{"id":13533,"date":"2025-10-17T13:07:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/?p=13533"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:09:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:09:26","slug":"hitler-or-caesar-william-shakespeare-on-donald-j-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/10\/17\/hitler-or-caesar-william-shakespeare-on-donald-j-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitler or Caesar? William Shakespeare on Donald J. Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julius Caesar<\/strong>, Act I, Scene II (emphases added)<\/span><\/p>\n

William Shakespeare<\/a><\/p>\n

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1564 \u2013 1616<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Cassius speaks to Brutus<\/em><\/p>\n

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world<\/strong>
\nLike a Colossus,<\/strong> and we petty men
\nWalk under his huge legs and peep about
\nTo find ourselves dishonorable graves.
\nMen at some time are masters of their fates.
\nThe fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
\nBut in ourselves, that we are underlings.
\n\u201cBrutus\u201d and \u201cCaesar\u201d\u2014what should be in that \u201cCaesar\u201d?
\nWhy should that name be sounded more than yours?
\nWrite them together, yours is as fair a name;
\nSound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
\nWeigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with \u2019em,
\n\u201cBrutus\u201d will start a spirit as soon as \u201cCaesar.\u201d
\nNow, in the names of all the gods at once,
\nUpon what meat doth this our Caesar feed<\/strong>
\nThat he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!<\/strong>
\nRome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
\nWhen could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
\nThat her wide walks encompassed but one man?
\nNow is it Rome indeed, and room enough
\nWhen there is in it but only one man.
\nO, you and I have heard our fathers say
\nThere was a Brutus once that would have brooked
\nTh\u2019 eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
\nAs easily as a king.<\/p>\n

But: “Pride\u00a0goeth<\/i> before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs<\/strong>, 16:18. May the Lord spare him Caesar’s fate. “Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look.”<\/span><\/p>\n

His enemies are coming around, albeit partially and grudgingly.\u00a0 Are we mortals too much impressed by success and power? But so far, so good. Can you imagine any Democrat, let alone the foolish Kamala Harris standing up to alpha males such as Xi and Putin?\u00a0 Politics is not performative but practical: not a matter of perfect versus imperfect, but of better versus worse. He who lets the best become the enemy of the good will get neither.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Age, thou art shamed!<\/strong>\u00a0 Old age or this historical period? Both?<\/span><\/p>\n

That silly goose Nancy Pelosi foolishly opined that Joey Biden is Mt. Rushmore material.\u00a0 No Nancy, but Trump is.\u00a0 Third in line behind Washington and Lincoln as historian Newt Gingrich has plausibly opined. But time will tell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II (emphases added) William Shakespeare 1564 \u2013 1616 Cassius speaks to Brutus Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The … Continue reading “Hitler or Caesar? William Shakespeare on Donald J. Trump”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,27,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-matters","category-maga-matters","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13536,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13533\/revisions\/13536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}