Plato and Locke on the Tyranny of Donald Trump

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Political philosophy is irrelevant if it has no application to present day moral problems.  The problem I want to discuss is tyranny, specifically the possible tyranny of President Donald J. Trump, using standards recommended by the great philosophers Plato and John Locke.

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates makes several observations about tyrants.  Here are two criteria that seem to apply to Trump.  First, the tyrant will destroy any “freethinking” person who he suspects of rejecting his rule.  He does this by rigging false accusations against them, taking them to court, and having them legally “murdered” (567).  Trump has certainly leveled hundreds of false accusations against those who oppose him, taking many of these people to civil court, but he has not yet engineered a criminal conviction and execution of anyone (that we know of).  Second, the tyrant will use the “sacred treasuries in the city for as long as they last, as well as the property of those he has destroyed” (568d).  Trump’s expenses for going to his weekend golfing getaways in Florida are a fiscal abuse ($13.5 million in 2017), but what is worse is the blatant use of the office of president for self-enrichment, flaunting the emolument clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In chapter XIX of Second Treatise of Government, John Locke provides numerous criteria for identifying tyranny. most of which do not seem to apply here.  But there are two criteria that should worry us (Locke uses the word “prince” to describe the chief executive of a commonwealth).  First, the tyrannical prince is one who interferes with the election of the legislative “without the consent, and contrary to the common interest of the people” (§216).  We see this happening with Trump’s constant drumbeat of false claims about the “millions of people” who cast fraudulent votes in the last election, and his unrelenting attacks on the press (who he calls “enemies of the people”).   Second, and the most damaging alteration of executive power of all, the tyrannical prince might deliver the people “into the subjection of a foreign power” (§217).  We see hints of this in Trump’s constant deference to Vladimir Putin, the Russian head of state.  It may not be subjection in the strong sense of loss of sovereignty, but Trump's refusal to take seriously the extent and damage of Russian interference in U.S. elections is a step toward the loss of our sovereignty.

[Learn more about Plato and John Locke in the two books you see above.  Go to HoulgateBooks.com]