Tale of a traitor: Is the famous betrayal of Benedict Arnold echoed in Michael Flynn?
TUESDAY, JUL 4, 2017 08:00 AM EDT
Tale of a traitor: Is the famous betrayal of Benedict Arnold echoed in Michael Flynn?
Embittered by rejection and in need of money, a general turns against his own country. Who are we talking about?
HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Ive heard dozens of people over the pre-Fourth of July weekend make the comment that the founders must be rolling over in their graves at the spectacle of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Maybe they are, but not because they are shocked at the spectacle of an incompetent leader. After all, at the time Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence they were dealing with the Donald Trump of his day: Mad King George. In fact, they pretty much wrote the Constitution with him in mind. And he wasnt the only one. There had been many European monarchs who were off their rockers, and much of the Enlightenment was informed by that fact.
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This comparison to Trump isnt an original thought, of course. Almost from the moment he took office people have been comparing him to the Mad King.
Last February in the New Republic, in the wake of the presidents bizarre first press conference, Jacob Bacharach surveyed unhinged rulers of the past from Caligula on down and recalled the 1994 film The Madness of King George, in which William Pitt, the prime minister, said:
<< We consider ourselves blessed in our constitution. We tell ourselves our Parliament is the envy of the world. But we live in the health and well-being of the sovereign as much as any vizier does the Sultan. >>
But the Trump administration isnt just evoking images of the Mad King on this Fourth of July. As it happens, one of the more interesting dramas of recent years about the revolutionary period is the AMC series
Turn: Washingtons Spies, about the famous Culper spy ring. Its a harrowing story of daring and bravery that I enjoyed very much when I was a kid, and it served as my introduction to the Revolutionary War.
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http://www.salon.com/2017/07/04/tale-of-a-traitor-is-the-famous-betrayal-of-benedict-arnold-echoed-in-michael-flynn/