by assuring him instead of making him face the stark truth in one of his clearer moments.

When Biden finally stepped down, it was too late. Instead of Kamala Harris, we are now dealing with a second Trump presidency.

And thus, here we are: First, a combination of Obama and Biden, resembling both the young, transformative Augustus and the same Emperor in his later years of frailty and decline, hidden by aides from the public; followed by a President resembling some of the worst Rome had to offer in the later Empire, like Caligula and Nero and Commodus combined.

To use a tired but still valid cliche: History doesn’t repeat; but it sure as hell rhymes.

Today was the 80th anniversary of a memorable, unique, solemn event that took place in the Pacific ocean, during the waning months of World War 2.

A kamikaze pilot attacked an American warship, the USS Missouri, during the Battle of Okinawa. The attack was ultimately not successful: the damage caused was negligible, with only minor injuries among the crew. The kamikaze pilot died.

However, the pilot’s remains were recovered. And the next day, on the captain’s orders, the pilot — believed to be a young Japanese man, Setsuo Ishino, a petty officer 2nd class in a flight training program — was buried at sea with full military honors, which even included a makeshift Japanese flag.

(U.S. National Archives photo no. 80-G-315823 via AP)

This ceremony took place despite the fact that many of the Missouri’s crew had good reasons to despise the Japanese. The captain himself lost a close relative in battle earlier in the war.

Yet… they chose to do this anyway. Why? Simple, really: because they knew it was the right thing to do. And it was this attitude by the United States of America that made the subsequent 80 years, this unprecedented (granted, imperfect, but still unprecedented) period of peace and prosperity in which we live, which is sometimes rightfully called Pax Americana, possible.

Can we have this America back, please? An America that is generous, brave, courageous, fundamentally decent? As opposed to an America that is governed by grievance, petty resentments, nativism, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, outright bigotry?

And no, I do not have any illusions about 1940s America. It was a society that, in absolute terms, was far more racist, far more bigoted than the America of today. But it was heading in the right direction, and led the way for the whole world to follow towards that famed “shining city on the hill.” A city that, it seems, is rapidly becoming a ghost town nowadays.