Tea at Trianon: The Politics of Panic

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, April 30, 2026

The Politics of Panic

From Unlicensed Punditry:

I think there is a persistent assumption in American political discourse that voters are simply downstream from ideology—that rank-and-file Democrats believe, in full and conscious detail, the same things their party’s most visible leaders say on cable news or from the Senate floor. That assumption may not hold up, even under casual observation. The average Democratic voter is not a doctrinaire ideologue. They are, like most Americans, busy, distracted, and only intermittently engaged. What they respond to is not a fully formed ideological framework, but a steady emotional narrative—and increasingly, that narrative is built on fear.
This pernicious process sure seems particularly pronounced in the modern Democratic coalition because of how its leadership communicates. Just think about the things the Democrats and their mouthpieces in the national spotlight feel comfortable saying about President Trump and Republicans. They are killing “democracy”, they are pedos, rapists, bigots, and every sort of phobic demon one could conjur. It is war now, war tomorrow and war forever.
This messaging is not about persuading voters toward a set of principles. It is about defining the opposition in the starkest possible terms and stoking resistance, and when you are fighting for survival, nothing is forbidden. The Republican Party is not framed as wrong, misguided, or even flawed, it is framed as dangerous, an existential threat--not just to policy preferences, but to democracy itself, to basic rights, and to personal safety. (Read more.)