Tea at Trianon: The Pope and the President

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

Sunday, December 6, 2020

The Pope and the President

Bill O'Reilly shares some balanced insights. To quote:

No country on earth has successfully eliminated Covid and a number of them badly damaged their own citizens by ordering intense lockdowns. That’s a fact. I guess a case could be made that Sweden’s refusal to take strong isolation action led to more death in that country. That seems to be true. As for the United States, President Trump did not want to panic the markets and create intense economic hardship. Remember, about 13 million Americans have contracted Covid. There are 330 million of us and we are all dependent on the market economy which slid into recession shortly after the virus hit.

Pope Francis is responsible for souls, an American president for bodies. Folks have to have money to support themselves and, under Mr. Trump, the U.S. economy has remained resilient while other nations have faltered.

It is true that Donald Trump did not aggressively promote mask wearing and punishing lockdowns. He was also far too optimistic about defeating the pandemic in the beginning. He might have handled those things with more touch and, surely, has paid a political price. But the President did not “mortgage” his people. He protected their hard earned assets and investments. He also successfully fast-tracked a vaccine. Capitalism comes through again. (Read more.)