Bethel Park One of the defining characteristics of ancient Rome’s late Republic was the saturation of domestic politics with international politics. It began with Roman tribunes such as Lucius Apuleius Saturninus and Marcus Livius Drusus representing – whether out of principle or profit at this distance in time is hard to say – the interests not of Roman citizens (as the tribunes were supposed to do), but the Italian allies of Rome, who did not have citizenship rights. (The assassination of Drusus touched off the Roman Social War). Because Rome was so powerful, any interest group in the whole Mediterranean found it worthwhile to curry favor in Rome, and Roman politicians looking to make a name for themselves were the ones most likely to take up the cause. Cicero himself got his start defending the interests of Sicilians, who were not citizens. When Jugurtha visited Rome to enlist support for his claim to the throne of Numidia, he called Rome “a city for sale, doomed the day it finds a buyer” (urbem venalem et mature perituram si emptorem invenerit).” Ptolemy the Piper funneled cash into Rome for decades buying up politicians, as did his daughter, Cleopatra. The thrones of Numidia and Egypt – and everywhere else – became issues of partisan contention in Roman politics, divided along party lines.
buy prednisone cream All of this is just an oblique way of commenting on how clearly the same phenomenon is occurring in American politics today. Our relations with Iran, or Israel, are turning into national, domestic issues, and national politicians are taking stands along partisan lines on international issues. This has been going on for awhile, but it is fundamentally corrosive and it appears to be getting worse. Outside issues, and outside money, become intensifiers in national partisan battles. It is fundamentally decadent because it is a disjuncture between a source of power and the arena in which it is wielded: a man can get elected in Arkansas because his family has been important in the hog business for decades, but then his greatest power might be steering the future of Iraq, or Syria, or Israel, or Iran. The chances that this will work out well is very slim.
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