Brett Winterble: “Bread and Circus”

I want to start with something I want to go back to the days of the ancients.

I want to go back to the days with the with Nero and Caligula and Augustus Caesar and all those, all those sorts of folks, there’s a term that’s thrown around a lot, especially on days like today, when you’ve got elections happening in a number of different states. And the phraseology, very common in the world of political science is bread and circuses. No, not Brett and circuses, bread and circuses. It goes back all the way to the days of ancient Rome. And what we know about bread and circuses is these were utilized to be a distraction from an otherwise restive population.