Opinion

Opinion: The Rule of the American Optimates

Published

8 years ago

January 4, 2018

By Jeremy Cloward, Ph.D. and Makenna McDonald

In ancient Rome, Marcus Licinius Crassus was one of the richest men in Roman history and a member of the wealthy anti-democratic “political party” known as the Optimates.

Having already made his money through real estate speculation, he put down Spartacus’ slave revolt as Roman Consul and helped turn the Roman republic into an empire. The United States is already the world’s empire—more powerful than Rome ever was—and today we have our own Crassus who made his money in the exact same way as the wealthy Roman Consul once did. At the moment, we watch as he and his party try to undo the last good parts of our republic and turn the empire into the most powerful and brutal one ever known to man.

Consul Julies Caesar (100 BC–44 BC) and the Roman Senate where the Optimates and Populares competed for power.

Without a doubt, this demagogue who is so often mistaken as a populist by the media and the people, is trying to reverse the whole idea of Robin Hood by stealing from the poor to give to the rich while growing the military to heights never seen before and is daily making sure that he will go down as the most despised (and possibly the most dangerous) president in history.

In taking the whole notion of global capitalism and capital accumulation to their furthest extent—where just three men control more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined—he and the Republican Party have proposed to make life even easier for the “wealthiest among us” by cutting trillions of tax dollars for the rich over the next decade. The tax reductions will be paid for with deep cuts to our version of ancient Rome’s “grain dole”—our social welfare state. Yet, the military budget, which now stands at some $1.2 trillion and is greater than all other 194 countries combined, is unbelievably scheduled to be increased in 2018.

Much like the Emperor and Roman Senate in ancient Rome, the White House and the Republican Party are the center of power for billions of people throughout the world.

In the end, it is the rich and this radical version of the Republican Party (the Democrats aren’t much better) that are bankrupting the republic—and it is Trump, this “man against the people”—who is the most grotesque and extreme example of global capitalism and American power. However, even with him, what has become crystal clear to anyone with eyes to see is that his greatest threat to the world is not that of a man of wealth but instead a man who operates the levers of the most powerful nation to have ever existed with the mind of a child.

If we do nothing to end the rule of this modern-day Crassus and the American Optimates who are selling us all out then when the republic’s downfall finally does come there may well again be a bitter harvest—just as there was in the mid-1800s—for us all to reap. This time instead of slave against master it will be a massive-sized American poor that will be forced to rip the state and the productive forces of our society away from the rich and give them back to the people.

Jeremy Cloward, Ph.D. is the author of three books and multiple articles that have been published in Socialist Worker, Project Censored, and the East Bay Times. His college-level American Politics textbook, Class Power and the Political Economy of the American Political System, is currently being marketed to a national audience of political science professors throughout the country. Dr. Cloward has run for public office on three occasions (Congress 2009, 2010, and City Council 2012) and has appeared in a variety of media outlets, including FOX and the Pacifica Radio Network (KPFA). Today, Professor Cloward teaches political science in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Makenna McDonald is a 4.0 student at Diablo Valley College majoring in political science. She plans to enroll at UC Berkeley or UCLA in the fall of 2018 and eventually attend Bolt Law School to become a civil rights attorney. While she has worked on multiple political campaigns in the past this is her first article submitted for consideration for publication.

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Advice

COMMENTARY: If You Don’t Want Your ‘Black Card’ Revoked, Watch What You Bring to Holiday Dinners

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

Published

1 week ago

December 14, 2025

Oakland Post

The ‘aunties’ playing cards. iStock photo by Andreswd.

By Wanda Ravernell
Post Staff

From the fourth week of November to the first week in January, if you are of African descent, but particularly African American, certain violations of cultural etiquette will get your ‘Black card’ revoked.

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

It could take until Super Bowl Sunday for reinstatement.

I don’t know much about the card table, but for years I was on probation by the ‘Aunties,’ the givers and takers of Black cards.

How I Got into Trouble

It was 1970-something and I was influenced by the health food movement that emerged from the hippie era. A vegetarian (which was then considered sacrilegious by most Black people I knew) prepared me a simple meal: grated cheese over steamed broccoli, lentils, and brown rice.

I introduced the broccoli dish at the Friday night supper with my aunt and grandfather. She pronounced the bright green broccoli undone, but she ate it. (I did not, of course, try brown rice on them.)

I knew that I would be allowed back in the kitchen when she attempted the dish, but the broccoli had been cooked to death. (Y’all remember when ALL vegetables, not just greens, were cooked to mush?)

My Black card, which had been revoked was then reattained because they ate what I prepared and imitated it.

Over the decades, various transgressions have become normalized. I remember when having a smoked turkey neck instead of a ham hock in collard greens was greeted with mumblings and murmurings at both the dining room and card tables. Then came vegan versions with just olive oil (What? No Crisco? No bacon, at least?) and garlic. And now my husband stir fries his collards in a wok.

But No Matter How Things Have Changed…

At holiday meals, there are assigned tasks. Uncle Jack chopped raw onions when needed. Uncle Buddy made the fruit salad for Easter. My mother brought the greens in winter, macaroni salad in summer. Aunt Deanie did the macaroni and cheese, and the great aunts, my deceased grandmother’s sisters, oversaw the preparation of the roast beef, turkey, and ham. My father, if he were present, did the carving.

These designations/assignments were binding agreements that could stand up in a court of law. Do not violate the law of assignments by bringing some other version of a tried-and-true dish, even if you call it a new ‘cheese and noodle item’ to ‘try out.’ The auntie lawgivers know what you are trying to do. It’s called a menu coup d’état, and they are not having it.

The time for experiments is in your own home: your spouse and kids are the Guinea pigs.

My mother’s variation of a classic that I detested from that Sunday to the present was adding crushed pineapple to mashed sweet potatoes. A relative stops by, tries it, and then it can be introduced as an add-on to the standard holiday menu.

My Aunt Vivian’s concoctions from Good Housekeeping or Ladies’ Home Journal magazine also made it to the Black people’s tables all over the country in the form of a green bean casserole.

What Not to Do and How Did It Cross Your Mind?

People are, of all things holy, preparing mac ‘n’ cheese with so much sugar it tastes like custard with noodles in it.

Also showing up in the wrong places: raisins. Raisins have been reported in the stuffing (makes no sense unless it’s in a ‘sweet meats’ dish), in a pan of corn bread, and – heresy in the Black kitchen – the MAC ‘n’ CHEESE.

These are not mere allegations: There is photographic evidence of these Black card violations, but I don’t want to defame witnesses who remained present at the scene of the crimes.

The cook – bless his/her heart – was probably well-meaning, if ignorant. Maybe they got the idea from a social media influencer, much like Aunt Viv got recipes from magazines.

Thankfully, a long-winded blessing of the food at the table can give the wary attendee time to locate the oddity’s place on the table and plan accordingly.

But who knows? Innovation always prevails, for, as the old folks say, ‘waste makes want.’ What if the leftovers were cut up, dipped in breadcrumbs and deep fried? The next day, that dish might make it to the TV tray by the card table.

An older cousin – on her way to being an Auntie – in her bonnet, leggings, T-shirt, and bunny slippers and too tired to object, might try it and like it….

And if she ‘rubs your head’ after eating it, the new dish might be a winner and (Whew!) everybody, thanks God, keeps their Black cards.

Until the next time.