Tea at Trianon: How The GOP Committed Suicide Trying to Stop Trump

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, March 13, 2024

How The GOP Committed Suicide Trying to Stop Trump

From Emerald Robinson:

When did the GOP cease to be a functioning party? When was the exact moment that you knew the GOP establishment stands for nothing and stands against nothing? For many, this became apparent in the awful months immediately after Election Day 2020, of course, when a steady stream of GOP leaders took to the airwaves to let their voters know that “the most secure election in history” had just taken place. For others, it was the Second Impeachment of Citizen Trump — a symbolic exercise that only served to destroy the political career of Mitch McConnell, and raze his reputation as the bluegrass Machiavelli of our times.
McConnell wanted Trump convicted, that’s for sure. He pushed that sham until it was clear that he didn't have the votes. The GOP establishment wanted Trump dead and buried to clear the way for Their People in 2024. At the 11th hour, McConnell realized that he didn’t have the votes and so he told his Republican colleagues: he would no longer vote to convict President Trump. The entire pointless exercise had only served to enrage the GOP base. This time there was no ground cover to hide his double-dealing.
The Turtle had been caught. This was his show.
Two months earlier, Mitch had told Americans that he would never be bullied into giving them any more stimulus money for COVID — one week after he told Americans that he was prepared to give the rest of the world $700 billion. Why was McConnell unable to provide some fiscal relief for working class Americans? (After all, not everybody was lucky enough to marry the daughter of a Chinese shipping tycoon who happened to leave you between $5 million and $25 million as a personal gift.) It seemed suddenly obvious that The Turtle was not actually a political genius.
What was he doing? He seemed to be leading a revolt of GOP politicians against their own voters. (Read more.)