"George W. Bush's plight leads to thoughts of Louis XV and his royal court

[dajoki]

The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/greider


article | posted November 2, 2005 (November 21, 2005 issue)

All the King's Media
William Greider


Amid the smoke and stench of burning careers, Washington feels a bit like the last days of the ancien régime. As the world's finest democracy, we do not do guillotines. But there are other less bloody rituals of humiliation, designed to reassure the populace that order is restored, the Republic cleansed. Let the perp walks begin. Whether the public feels reassured is another matter.

George W. Bush's plight leads me to thoughts of Louis XV and his royal court in the eighteenth century. Politics may not have changed as much as modern pretensions assume. Like Bush, the French king was quite popular until he was scorned, stubbornly self-certain in his exercise of power yet strangely submissive to manipulation by his courtiers. Like Louis Quinze, our American magistrate (whose own position was secured through court intrigues, not elections) has lost the "royal touch." Certain influential cliques openly jeer the leader they not so long ago extolled; others gossip about royal tantrums and other symptoms of lost direction. The accusations stalking his important counselors and assembly leaders might even send some of them to jail. These political upsets might matter less if the government were not so inept at fulfilling its routine obligations, like storm relief. The king's sorry war drags on without resolution, with people still arguing over why exactly he started it. The staff of life--oil, not bread--has become punishingly expensive. The government is broke, borrowing formidable sums from rival nations. The king pretends nothing has changed.

The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes. The public's darkest suspicions seem confirmed. Flagrant money corruption, deceitful communication of public plans and purposes, shocking incompetence--take your pick, all are involved. None are new to American politics, but they are potently fused in the present circumstances. A recent survey in Wisconsin found that only 6 percent of citizens believe their elected representatives serve the public interest. If they think that of state and local officials, what must they think of Washington?

We are witnessing, I suspect, something more momentous than the disgrace of another American President. Watergate was red hot, but always about Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon. This convergence of scandal and failure seems more systemic, less personal. The new political force for change is not the squeamish opposition party called the Democrats but a common disgust and anger at the sordidness embedded in our dysfunctional democracy. The wake from that disgust may prove broader than Watergate's (when democracy was supposedly restored by Nixon's exit), because the anger is also splashing over once-trusted elements of the establishment.

[aquart]

1. Still, I kinda miss the guillotine.

What about putting them in the stocks? That's in keeping with American tradition, and Americans would be able to express their frustrations with soft fruit.

And if we charged say, a buck a throw, we might be able to erase the deficit. Yeah, the big one.

[dajoki]

5. here's my $$$

gimmie a shot.

[aquart]

7. Lob a plum at Rummy!

[dajoki]

8. how about two?

[Doctor_J]

2. I will quibble with one phrase

"royal tantrums and other symptoms of lost direction". Those tantrums are symptoms not of a loss of direction, but a loss of touch with reality, a loss of sanity. The phrases *'s handlers entrust him with get more and more brief, more and more distant from reality, more and more platitudinal. * and his entire cabal are coming unglued, and our republic may survive just for that reason.

[dajoki]

6. just semantics...

either way, they are all going off the deep end.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. well well,

yesterday I went to buy a game my hubby watned and I foudn one whose premise is the Second Ameircan Civil War.. the map was quite cute too... and believable too...

The nation is not saying it, but I will, the danger is of civil war and breakdown of the nation

[dajoki]

4. not far off, i'm afraid n/t

[tocqueville]

9. he is mixing up Louis XV and Louis XVI

the first was a bad king and stayed in power. The second who supported the American war of Independence was a good king who was swept away by history. And the guillotine was not invented under Louis the XV.

[the_spectator]

12. Yes -

Louis XI reigned for a long time, and was in one way very UN-like Bush in that he had more fun. His personal life was rather, well, "Clintonesque" - Parc aux Cerfs, anyone?

Louis XVI was like Bush in that both of them are/were dull mediocrities, who never really were suited to rule, and just as Bush has his brush-clearing and bike-riding, Louis XVI had his hunting and watch repair hobbies to keep himself busy. However, Louis XVI it seems was personally a NICE man - VERY much unlike Bush!

Politically, Louis XVI played the role that Gorbachev did later in the Soviet Union.

[cliss]

10. I Love this article.

The historical references are great (has a big smile on my face).

Could it be? That history has a tendency to repeat itself?

Too bad it took so damn long, but if it means the end of Bush, it was worth it.

[dajoki]

11. those who...

don't study history are destined to repeat it. and * studies nothing!!

[upi402]

13. Bushtards are still smearing Kerry and Hillary instead of

blaming the real inept elitist spoilt dufuss - George II himslef.

[dajoki]

15. are you looking for miracles?

[TankLV]

14. Makes me wax nastalgic for the guillotine.

I never STOPPED associating this gang of criminals with the CORRUPT "royal court" and this clan with Louis.

Either that or I debate the merits of the "Mussolini" solution to our current crop of criminals.