Sic Temper Tyrannis

"Thus always to tyrants."  It is a phrase that has a long history that may have
begun with the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Unfortunately for those conspirators, the assassination did not save the Roman
Republic.

John Wilkes Booth was said to have uttered it when he assassinated Abraham Lincoln
in Ford's Theater.  The assassination did not restore the South, which had to endure
Reconstruction.

If you are to deal with a tyrant, you had better find something that can work.  The
good 'old USA managed to use the idea in the Revolutionary War and its aftermath.

A few of the states have used it as a motto.

The fight against tyranny is an old one indeed.  It has yet to be decided for all
time.  Indeed, one would wonder if tyranny is to be the permanent lot of human
beings.

No form of government is immune to this failing.  The Romans had a good system,
but it failed.  Indeed, the phrase itself had its genesis with the ancient virtue
of killing off tyrants.  It wasn't considered a crime.

Our own system in the good 'ol USA appears to be at risk, if one may be so bold
to claim.  It too has been a good system, with free speech, a federal government, and
a Bill of Rights which has fended off despotism so far.  Virtues which seem to be
under stress at this moment in time.

A government that criminalizes dissent isn't fit to govern a free people.  For
if a government is allowed to do so without accountability, the people are in danger
from an aspiring dictator.  The current drama before the public with respect to
the Trump administration and his opponents may seem like a replay of the Roman
spectacle with regards to Caesar.

There are those who cry wolf who may be sorry when the real wolf appears.  There
does appear to be too much crying of wolf.  Trump has governed with restraint.

So has his predecessors.  But there may come a day when this will no longer be
the case. 

The use of government resources to criminalize political opposition must stop.

Eventually it will stop, but when it does, we may be sorry to find that the result
will be a loss of freedom to the dictator who can manipulate this to his advantage.