Many in Washington have begun to speak the language of war. Republicans tell us we are fighting for the Constitution, for the culture, and for the future of the country. That rhetoric alone marks a welcome change. For decades, American politics has been treated as a technocratic dispute among credentialed elites, where process matters more than outcomes and elections merely decide if the managerial state has to occasionally mount some resistance against GOP political appointees.
Yet, there exists a harmful disconnect between rhetoric and behavior. While Republican leaders increasingly talk like participants in an existential struggle, they continue to govern like caretakers of the status quo. They campaign like insurgents, but legislate like custodians.
This contradiction is heightened with talk of a “Golden Age,” a phrase often invoked as a form of reassurance or a fulfilled prophecy. Republicans, though, are mistaken: we are not in a Golden Age. Augustus did not declare the Pax Romana in the middle of a civil war, let alone a cold one like ours. It was named after power had been consolidated and institutions reshaped. Golden ages follow conquest; they don’t precede it.
The Pax Americana will come after victory is achieved, not before it.
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