In a time of celebrity-obsession in which those who pose as leaders strut, preen and are distracted from the difficult task of governing over concern of their "legacies," the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley may have something to tell us in his work called Ozymandias.Ozymandias is a secondary name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. Shelley's theme of decay and ruin in the sonnet may be seen as a warning to leaders who would seek to immortalize themselves through great works and monuments, whereby future generations would shout hosannas to their names. To the contrary, however, their fame is likely to be as lasting as that of Ozymandias, whose legacy in the present is merely a pile of stones, perhaps viewed by tourists who are not even conversant with his name.
In the United States, the concept of the "Imperial Presidency" threatens the very foundations of our Constitutional Republic. If we seek to confer responsibility for this state of affairs, we need look no further than ourselves, for it is we who have allowed the Republic to fall into the hands of individuals whose extreme vanity means that they are out of their depth in presiding over and preserving an exceptional nation governed by the most enduring written constitution in the history of the world. If our present course is not altered, the ruin and decay that awaits all things human may come sooner than later.
Deo Vindice!
God bless Texas, and may the Lone Star State remain forever red!
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