Posted on 03/02/2024 4:37:51 AM PST by MtnClimber
“Democratic Party elites such as those on CNN are not just angry but genuinely confused by the fact that American voters don’t obey them.” — Glenn Greenwald.
What’s most amazing about the fiasco that was the French Revolution is that it happened at exactly the same time that the United States successfully organized themselves into an orderly and effective government following the American Revolution. George Washington was elected and sworn-in by April of 1789, with the backing of an exemplary constitution assembled by the best minds in the land. The Bastille fell in July that same year. France then fell into a years’ long orgy of beheading and chaos that went nowhere until 1799 when an artillery officer named Bonaparte put an end to it by sheer force of personality.
The Arrest of Robespierre, The Night of the 9th to 10th Thermidor, Year Two, 27th July 1794
Of course, France had assisted America in concluding our revolt against King George — surely you remember the Marquis de Lafayette from your high school history class (or has he been replaced by George Floyd?). There were plenty of Frenchmen still on the American scene during the years following the British surrender at Yorktown in the fall of 1781. Some of them must have kept tabs on the Constitutional Convention, May to September, 1787, out of which came our blueprint for managing national affairs, and not a few of these Frenchmen were active in their own revolution which kicked off two years later.
By the way, Thomas Jefferson was in Paris from 1784 until autumn of 1789, months after the Bastille fell. He succeeded Ben Franklin as minister there to negotiate trade agreements (Ben went to London as ambassador). John Adams was also on-the-scene in Paris as our ambassador there when Jefferson arrived. These Americans met daily and chatted endlessly with France’s political players. The American Articles of Confederation were in effect then, to be replaced by the improved US Constitution in 1787. The people of France, including the various elites involved in public life, royal, haut bourgeoise, lawyers and generals, might have taken a lesson from the American experience of how to successfully come out of a political tribulation. Alas, they simply could not get their shit together.
Rewind a little to 1793 in Paris, the revolution in full swing: King Louis XVI went to the guillotine in January. The National Convention had replaced the National Assembly as the furnace of political action. The radical Jacobin faction, led by Robespierre and Saint-Just, coalesced into a power-seizing majority there. They took their name from a political club founded by anti-royalists, but their platform became increasingly extreme as the revolution lurched toward pandemonium.
During their year in power, the Jacobins turned the life of the nation upside down in their zealous quest to create a perfectly equitable society. They abolished the church (and replaced it with their own “cult of the supreme being”). They changed the week from seven days to ten days, they changed the names of all the months of the calendar. (1792 was denoted “the Year One.”) They put in price and wage controls while churning out money (paper assignats) which triggered (voila) monetary inflation! They confiscated grain from farmers all over the country. They condemned thousands (estimate: 20,000 to 40,000) of political enemies to the guillotine in their “Reign of Terror.” In short, the Jacobins made a bloody mess of things and pissed-off a lot of their countrymen.
By the summer of 1794 (in their renamed month of Thermidor), everybody else finally had enough of the Jacobin nightmare. On July 27, Robespierre was at the rostrum once again denouncing his enemies and crying for blood when the out-group members present started throwing food at him and shouting him down. That was the magic moment when everything flipped — the shock of recognition that the Jacobins had lost power. Just like that! The chamber fell into a melee, a lot of shoving and shouting. . . Robespierre and his cronies were chased across town to the city hall (Hôtel de Ville) and barricaded themselves inside. The mob broke through and arrested them. Somewhere in the confusion a policeman shot Robespierre in the face, shattering his jaw (no more speeches for you!). . . and the very next day, Robespierre, Saint-Just, and twenty of their associates had their appointment with “the national razor.”
This event became known as the Thermidorian Reaction. The insane Jacobin program of terror and social derangement was swiftly abolished. Nothing like it was seen again until the Bolsheviks, the Maoists and the Khmer Rouge came along in the 20th century, and now, in our time, The Party of Chaos as led by “Joe Biden” (or whoever and whatever is behind him), with their open border, their lust for another world war, their drive for censorship, their sadistic lawfare, their race and sex hustles, their compulsive lying, and their sick destruction of every norm and boundary in daily life....
