Following is a brief foray into history and a moral for our times.
In about the third decade of the current era, in the Middle East, the Jewish Nation was being ruled by the Roman Empire. The Jewish people waited longingly for the arrival of their prophesied Messiah, a military leader who would lift the yoke of Roman oppression from their necks. On the other hand, the Jewish leadership, in order to maintain their power, worked closely with the Romans.
At that time there appeared a charismatic rabbi preaching a new form of Judaism and his growing popularity was seen as a threat by the established religious hierarchy. In a relatively short period of time the leader of the new movement came to be seen as the coming of the promised Messiah. In order to counter this rapidly increasing sect the Jewish establishment colluded with Rome’s local governing body to eliminate the leader of the movement.
And so it was that Jesus was crucified, leaving his closest followers, his twelve apostles, to carry on the work. They spread out across the region, teaching the love, the death and the resurrection of Christ. They succeeded to the point that the Roman Empire itself began to feel threatened and launched an official persecution of the group, now identified as “Christians.”
Despite the effort to squelch the movement, Christianity continued to flourish and grow. At last, in the year 313, the emperor Constantine signed the Edict of Milan ending the persecution of Christians. While he did not, as is popularly believed, adopt Christianity as the state religion, his action did allow it to be practiced openly throughout the empire.
Constantine died in 337 and it was the Emperor Theodosius, in 380, who signed the Edict of Thessalonica making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.
Fast forward to our time. The upstart religious sect that the Jews and the Romans set out to abolish through the destruction of one man has grown significantly. The mighty Roman Empire has long been in the dust bin of history, the Jewish population on the planet numbers some 14.6 million but the Christians have grown to 2.3 billion followers and are to be found in every corner of the world.
The history is religious, the moral is secular. When you set out to end a popular movement by destroying it’s leader, be very careful to not increase that leader’s appeal by making him a martyr for his cause.
rixlibris 
Makes you wonder if ignoring a certain “leader” in the first place might have landed him in obscurity before it all began.
Hope you’re well, Rick.
Thanks for the well wishes and your thought provoking comment. Would that the political scene were that simple. The problems facing America are neither partisan nor of recent origin. It took the emergence of a Donald Trump to cast light upon that which has been metastasizing for more than a decade, the growth of the American corruptocracy. Elective and appointed offices in the Federal Government have become one of the fastest paths to great wealth and the possibility of large illicit gains will inevitably attract corrupt people. The subject is far too complicated to address in this space, perhaps another blog posting.
This is what I’ve heard from other sources – that Trump was more the straw that broke the camel’s back than anything. He sure seemed to have hurried it up, though.
But I’m a Canadian, and before DT came along, I honestly had no idea what the difference was between a Democrat and a Republican. Politics in general were something I barely paid attention to.
A lot of people, like me, are paying attention now. I hope it works out for all of you down there.
This contested presidential election of ours is not a local event, it is a global game changer. This is evidenced by the participation of so many globalist billionaires who control the media and the social networks. I can understand their involvement, it’s to protect their sources of power and income but I have never understood the irrational hatred that they have been able to generate among the rank and file citizens. Hatred and Anger are negative emotions with no redeeming characteristics so how is it that anyone can hate someone who has never and will never have any personal impact on their lives? And how many of these haters have ever bothered to investigate the propaganda that has engendered their hatred? In doing so they might learn that they have been used by the oligarchy to fatten their coffers and increase their power over those selfsame haters. Just sayin’.