The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Regime: extravagant and out of touch

London Telegraph Blogs (U.K.) ^ | August 7, 2010 | Nile Gardiner

[Schnucki]

What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.

It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.

The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.

While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has

[kabumpo]

The difference being thst Marie Antoinette was a virtual prisoner at Versailles due to the court etiquette and customs of that time, had never been to other parts of France, let alone traveled to other countries (since leaving her native Austria as an adolescent) — there were no television shows with 24 hour news updates on what was going on around the world...

What bothered people was not what Marie Antoinette did, but who she was. Previous kings had all had mistresses who spent extravagently about whom they complained — and the people would love the (virtuous) queen. Louis XVI adored Marie Antoinette and never even thought of having a mistress, so the love/hate split that the people usually experienced got short-circuited. Apart from that, she was hated from her arrival in France simply for being Austrian — the Austro-Hungarian empire having been an enemy of France.

[Brugmansian]

I'm worried someone will shake some sense into their heads before the election.

Probably too late but they could still mitigate the damage they've done to their image and party. Not a lot but some.

[John W]

On an earlier thread someone pointed out George actually worked for and earned his “move up”.

[Verginius Rufus]

France and Austria had traditionally been enemies, but they were allies in the Seven Years' War, which went badly for France, so Austrians were not popular.

The atmosphere at Versailles was poisonous--all sorts of false stories were spread about Marie Antoinette. She had become very unpopular with the French people before the Revolution even began.

As a Far Side cartoon once made clear, what she should have said was "Let them eat cake and ice cream."

[libstripper]

The Illegal and the Wookie seem to have forgotten a bit of Chicago history that bodes ill for them.

In 1977 Michael Bilandick (sp?), the then mayor of Chicago, went for a winter vacation to Florida, which he apparently paid for himself. Shortly after he and his wife arrived in the Sunshine State, Chicago had a 500 year blizzard, one I personally experienced. Bilandick, et al, stayed in Florida rather than return to help while everything, including the CTA, broke down. When Bilandick ran for mayor again, the Chicago voters took revenge, booting him out of office because of his conduct during the blizzard and electing Jayne Byrne.

Looks like the Obamas are crassly doubling down on that very kind of arrogance.

[libstripper]

She is an Angry Person and to the extent she perceives that she is not getting the respect she thinks she deserves, she will become more and more angry.

I think she bitterly hates America and Americans. Hence, this mostly taxpayer financed, unbelievably, obscenely crass and expensive trip in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression is her way of giving us all the finger, spitting in our faces, and following up with a thumb to our collective eyes.