Cable news pundits are always trying to catch up with Donald’s intentions and tactics; they are bewildered by the lack of manners and sophistication. The pundits are always chasing Donald rather than knowing how Donald and his troops will behave. When Donald the Drumpf says there will be riots, riots is what will happen. His troops have no sense of decorum; it is a battle to install Donald as President. The pundits need only be familiar with several battles in history where the government was overthrown.

One of mariner’s favorite names in history is Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce is the Scottish Overlord (king) who gained Scottish independence from England during the fourteenth century. He lived a life of intrigue, murder, war, and marriage worthy of a PBS series. His armies were made up more by scoundrels than by organized defenders of fiefdoms. The comparison to Donald’s situation is that there is no decorum. The troops will enjoy physical conflict and destruction – that’s the whole point of his campaign.

Another conflict that often comes to mariner’s mind is the French Revolution, a drawn out affair in the midst of the Enlightenment when philosophers and political observers began to challenge absolute rule by a monarchy and suggested ideas like democracy, liberalism, nationalism, and socialism (does that sound familiar?). Leading up to the revolution years were growing ideas about a role for the bourgeois (citizenry) versus rule by the French Nobility (billionaires). Thanks in large part to the ineptitude of Louis XVI, recession and food shortages lead to what today would be called national bankruptcy.

Throughout the mid 1700’s, King Louie held the conservative line and forced commodity prices higher to sustain France’s GNP but did not provide income to the citizenry (recession). Further, in the midst of the failing economy, Louie recognized the colonial United States and joined the war on their side against the British – putting more strain on France’s economy (Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria). Further, England was invading French soil (China, economically).

Finally, in 1791, Louis XVI accepts a new constitution (Republican party accepts Donald) but the war has only begun. The new government is inexperienced at governing and proves to be incompetent (Donald the Drumpf). In 1793 the beheadings begin. If the reader is looking for Joan of Arc, she was in the Hundred Years War defending Charles VII, eventually captured by the British and burned at the stake in 1431.

The mariner feels the press is making a mistake assuming they are part of the establishment (billionaires for whom they work) when they should be on the sidelines presenting an accurate description of a cultural war between old school capitalism and a new cultural and economic requirement to infuse more socialism into the philosophy of government (sound like another Enlightenment?)

Ancient Mariner