The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Adam Smith

In many governments the candidates for the highest stations are above the law; and, if they can attain the object of their ambition, they have no fear of being called to account for the means by which they acquired it. They often endeavour, therefore, not only by fraud and falsehood, the ordinary and vulgar arts of intrigue and cabal; but sometimes by the perpetration of the most enormous crimes, by murder and assassination, by rebellion and civil war, to supplant and destroy those who oppose or stand in the way of their greatness. They more frequently miscarry than succeed; and commonly gain nothing but the disgraceful punishment which is due to their crimes. But, though they should be so lucky as to attain that wished-for greatness, they are always most miserably disappointed in the happiness which they expect to enjoy in it. It is not ease or pleasure, but always honour, of one kind or another, though frequently an honour very ill understood, that the ambitious man really pursues. But the honour of his exalted station appears, both in his own eyes and in those of other people, polluted and defiled by the baseness of the means through which he rose to it.

Though by the profusion of every liberal expence; though by excessive indulgence in every profligate pleasure, the wretched, but usual, resource of ruined characters; though by the hurry of public business, or by the prouder and more dazzling tumult of war, he may endeavour to efface, both from his own memory and from that of other people, the remembrance of what he has done; that remembrance never fails to pursue him. He invokes in vain the dark and dismal powers of forgetfulness and oblivion. He remembers himself what he has done, and that remembrance tells him that other people must likewise remember it. Amidst all the gaudy pomp of the most ostentatious greatness; amidst the venal and vile adulation of the great and of the learned; amidst the more innocent, though more foolish, acclamations of the common people; amidst all the pride of conquest and the triumph of successful war, he is still secretly pursued by the avenging furies of shame and remorse; and, while glory seems to surround him on all sides, he himself, in his own imagination, sees black and foul infamy fast pursuing him, and every moment ready to overtake him from behind. Even the great Caesar, though he had the magnanimity to dismiss his guards, could not dismiss his suspicions. 

The remembrance of Pharsalia still haunted and pursued him. When, at the request of the senate, he had the generosity to pardon Marcellus, he told that assembly, that he was not unaware of the designs which were carrying on against his life; but that, as he had lived long enough both for nature and for glory, he was contented to die, and therefore despised all conspiracies. He had, perhaps, lived long enough for nature. But the man who felt himself the object of such deadly resentment, from those whose favour he wished to gain, and whom he still wished to consider as his friends, had certainly lived too long for real glory; or for all the happiness which he could ever hope to enjoy in the love and esteem of his equals.

With customary avidity the public’s eyes are upon Donald J. Trump as he squirms in his Mar-A-Lago confinement. It is reminiscent of the bloody glee of the masses watching a bull fight or the historic Roman gladiators.

They are gladiators, men who fight to the death for the enjoyment of others. As the two gladiators circle each other, each knows that his objective is to maim or trap his opponent rather than to kill him quickly. What’s more, the fight must last long enough to please the crowd.

I have always maintained that Trump is but the puppet of the people with the real power and money though, by his unscrupulous means, he most certainly has achieved the model of lavishness which entertains the salivating appetite of the public. Though he satisfies the credentials of a TV personality or a circus ringmaster, he most evidently hasn’t the intelligence or capacity for leadership. If he has achieved any recommendation it is that of a mobster, a bully, a miscreant and an incomparable vulgarity.

The monied interests which were once behind Trump for their own objectives of favourable taxation and exposition of their putative religious principles have precipitously evaporated. He’s a loser. Left behind are a trail of pusillanimous and sycophantic nobodies who continue to grovel in hopes of preserving their personal interests (which invariably have little if anything to do with the masses from whom they have spent a lifetime distancing themselves except for ulterior purposes).

Already whispers of favourability for political leadership has switched to the less tarsome and more gentile figure of Ron DeSantisn (a graduate of Yale University and Harvard law school). Trump is a defeated member of theatrical amusement only. Even his own daughter has abandoned him in what for Trump would normally be so egregious a publication as to invite the hottest of childish rebuke but of which blatant misbehaviour he acquitted himself only because he knew the backlash would be pathetic.

The recovery of his former militia, the Grand Old Party, is distractingly uncertain. The capitalist backbone of America has a long road ahead to re-establish themselves with any eligibility to the majority of Americans who, unlike those in the GOP, have long propelled themselves and their flag by radically different propriety than the vain and lascivious Trump. The so-called evangelicals have been uncommonly quiet about Trump who after all has exhausted his utility to them as well. It is laughable to witness the incremental gear change at FOX NEWS where the overly painted faces of injectable dermal fillers have patently transitioned to a new retail theme. Trump has dissolved to a mere lower banner excitement. This is extremely important.  He survives upon publicity only; there is nothing other of substance to him. Without the background of notoriety he is dead in the water.