The Caligula of the 21st century
I was inspired to write this by The Creepy Similarities Between George W. Bush and Vlad the Impaler, by Marc McDonald. This piece of writing made some interesting points, but there's a fundamental problem with this comparison: although Vlad the Impaler had many serious faults as a human being, nobody ever accused him of being a coward.
It says elsewhere in this blog that George W. Bush is the Caligula of the 21st century. I didn't come up with this idea on my own; I got it from the Goddess of Talk Radio, Randi Rhodes. Randi made this accusation while discussing the subject of torture. The similarities go a lot further, and here's the list I came up with. (Disclaimer: I'm not a hard-core student of ancient Roman history; most of the information presented here about Caligula came from Wikipedia.)
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Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (a.k.a. Caligula) |
George W. Bush |
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Believed that he was a god. |
Convinced the Religious Right that he would represent their interests, an even greater stretch. |
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Tried to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul. |
Appointed Michael Brown, Judges and Stewards Commissioner of the Arabian Horse Association, as Director of FEMA. |
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Ordered arbitrary arrests and confinement. |
Suspended habeas corpus. |
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Sent troops on illogical military exercises. |
Sent troops on illogical military exercises. |
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Used mercenaries for foreign wars as well as personal bodyguards. |
Used mercenaries for foreign wars. |
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Exhausted the treasury with political payments for support, generosity and extravagance. |
Increased the national debt by three trillion dollars. |
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An eager witness of torture and executions. |
Violated international treaties on torture, approved executions of juvenile offenders and mentally retarded people. |
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Made his palace into a brothel, committed incest with and prostituted his sisters. |
Barney Frank, Mark Foley, Larry Craig... |
Randi Rhodes' Bush/Caligula comparison was made on her program on Nov. 15, 2005. If you can send me a transcript or a link to a recording of this program, I will be very grateful.