The Fall of the Roman Republic and the Fall of the American Republic

The founders of the United States had the Roman Republic in mind as they were designing our fair democracy. To an extent, the United States was modeled after Rome and there are many parallels between the two peoples and governments. Unfortunately, we seem to be following Rome down another path, and that’s the road from a vibrant republic to autocracy. Or more likely, to some sort of illiberal fake democracy.

We often imagine the fall of the Roman Republic as happening when one man, Julius Caesar, took unprecedented action to cross the Rubicon with his army and take down the republic. But that is a misleading story. The Roman Republic wasn’t going strong before it suddenly fell. Caesar’s actions were not unprecedented. Roman society and institutions were weakening for over a hundred years.

The actions of many politicians, and the masses, led to a breakdown in society and in the republican norms of government. The focus became less on compromise, fair governing, and respecting the process; and more on: power at all costs, achieving one’s ends however possible, using any trick in the law even if it went against the spirit of the institutions and the norms therein, and ultimately breaking any laws that got in one’s way.

If you’re paying attention to U.S. politics, this should all sound familiar to you. There’s a story that while leaving the Constitutional Convention, US founder Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government they created, and…