jamesenge | CW: Trumpolatry

Many things about Trumpism are disgusting, but there’s a specific kind of abject ecstacy in Trumpolatry that is really repulsive. “It’s like something from Tacitus,” I always think. Today I ran across the quote I’d been not-quite remembering.

clamor vocesque vulgi ex more adulandi nimiae et falsae: quasi dictatorem Caesarem aut imperatorem Augustum prosequerentur, ita studiis votisque certabant, nec metu aut amore, sed ex libidine servitii.

—Tacitus, Historiae 1.90

“The shouting and the slogans of the crowd were over-the-top and dishonest—as if they were honoring the dictator Julius or the emperor Augustus. They were competing with worship and prayers not from fear or love, but from the lust of servitude.”

Libido servitii “the lust of servitude”: that’s the behavior of Trumpists (e.g. Howard Lutnick, Jeanine Pirro, Pam Bondi, etc) in a nutshell. (The crowd in the quote is an assembly summoned by the usurper Otho, much like a Trumpist rally.)

When Howard Lutnick raises his chin and moans in bearded ecstacy about the glories of “this president”, I hear echoes of that rally for Otho almost 2000 years ago.

Otho was emperor for about four months. Just tossing that out there.