Tea at Trianon: Judging America By a Utopian Standard Is Naive

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

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Judging America By a Utopian Standard Is Naive

From The Federalist:

The entire framing of The New York Times’ effort deserves to be questioned. Reconstructing the American founding to the date of the first slave is a standard the Times is only placing on the United States. Is America’s “newspaper of record” about to embark on a grand venture of politely telling every other nation its celebratory founding is to be recalibrated to the date of its first instance of slavery? No, the Times’ project is deliberately—and solely—aimed at the United States.

Leftists have been engaging in this sort of deception for generations. Between the 1930s and 1980s, every perceived shortcoming of the United States was put under a microscope while the left was largely silent on the atrocities of communist tyrannies. The left holds contempt and disdain for America’s ideals. In their heart-of-hearts, honest leftists cannot deny the unbelievable success of the United States and its institutions nor the appeal of its founding principles abroad. So, the left’s only recourse has been to mount its arguments by comparing American history to a Utopian standard they never use with any other country.

Self-criticism can be helpful, especially when it leads to improvement or the discovery of “blind spots” in one’s thinking. Yet as The Federalist’s David Marcus points out, the 1619 Project isn’t breaking new ground or telling Americans anything they haven’t already heard. Public-school textbooks have extensively covered the evils of America’s past for decades.

The central message of Howard Zinn’s popular textbook “A People’s History of the United States” is the Marxist narrative of “oppressed” versus “oppressor.” In the past 20 years, Hollywood has frequently reminded moviegoers of America’s past sins, the (undisputed) evil of slavery, and the long struggle to realize a more perfect union. In 2017, the Smithsonian magazine warned against giving too much importance to the 1619 date, cautioning that doing so “distorts history” and places undue emphasis on “us” versus “them” narratives. You don’t say. (Read more.)

From Andrew Klavan:

All this crazy stuff that they keep saying — and this is not just coming from dopes like Donny Deutsch, who's the one who's always spouting this stuff — it's from, you know, it's from responsible news sources — once responsible news sources. The New York Times, a former newspaper, they were involved in the, "Oh Donald Trump is inspiring shooters." The shooters in El Paso, they were just leaning on every — waiting for every — word that Donald Trump spoke, that that’s why they became what they became. The fact that that El Paso shooter was also an eco-nut — that has nothing to do with the eco-nuts telling us the world is coming to an end every minute. And the thing about this is, I always think about this, I think about this a lot. You know, I come here and you know that I'm trying to tell you what I see. I'm trying to tell you what I see, and the problems with seeing things, and how I know when I'm not sure what reality is — and I'm actually trying to do that. (Read more.)

From Candace Owens:

The contemporary Left is pushing this oppression narrative to shame Americans into supporting the progressive political program of reparations, socialism, and unlimited immigration. They even miss the great irony that the founders, who the Left attacks for having been slave owners, were the ones who created the path for freedom for all people including slaves in the ratified Constitution.

This project to redefine America started long before the New York Times launched the 1619 Project. For years, far-left radicals have been demanding that we tear down our statues, treat our founding fathers as “white nationalist terrorists,” and accept their claims that the president of the United States is a “white supremacist” because he has an unambiguously positive view of America.

They won’t succeed. President Trump is a pillar of patriotic fortitude who will never be ashamed of his love for this country, and his example bolsters the spirit of patriotic Americans in the face of this unrelenting assault from the left. Under Donald Trump’s watch, the Spirit of ’76 will never yield to the Grievance of 1619. While the media are becoming more obvious about their intent, their objective has always been to revise our history in order to restructure our Republic and our society to favor their radical progressive agenda. (Read more.)