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Restorations always fail Whether it's Old Labour, the monarchy or America after Trump, history shows that there is no going back

Joebama is not going to work. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Joebama is not going to work. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)


December 16, 2020   8 mins

Donald Trump holds a carving knife in one hand; the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty in the other. Gruesome, but it made a eye-catching front cover for a 2017 issue of Der Spiegel. Last month, the German magazine followed up. This time the front cover shows Joe Biden on a pedestal, placing Liberty’s head back upon her shoulders.

It’s pure propaganda, of course — but illustrates the core theme of the incoming presidency: restoration. After the rupture of the last four years, the President-Elect wants to “restore the soul of America”, as he put it in his victory speech: “Let us be the nation that we know we can. A nation united, a nation strengthened. A nation healed.”

These are not the words of revolutionary. Biden is a restorationist, he wants things back as they were — before the virus and before Trump. The kind of people who were in charge under Barack Obama will be back in charge now. And the wider economic and cultural establishment — whether in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the Ivy League, Wall Street or the Washington beltway — they’ll be back in charge too. It’s not that they ever went away, of course. But they can rest easy now.

Or can they?

Most revolutions fail. But a further lesson of history is that most restorations also come to grief. Team Biden would do well to learn from those that failed — and from the few that didn’t. Here are ten to be getting on with:

1. The Bourbon Restoration

When Louis XVI was guillotined in 1793 it wasn’t the final end for the kings of France; more like a very rude interruption. With the final defeat of Napoleon, the monarchy was restored, and the murdered king’s brother ruled from 1815 to 1824 as Louis XVIII. He was succeeded by another brother, Charles X. Unfortunately it wasn’t just the Bourbons who came back, but the reactionary attitudes of the ancien regime. There were vindictive persecutions, a rolling back of democracy and a general failure to learn the lessons of 1789.

Unsurprisingly, it ended badly for the ultra-royalists, with a second revolution in 1830 which forced the abdication of Charles X. A third revolution would finish off the monarchy for good in 1848.

The lesson for Team Biden is this: take a hint. In many ways, the Trumpening was a freak event, but the underlying anger of those who voted for him in 2016 and 2020 is still there. If the Democrats think it can be ignored, or even taken revenge upon, then they risk further revolutions down the line.

2. The Stuart Restoration

The restoration of our own monarchy in early 1660s was marked by an act of revenge as petty as it was gross: the body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up and posthumously hung, drawn and quartered, and, unbelievably, his head wasn’t reburied until 1960, having spent most of the interim in private collections.

There where other grisly executions, both posthumous and prehumous, but afterwards the reign of Charles II took on a more tolerant character. Arguably, he had no choice but to try and reconcile the various political and religious factions, because his rule was far from absolute. He faced entrenched opposition in Parliament and under constant suspicion as to his Catholic sympathies.

Charles’s personal charm and popularity allowed him to keep the plates spinning until his death in 1685, but unfortunately he was succeeded by his brother, James II — a tactless oaf. The result was the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 — in fact, a coup that deposed the wrongheaded, but rightful, king and installed an iffy Dutchman in his place.

Genial Joe Biden, like Charles II, is well-liked, but he won’t be around forever. His designated successor, Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, has yet to prove her personal popularity. She bombed in the debates for the Democratic nomination and quit early. Despite the size of Biden’s victory (a margin of more than seven million votes), the race for the White House in 2024 is wide open.

And so successions are a dangerous time for restorations.

3. Twilight of the Roman Republic

In the most powerful state in the world political tensions rise as two parties are engaged in a bitter struggle for the Senate and indeed the very future of the Republic. Nothing much changes, but in this case we’re not talking about Democrats and Republicans, but Optimates and Populares in the first century BC. The former represented the aristocratic establishment of Rome, the latter “the people”. After a period in which the populists gained power, they suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of Lucius Cornelius Sulla — a veteran Optimas.

But while firmly restoring the old order, Sulla made a mistake — he allowed the son-in-law of Cinna, the defeated populist leader, to escape with his life. The name of the young man? Gaius Julius Caesar.

