Most historians agree that Marie Antoinette never actually said “let them eat cake” when informed that the people had no bread. It’s just one of a hundred phrases credited to individuals who never said them, like “Elementary, my dear Watson,” (which Sherlock Holmes never said, at least in any of the canonical Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle) or “Just the facts, ma’am,” which Jack Webb never said on Dragnet. But the lessons of the French Revolution of 1789 – a rebellion inspired by our own insurrection against King George III of England started three years earlier – still echo today.
Today America stands on the brink of a new French Revolution, as – let’s face it – America is becoming an aristocracy.
All this talk of macro-economics gives me a macro-headache, so I’ll try to keep this simple. The rich and privileged are getting all the breaks, while the little guy is drowning and the economy is being flushed down the toilet. Not that the über-rich think so: the economy is just fine from their perspective. That’s because they have all the wealth, and don’t give a damn about the little guys, “We the People.” I’ve got mine, so to hell with you.
Their accomplices in Congress – the Republicans – have turned a blind eye to the masses, instead continuing their dance with the aristocrats. Oh, they say they care about the American economy: it was all about jobs in the 2010 election cycle, when they ran on a platform of jobs and the economy. But once they had taken the House of Representatives, they suddenly pulled a “bait and switch” and started pushing their social agenda, ranging from denial of basic human rights to gays and lesbians to attempts to keep the “little people” from voting with legislation that harkens back to Jim Crow and the Poll Tax.
As the French royalty learned in 1789, you can only push the “little people” so far before they rise up against you.
Orrin Hatch, a Republican Senator from Utah, says it’s the poor who should be doing more to rescue our foundering economy. “The poor need jobs!” he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday, “And they also need to share some of the responsibility."
While I will concede the first point – indeed, the poor do need jobs (isn’t that the point here) – but might I ask Orrin Hatch, what have you done to get them jobs? Oh, he’ll answer that it’s the tax cuts to the rich that create jobs, but we’ve been doing that since George W. Bush… so where are the jobs, Mr. Hatch?
In Minnesota, where the State Legislature was over-run by the Republicans in 2010, one draconian proposal was a law making it illegal for anyone on public assistance to have more than twenty dollars in cash in their pockets in any given month. If you think that’s shameless, a previous incarnation tried to make it illegal for them to have any money at all.
What’s next? Denying them the right to vote?
Oh, they’re working on that too. Across the country, numerous state legislatures are considering legislation to severely restrict access to the polls, from Voter ID laws to a move being considered in New Hampshire to keep college students from voting. At least in the latter case, the people behind this law are perfectly clear as to why they are doing it: “Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do.” It’s a move doomed to failure, thanks to that pesky thing we call the Constitution:
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
United States Constitution
Amendment 26
So even if such a draconian measure were to be passed in any state legislature, the Supreme Court would slap it down faster than you can say "poll tax."
This isn’t government: it’s class warfare.
On the one hand, we have the Democrats, the liberals, the progressives … those who truly adhere to the Founders’ vision of a land of liberty, opportunity and equality. On the other side are the Republicans, the conservatives, and the Tea Party, which claims to be a grass roots movement but which is little more than a puppet show with their mega-millionaire overlords manipulating their strings. They entertain their muddled minions with such dog and pony shows as protecting traditional marriage and screaming about the secular atheist conspiracy to turn America into an Islamic state. (News flash, people – atheists don’t believe in Allah, either!)
Then we have Michele Bachmann, the clown princess of this election cycle, whose latest political stunt is to sign a pledge being put forth by some group in Iowa that she will “defend traditional marriage.” One of the things she has pledged to do in this regard is to ban all pornography. Mind you, I do not particularly care for pornography – I would much rather be a participant than a spectator – but an all-out ban of it would be a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
(Remember that Oath you took to “uphold the Constitution,” Ms. Bachmann? Maybe you better go read it again. It might surprise you.)
If there is any consensus in this nation, it is that America is going to mythical hell in the proverbial hand basket. The problem is that the people responsible for this mess are not only denying any responsibility, they’re pointing the finger of accusation at the people who are working tirelessly to turn the country around and get us on the right track. Republican special interests are destroying jobs and then blaming unemployment on the Obama administration, or even worse, just plain not caring about the mess they are making. Case in point: When it was pointed out to House Speaker John Boehner that his policies would cost jobs in the public sector, his reply was a cold and callous “so be it.” Somebody hand Nero a fiddle, because Rome is burning.
Meanwhile, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the Republicans don’t care as well as their wealthy donors continue to promote this descent into aristocracy. But as the French royalty learned in 1789, you can only suppress the masses for so long before they rise up against you, and before long the cry may spread across the land: “Off with their heads.”
To quote Speaker Boehner, “so be it.”
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