Tea at Trianon: Callous and Cruel

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Callous and Cruel

From The Federalist:

Her logic is cold, callous, calculated and cruel; rather than compromise in the slightest with the Trump administration, AOC would see children harmed so that Trump gets a black eye and the crisis gets worse. But why? Why would someone who claims to be horrified by the situation not want to help fix it? The answer appears to be that AOC rejects any effort to stop anyone from simply entering the country. To her there is no crisis, we should simply abandon the idea of a wall and replace it with turnstiles.

What is particularly troubling about her stand in favor of these Wayfair workers trying to deny kids beds is that she is explicitly asking a private business to refuse to do business with the government. Now I understand that AOC doesn’t like that Donald Trump got elected president—as a New Yorker I’m not over the moon about her getting elected—but as a former president once said, elections have consequences.

Should private companies only contract with the government, or government-related nonprofits, if the right party is in power? Should kids be left to sleep on the floor to send a message to Donald Trump? AOC’s answer is yes. It is classic Marxism; what matters—the only thing that matters, in fact—is for the state to be all things for all people. In her utopia, no private company would supply beds, the government would make the beds. And if a few kids have to suffer to make that dream happen, then their sacrifice will be memorialized.

While many House Democrats are frantically trying to pass legislation to deal with a crisis, AOC and her progressive pals are more than happy to see the situation get worse. They want to starve the beast, even if that means hurting kids. It is a despicable and detestable position. (Read more.)