You probably know what happened next. Caesar goes on to bring the Republic crashing down. There’s nothing that the Optimates, including brilliant intellectuals like Cicero and Cato the Younger, could do to stop him; and Caesar’s assassination only leads to the rise of his nephew, Octavian a.k.a. Augustus, the first in a long line of Roman emperors.

The lesson here is simple. Just because you’ve defeated one populist, it doesn’t mean that another, more capable one, isn’t waiting for you down the line.

4. The last pagan emperor

Here’s another Roman example — this one from the fourth century AD. Flavius Claudius Julianus became emperor in 361, a fervent anti-Christian who was determined to restore Rome to its pagan ways. He’s better known to history as Julian the Apostate — which gives you an idea of how well he succeeded.

Julian’s campaign against Christianity was met with opposition, but that wasn’t the immediate reason for its failure. Rather, the cause of the Apostate’s downfall was something less subtle — namely, a Persian spear in his guts.

The moral of the tale is that if you want your restoration to succeed then a) don’t die two years into your reign and b) don’t start ill-considered wars in the Middle East.

5. The Meiji Restoration

The Japanese monarchy is old, really old. It stretches back at least 1,500 years and may be centuries older than that. However from 1185 to 1868, the position of the Emperors was effectively subordinate to that of the Shoguns — Japan’s hereditary military rulers.

In 1868, the Shogunate collapsed and the emperors were restored to a position of pre-eminence. However, what looked like a reversion to the (very) old order, was in fact intended to pave the way for something new. The Japanese had realised that they would have to modernise or be colonised, and so feudal isolationism gave way to rapid industrialisation and free trade.

As a restoration it both succeeded and, in first half of the 20th century, went horribly wrong. And yet, in modified form, the monarchy continued after the Second World War — presiding over another great burst of modernisation.

If nothing else, this story shows that restoration can be a dynamic force — and indeed must be if it is to endure.

6. Ed Miliband and the return of Old Labour

When the younger Miliband brother became Labour leader in 2010 it marked a formal end to the New Labour project. Labour would just be Labour again — as if the Blair-Brown era had never happened.

Miliband tried to create some sense of forward momentum with talk of a “new generation”, but no one was fooled. It was Neil Kinnock who blurted out the truth: “we’ve got our party back”.

But not for long. While Old Labour had routed the Blairites, they hadn’t accounted for the Hard Left — for whom Ed Miliband was a mere gateway drug to Jeremy Corbyn.

I don’t suppose that Joe Biden cares to be reminded about Neil Kinnock (their fates have tangled before), but what happened to the Labour Party is of relevance to the Democrats. While veteran socialist Bernie Sanders may be too old to run for President in 2024, his ideological heir, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will be just old enough. A Left-wing takeover of the party would be a disaster for the Dems, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

7. Russian democracy

This next example barely counts as a restoration because the pre-Communist history of Russian democracy was so short. Nevertheless, following the final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians gave it another go.

The first Russian President, Boris Yeltsin was a heroic, but deeply flawed, leader. The dissolution of a totalitarian system was always going to be chaotic, but what the Russian people couldn’t forgive was that so much of Russia’s remaining wealth ended up in so few hands. In 1999, Yeltsin stood down, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin — who would restore order, but very much on his terms. Russia’s second experiment with democracy had come to end.

Allegations of corruption could also prove toxic to the Biden administration. The controversy surrounding his son’s business dealings isn’t going away, but there’s a wider issue too. The rise of Donald Trump was fuelled by public anger against the elites. The people who had driven America into war and then crashed the economy were still rich and powerful despite eight years of Barack Obama’s “change” presidency. Trump was an instrument of long-overdue punishment.

If, over the next four years, America’s oligarchs are still flourishing  while ordinary Americans suffer through a painful post-Covid recovery, then expect the voters to send the elites another message. Only louder this time.

8. German democracy

Here’s one restoration that was — and is — an indisputable success: the restoration of (West) German democracy after the Second World War. From the ruins of 1945, the leaders of the Federal Republic rebuilt a prosperous economy and a rock-solid democracy.

