Tea at Trianon: America’s Silent Socialist Shift

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

Saturday, May 16, 2026

America’s Silent Socialist Shift

From Sharyl's Substack:

The United States was founded as a democratic republic with a Constitution that explicitly limits federal power, protects individual liberties, and restrains government from overreaching into private life and the economy.
The framers emphasized enumerated powers, separation of powers, federalism, and checks and balances to prevent the concentration of authority that could lead to tyranny.
Yet over time, particularly since the Progressive Era and accelerating through the New Deal, Great Society, and subsequent expansions, American society has adopted numerous features of socialism and communism.
These include centralized government control over key sectors, heavy redistribution of resources from producers to non-producers, expansive regulatory bureaucracies, and a cultural shift toward viewing the state as the primary solver of social and economic problems.
While the U.S. retains capitalist markets and democratic elections, these developments represent a gradual drift toward collectivist principles—state ownership or heavy direction of production, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”—that contrast with the founders’ vision of limited government. (Read more.)