he last refuge of a scoundrel.” This is how the 18th century English writer described opportunistic patriotism, according to his disciple and biographer James Boswell. In his magnificent book The Life of Samuel Johnson, that Scottish aristocrat attributed to his teacher having said that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” A phrase of immense use in understanding so many unscrupulous characters who had power throughout history. The word “homeland” begins to echo in the mouth of certain leaders, when some serious event begins to undermine their power and diminish their popularity.
The list would be endless, it would include characters like Galtieri causing more Argentines to die for the dictatorship when it tried to perpetuate itself in power with the Malvinas War and, apparently, another name will be added shortly: Donald John Trump. That the Malvinas have been invaded and usurped by the United Kingdom does not imply that that dictator had a solid and coherent motivation to launch that war at that time. His motivation was personal and group: to save the criminal dictatorship from the tide of discontent that was growing in society.
There is also no doubt that the bloody Hamas pogrom against agricultural villages in southern Israel was an immensely criminal act, but that does not justify the war crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, where Netanyahu found a “patriotic” hideout to protect himself from the legal cases that threaten him.
In Venezuela, a dictatorship of unpresentable louts reigns that no one in the region would defend, except, perhaps, those leaders who in their respective countries received torrents of petrodollars to elevate Hugo Chávez as leader of Latin America. In short, the fall of a couple of scoundrels, like Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, along with the military regime whose repression murdered, imprisoned, tortured and expelled millions of Venezuelans from the country, will not sadden anyone who has not enriched themselves from the succulent clandestine coffers of the regime and from the plundering of PDVSA.
But if the fall of that calamitous dictatorship is at the price of a war in South America launched by the United States, the situation becomes controversial and dangerous. The White House has already named the armed conflict that Trump needs to avoid a series of problems that are cornering him. ”’Operation Southern Lance is called what the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, defined as the instrument to “defend our homeland… expel narco-terrorists… and protect our homeland from drugs.”
Twice the word “homeland” in a short paragraph seems to reveal one of the intentions of the New York magnate, who in his own city was defeated at the polls by his absolute opposite: the socialist and Muslim immigrant Zohran Mamdani. That eight Democratic senators have betrayed party discipline so that the Republicans can reopen the government after the longest shutdown in history, does not hide from ordinary Americans that the shutdown was prolonged due to Trump’s intransigence with his cut to the financing of health plans for vulnerable sectors.
It was not Democratic sabotage as the president described. The opposition offered to give in to its positions to reach a negotiated solution. It was in the Oval Office where the order was issued not to give up a penny in the presented budget. Polls had been showing a sharp drop in the president’s approval. Critical voices began to be heard in the Republican Party.
The megamillion-dollar bailout with which he saved Javier Milei from a financial collapse and an electoral defeat earned him a lot of criticism from the conservative side. Even the far-right congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, ended up fighting with the leader she idolized. And in the MAGA movement itself, another very dark event is beginning to make noise: the Epstein case. That in Great Britain a member of the House of Windsor lost the rank of prince and Duke of York, as well as the right to reside in Royal Lodge, was echoed in the United States.
In recent decades, many princes ceased to be princes in Europe. Before abdicating the throne of Denmark to Frederick But it was not out of contempt or anger towards his grandchildren, but rather to reduce the costs of royalty in the face of societies increasingly attentive to the weight of the monarchy on the public coffers.
The royal houses of Sweden, Norway and Spain also reduced the number of princes to lower costs to the state. The grandchildren of Carl Gustav of Sweden went from princes to dukes and duchesses. The nephews of William of Orange ceased to be princes of the Netherlands. And Felipe VI reduced the Spanish royal house to six members: he, Queen Leticia, their daughters, Queen Emeritus Sofia and King Emeritus Juan Carlos, whom a good part of the Spanish want to strip of all rank for his misdeeds.
The British case is similar to the earthquake that has not yet finished toppling Juan Carlos de Borbón. It’s even worse, because the collapse of King Charles III’s brother has to do with one of the most aberrant crimes that exist: sexual abuse of a minor.
If Andrés Mountbatten-Windsor today wears the humiliating label of “former prince”, it is possible that the Epstein case will achieve in the United States what a record of sexual assault complaints did not achieve, the violent coup attempt that caused several deaths in the Capitol, illegal payments to silence the porn actress Stormy Daniels, the indecency of insulting Biden even upon learning that the former president suffers from a delicate cancer, theft of classified documents from the House Blanca and several other alleged crimes.
That the consequences of his links with the pedophile magnate are beginning to worry him is evident in his attempt to accuse Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, the CEO of JP Morgan and other powerful businessmen of being Epstein’s clients. Like someone who starts shooting wildly to hide behind political corpses.
