As disgusting a human being as the Roman emperor Nero became, many in Rome’s lower class mourned his death because “he had been as generous to the poor as he had been recklessly cruel to the great,” as historian Will Durant wrote in Caesar and Christ (1944).
But “generosity to the poor” was just politics. In truth, there was one thing Nero genuinely cared about above all else: Nero.
In fact in 64 AD, Nero proposed a grand idea to the Senate that would improve a very built-out city of Rome. He wanted to tear down structures in a third of the city to build back better with a glorious series of villas, pavilions, and palaces. He suggested that history remember the new city as Neropolis.
The senate said no.
That summer, mysteriously, a fire broke out in the highly combustible shops lining the Circus Maximus near the Caelian and Palatine Hills of Rome. The fire grew to an inferno that raged for six days. It was brought under control, then reignited somehow and burned for three more days, scorching an even wider area. This was the Great Fire of Rome.
Strangely, as terrified residents scrambled from their wooden shacks onto skinny streets and packed alleys, a gang of thugs threw torches on the blaze and threatened to torture anyone who fought the fire. They were under orders, they said.
Nero was miles away at a coastal resort when the fire broke. It was plausible deniability. He returned just in time to see the Palatine palaces engulfed. Rumors spread that as the fired raged, a gleeful Nero was seen watching from the Tower of Maecenas on the Esquiline Hill and fiddling as he sang lyrics from The Sack of Troy.
When the smoke settled, two thirds of Rome – 10 of its 14 districts – was either destroyed or severely damaged. Structures that had been around for 800 years were in ruins. Thousands lost their lives.
But no fear, Nero returned to Rome to head the relief effort. He graciously allowed his new homeless to camp in open spaces, gardens, and public buildings. He gave them food from neighboring towns and cut the price of corn. He promised that their homes would be built back with better designs and fireproof.
Who lit Rome’s greatest fire? The wildly unpopular Chrestiani, according to Nero – a “superstitious” Jewish sect that we call Christians. And so began the vicious persecution of Christians in Rome that, thanks to Nero, lasted for the next hundred years.
After the debris was cleared out, Nero had room to build his 100-acre Domus Aurea (Golden House) – a magnificent series of villas and pavilions sprawled over a lush, manicured park with a man-made lake. His masterstroke? A 100-foot statue of himself – the Colossus of Nero.
While Biden is nowhere near the murderous megalomaniac that Nero was, his chase for glory by any means necessary is eerily similar. Biden has a self-centered lust to be remembered in history. He’s willing to create a crisis to get there. He uses “plausible deniability” to hide his culpability for the crisis he created. And he blames, demonizes, and criminalizes others for causing the crisis.
From his decades of lying about his background, to his addictive plagiarism, to his hair-trigger “Corn Pop” cockiness, it’s clear that Joe Biden burns to “be somebody” – to have distinction. In his declined state as president, “being somebody” is all he’s got now, and he’s putting what’s left of his “whole soul into it.” And time is running out. His patience is running out. The 2022 midterms cometh.
Which is a perfect checkmate for his dark puppeteers. So Biden has put up the power of the presidency for a Faustian bargain: “Just do what we say, and we’ll get you in the history books.”
So under the guise of emergencies, Biden has set about burning down America’s institutional structures – Nero-style – with the dream that he can rebuild some colossal monument to himself. He’ll never take “no” for an answer. Laws don’t matter. The people’s consent doesn’t matter. Polls don’t matter. Loss, suffering and death doesn’t matter.
Biden has become a delusional dictator who rules history’s most productive republic from a White House that’s being run like an assisted living home. It’s sad. It’s tragic. And it’s extremely dangerous for America. The country is unrecognizable.
Border protection, consent of the governed, right to redress of grievances, the rule of law, the justice system, checks and balances, race relations, the military, the medical system, the election system, and capitalism is either being destroyed or severely damaged. Institutional structures that were erected in America in the 18th century are in ruins.
As Biden sleeps through the inferno, awaking only to tinker on a legacy that’s never coming, his dark puppeteers fiddle as the country burns.
Fortunate for ancient Rome, Nero did not destroy the empire. Rome, not yet conquered from within, survived after Nero for centuries. Sick of covering for him for years, his own Praetorian Guard turned against him. The Senate proclaimed Galba emperor. They proclaimed Nero a public enemy. On learning his fate, Nero committed suicide.
After the short reigns of three emperors – Galba, Otho, and Vitellius – the highly capable and honorable Vespasian re-established a strong constitutional government.
Abraham Lincoln warned us about the danger from men of unbridled ambition in his 1838 Lyceum speech. Given human nature, it was something to be expected and dealt with accordingly.
Some men’s ambition, said Lincoln, “scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen.”
Lincoln had a remedy.
“And when such a one does [spring up], it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.”
The designs of Biden and his dark puppeteers will be frustrated, at some point. We don’t yet know how, but we’re Americans for God’s sake, we’ll figure it out! There’s just far too many of us who are saying, “Enough is enough!”
When that happens, Biden’s sick regime will have been an annoying blip in the never-ending story of America. And like Nero, except for a sad wag of the head, he will be all but forgotten.