(1/x) A little history and politics. Folks looking for a science/chemistry thread can skip this one!
(2/x) The Roman Republic took quite a while going off the rails. But eventually (80 BC) a powerful politician and general (Sulla) took over in what can only be described as a military coup, to restore order.
(3/x) He was declared "dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution". The Republic had been very wary of every vesting power in a single leader, but here it was. He wasted no time exercising his powers.
(4/x) Wholesale deportation of his enemies, revamping the laws, changing the borders, and more. Some of it he explained as a reaction to what his own rivals had done before him, some as what was overdue and necessary anyway.
(5/x) And after about a year of absolute rule, he actually kept his promise and resigned. Started up the (soewhat reworked) Republic. Famously, he went out in public unguarded, offering to explain his actions to anyone, and retired to the country.
(6/x) Thirty years later, after much more turmoil and infighting, it was Julius Caesar's plan to seize power. You weren't supposed to march legions on Rome itself, of course. But Caesar crossed the Rubicon on the way in, saying "If Sulla did it, why can't I?"
(7/x) The norms had broken down, and had been breaking down for a long time. Once exceptions had been made, it was easier to make them again. Wasn't it an emergency? Didn't the situation justify such things? It would only be for a while.
(8/x) By the time Caesar's protege Augustus became Emperor, he still made noises about protecting and restoring the Republic. But it had been dead for quite a while. He stayed in power for decades; eventually there were few living Romans who remembered anything else.
(9/x) Making exceptions. We're doing it now, in smaller and not-so-smaller things. E.g., Trump, as a candidate, never released his finances. Or any real health records. So why should anyone else? Sanders has already blithely gone back on the latter. Why not?
(10/x) Why not keep breaking the other norms we've seen broken the last few years? Who's to say no? "If Trump could do it, why can't I?" Then you can break a few more, because everyone's used to it by now. And whoever follows you now has an even easier path.
(11/11) Norms and rules are important. Once you start bending them, breaking them, ignoring them, it's hard to get back to the way things were before. Will we? Are we even seriously trying to? Something to think about, unpleasant but important. . .
