Why I Wrote Rubicon and What It Means

Right after September 11th, with New York and the country reeling under the destruction of the Twin Towers and the loss of three thousand lives, Rudy Giuliani suggested that the election to choose the next mayor be postponed so he could stay in office and continue to run the city.

Giuliani had become the face of both New York's and the nation's determination not to give in to fear or despair, and a great many people thought it only made sense to postpone a city election and let the mayor remain in power. Even Mark Green, normally an outspoken critic of the mayor and his administration, was quick to endorse the idea. But what would have happened, what might still happen, if a terrorist attack took place in the United States just before a presidential election? What would happen if in the course of that attack, one or more of the candidates for the presidency were killed?

If such a thing happened, if the presidential election could not be held, who would decide that, and, more ominously, who would decide when it was finally safe to choose the successor to the president then in office? Rubicon attempts to tell the story of what could happen if an administration, about to leave office, suddenly found itself with an opportunity to keep power for itself.

There is another set of questions, connected with the first; questions that go to the heart of the way America's position has changed in the world. The nation that began as a republic, determined to avoid the kind of "entangling alliances" that, in the judgment of men like Washington, had been the cause of so much war and misery in Europe, has now become a country with interests and military forces in every region of the world.

The American republic became the American empire, and it may now be time to wonder whether what happened two thousand years ago in Rome could happen here as well. It may be time to ask the question whether a republic that becomes an empire can remain a republic, or whether, convinced that what they are doing is necessary to protect the country, a president, or some small group around him, will try to make the power given them for a fixed term of office, their own permanent possession.

The age of the Roman emperors began after Rome became an empire, not before. Rome was still a republic when Caesar crossed the Rubicon and marched on what had become the capitol of the world. Though the words are put in the mouth of one of the main characters of the novel, and though the novel is of course a work of fiction, it may still be true, given the kind of gross deception used to get us into war, that, "We now stand before a Rubicon of our own. Cross it, and the American republic will be dead as well."

Are you sure it can't happen here? Even if you disagree with Rubicon, you might want to read it.

Comments

[DickTater]

I had the same sickening feeling in my gut starting Sept 12 and it has never gone away.