History may not repeat, but it rhymes...
Fascinating article.
Thanks for posting this.
The French attempted republicanism without God. They wanted to implement what the British did just a few decades previously. The big difference was that the British did it with a reformation view of Christianity while the French employed the renaissance view which was more secular humanist. God was why we succeeded.
Kunstler sees correctly, that "open border, their lust for another world war, their drive for censorship, their sadistic lawfare, their race and sex hustles, their compulsive lying, and their sick destruction of every norm and boundary in daily life."
From our time in Germany as legal residents until we returned home after retirement, The above seems apt to describe many in power in Europe and atop the EU, as well as the Biden administration here.
When average Joes stop fighting one another and set aside rhetorical differences in favor of simply looking at reality, there will indeed come when today's "insane Jacobin WOKE program of terror and social derangement" will be stopped in its idiotic tracks.
I thought this was gonna be a thread about lobster.
Sorry.
The biggest differnence between the French revolutionaries and the American revolutionaries was:
The American revolutionaries understood man was, at heart fallible, corrupt, greedy and power-hungry. Those proclivities had to be controlled. Hence, the limited government of the Constituion.
The French revoutionaries were inspired by Rosseu and the "nobile savage" model. In that model, man is by nature good, kind, and has been corrupted by civilization. Just get rid of civilization, all the institutions developed over centuries, and voila' ... instant utopia. Of course, you have to kill a lot of people to get to that point...
This is very close to the model embraced by Democrats...
The last paragraph, the one paragraph omitted in the excerpt, I am glad to see. Something has to be done sooner rather than later if it is to yield a good outcome.
The whole.country is in heavy debt and our leaders thumb their noses at the common folk.
like king charles the 2nd, Biden is a useless buffoon, congress and his handlers are running a shadow government designed to keep the rich in power.
Bears repeating. You are correct.
And speaking of France:
‘In Hoc Signo Vinces’: How French Youth Are Raising the Cross Across the Nation
by Michael Haynes
February 26, 2024
Excerpt:
“ The pagan Roman Emperor Constantine won his famous battle at the Milvian Bridge after heeding the vision he received, telling him that he would conquer by using the sign of Christ, the cross. SOS Calvaires’ work is raising that same standard across the landscape of the eldest daughter of the Church once more since the truth remains constant: “In hoc signo vinces,” meaning “in this sign you shall conquer.”
BTTT
Everything continues to be as it is until it is not. Our national nightmare will end and those who caused it will pay.
Wonderful piece, great comments.
British author Paul Johnson once pointed out that the American Revolution was unique in that the aftermath did not follow the usual revenge-motivated murders that accompanied virtually every other revolution and rebellion in history. Approximately sixty thousand former British American Colonials, still loyal to the crown, departed the new America for Canada and Britain. They were not molested or abused on their way out, despite the terrible privations inflicted on their neighbors and former friends by those they had supported during the duration of the conflict.
This was a remarkable distinction that rarely gets attention, and is in stark contrast to what happened in France shortly after.
mark
“ Democratic Party elites such as those on CNN are not just angry but genuinely confused by the fact that American voters don’t obey them”
And we have our own share of control freaks right here on FR
The French revolutionaries killed their king and queen, as did the Bolsheviks later on. We did not, which I think accounts for much of the difference in the outcome. No bitter civil war for one thing (at least not until much later).
The so-called Committee of Public Safety (public safety? sound familiar?) began the Reign of Terror that ended on the 10th of Thermidor. Supposedly, Robespierre and his cucks toasted the downfall of the last of his serious rivals, then muttered something about "just one more weeding". Everyone else thought, you dumb [redacted] and killed the dirty bastard and his remaining colleague. Saddam learned from that mistake and condemned all of his remaining colleagues in the same party meeting, and they were rounded up.
Whoops! This week's digest topic!
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha sort:
Many many lobster victims met their just end...as Lobster Thermidor.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
