The first important point to be realized in viewing the present American crisis from Athens is that Athenian democracy excluded categories of people similar to those today’s Trumpists seek to subordinate: women, the foreign born, and slaves. Misogyny ran through the fabric of ancient Athens, as it does through the veins of Donald Trump and the white male supremacists who comprise the shock troops of his anti-American movement. Aristotle classified a female as a “deformed male.” In Athens during its golden age, women were totally excluded from public life. Some parallels with the current American president are clear, though Alcibiades, unlike Trump, actually was a military leader. I interpreted to mean: “It is up to the American people to determine what their future will be.”

Source: Huffington Post August 19, 2017 12:22 UTC