“I would rather lose my freedom than surrender to this group of thugs, tyrants, and fascist scoundrels.” – The Donald, recent CPAC speech.

T(hat was once a common American attitude. It is exemplified by a now-often-disrespected New Hampshire motto: “Live free or die.” But back to looking at martyrs.)

Persecution and even killing generally works so well in defeating your enemies. Particularly political and religious. Especially when you go after their leadership, their icons. Of course, we are being sarcastic.

We don’t like Trump, here at TPOL. (Nor do we like RFK Jr, Uncle Joe, the Greens’ Steom, the dictators of California or Florida or Texas, etc.) But this use of lawfare against The Donald is rapidly turning the man into a living martyr. Latest? The State of Illinois has declared he can’t be on their ballots. Latest of three States, and no doubt with more to come. And of course, the first criminal trial of a former US President has started in New York.

(Uncle Joe’s frequent attacks on “my predecessor” in his State of the Union (a constitutionally-mandated report to Congress) is yet another example of the rapid decline of political matters and dialogue in the States.)

Every time this happens, Trump wins more adherents to his MAGA mark 2.0 cause. As with lawsuits and criminal charges and black robes and elected/imported shysters prosecuting him. Persecuting him. The numbers keep creeping up.

The historical truth is that persecution and assassination and other types of killing off enemy leaders, even if you keep doing it over and over, often fail. Perhaps even generally fail.

Go back to the events of Exodus. The Egyptian king ordered that the male babies of Israelites be killed at birth. The terms of their slavery were made more harsh. It took eighty years, but ultimately the Egyptian state was shattered, the slaves liberated. (Spoiler: it did take divine intervention.) We see the same sequence of events in Saul’s battle with David, in Haman’s vendetta against Jews in the Medo-Persian Empire, and the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids.

But the track record is not just limited to ancient times and Hebrews. We can see the attempts of the Roman Dominate (Note 1) emperors to suppress the followers of Jesus. The Islamic occupation of Iberia for nearly 800 years. The suppression of “old believers” and then of Protestants by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and Catholic rulers.

Of course, none of these historical facts is a deterrent to the people who fear others so much that they must abuse, imprison, and kill them without any real justification. (Like those who continue to push communism and socialism: “We’ll make it work this time!”)

Humans tend to be weird across the spectrum, though. Logically, the fact that people are killed for what they believe is supposed to make you think very hard before risking that belief. (Unless you are a strong believer in eternal salvation, of course: life after physical death.) But it does not seem to work that way. People see someone willing to give their life, their fortunes, their sacred honor, and their liberty for a cause? Many are drawn to that cause just because of seeing that.

And those who persecute people for their adherence to a cause, or merely because they dislike or hate them for real or perceived reasons? They are no more rational than the true believers in what they are trying to suppress.

NOTE 1: In the Roman Empire, the Principate and the Dominate are two different periods of Imperial rule. The earlier Principate was more ‘republican’ and the real autocratic rule by the Emperor was still masked by forms of the oligarchic system of the Roman Republic before Augustus took power. The later Dominate was more authoritarian, less collegiate and more bureaucratic than the Principate. The term Dominate is derived from the Latin dominus, which translates into English as lord or master.

NOTE 2: Is it crass and crude to point out that as Uncle Joe keeps going downhill, he is less and less useful to the Dems and the Deep-Staters and the GOP never-Trumpers? Of course, there is one last useful thing he might do for them: become a martyr. Just asking!