Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Political Philosophy

Jacobinism in New York

From the proclamation of one of the groups leading the protests in downtown New York City:

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people . . .

One of the reasons why the French Revolution went off the rails is that many different groups claimed to represent the true nation.  Perhaps it's endemic to the Left (and in this sense it's not inproper to use the term, which goes back to locations in the French Assembly, if memory serves.  What's called the "right" in America is, for the most part, rather different than the defenders of the Old Regime (even if many on the Left are willfully blind to that reality)), but the people protesting in New York hardly represent our nation or "one people," other than themselves, and, perhaps, a certain small percentage of other Americans.

Unlike France, ours is a political nation.  The nature of American nationhood has always been in contention.  Our political system is designed with that reality in mind.  Even so, we have always had a certain number of people who don't like that reality, and wish the U.S. to be more like a European nation.  That has long been the Progressive dream.  I'm betting it still is not what most Americans want. 

Discussions - 8 Comments

"As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people . . .

and from their smart phones, Iphones, IPads and all the other gadgets they with them that were invented by corporations. Hippocrites.

By the way, the members of these crowdes are awfully white and awfully mad.

Makes me wonder why Obama, the Lame Stream Media and all those on the left are getting fired up about how the Wall Street Occupiers are behaving - they sound a lot like the tea party.....

Call them "hippicrits"?

Note: I purposely mistyped and misspelled some words here. Scanlon and his buddies can use this as another excuse to get their panties in a wad.

Why did you purposely misspell them?

Just checked the blog at the end of my weekend. Funny to see my name mentioned out of the blue. Things are really deteriorating over here.

From defending and promoting Glenn Beck and the Koch-funded Tea Party movement to dismissing the Occupy Wall Street movement (which is infinitely more grassroots than the Dick Armey army); it's tragicomedy at its finest.

How do you mean "grassroots"? It's hallucinating occupiers vs. thinking tea partiers, passion v. principle

To watch Scanlon come unglued.

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