Of course, they’ve had help: the Allied occupation; the Marshall Plan; the protection of NATO; and the advantages of a European Union designed around German needs. But the most important factor underpinning German democracy is the complete contrast to what came before: total military defeat and the incontestable evidence of Nazi evil. Whatever the failings of the modern German state, and there are many, there is simply no comparison to the position from which it started.

So, what’s the read-across to the US today? None whatsoever, is the answer — and that’s precisely the point. The opposition to Trump may have styled itself “the resistance”, but while he was a uniquely bad president, he was not, in fact, Hitler.

Whether they like or not, the Democrats must remember that their values and those of the cultural establishment are not uncontested. The anger that millions of ordinary Americans feel towards the ruling class has been horribly exploited by charlatans, but that does make it invalid. Free from the likes of Trump, there is a chance that it find a better and more powerful expression.

9. The return of the Tory grandees

In 1990, Margaret Thatcher was toppled after 15 years as Conservative leader (and 11 as prime minister). As soon as the grocer’s daughter was gone, the old Tory establishment took back control of “their” party.

There were some ups and downs along the way, not least the landslide defeat in 1997. The election of Iain Duncan Smith in 2001 was another hiccup — however he was soon deposed and the power of the Tory Optimates re-asserted. With David Cameron, they found a patrician leader in modern garb. Furthermore, his designated heir, George Osborne, was all set to continue the new dynasty into the 2020s.

But the patricians had miscalculated. Losing the Brexit referendum in 2016 was bad enough, but by 2019 it was clear that they’d permanently lost the party to the Tory Populares, led by Boris Johnson. This was more than a matter of factional to-and-fro, but rather the result of a fundamental shift in the electorate. The populist, pro-Brexit coalition was much bigger than anything that the Cameroons could cobble together.

Political realignment is something that the Biden Democrats should watch out for too. Thanks to Trump’s irresponsibility, they won the Covid-year election, but the details of the result — in particular Republican gains among younger non-white voters — ought to worry them. A patriotic, pro-worker GOP could win the popular vote by building a populist, multi-ethnic coalition.

If the Dems think that such a thing could never happen they should have a word with Labour ex-MPs across the North of England.

10. Reconstruction

Let’s finish where we begun — in America. The most important restoration in American history was the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War. It was a success in that the USA was put back together again, but a failure in that the South remained a place apart, its black population subject to new forms of oppression.

Could things have turned out differently? The dehumanising evil required to sustain slavery over so many years was always going to be hard to uproot, but the economic marginalisation of the South helped it regrow and take hold again.

Thankfully, the geographical divides today are less extreme than those 150 years ago, but the Biden administration still faces a struggle to heal America. If opportunity and influence remains concentrated in the privileged parts of a few cities, then country will stay divided.

A rebalancing needs to take place in all spheres, cultural as well as economic. Putting a country back together again does not depend on its citizens all agreeing with one another, but it does require mutual respect.

So far, Joe Biden has set the right tone. Following through with right actions won’t be so easy.


Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

peterfranklin_

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Matt Hindman
Matt Hindman
3 years ago

“So far, Joe Biden has set the right tone. Following through with right actions won’t be so easy.”

FYI no one cares about tone anymore in America. We have been lied to politely too many times by too many people. Yes, Trump was a bombastic blowhard, but that does not mean we want to hear “inspirational” crap obviously devoid of substance. If you want us to quickly hate a politician, have them speak as if they just came out of a corporate focus test. Look and Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. They were the choices of our political elites. Bush and Clinton said all the “right” things, in the “right” tone. Problem was those damn voters were not listening to them. They were actually listening to Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Just for fun, can anyone actually name a substantial economic or foreign policy difference between Hillary and Jeb? I’m having a hard time thinking of one.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Matt Hindman

‘Bush and Clinton said all the “right” things, in the “right” tone’

While crucifying the American working classes and blowing up countless innocent people in distant countries.

Tom Krehbiel
Tom Krehbiel
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Jeb Bush didn’t do the latter, his highest political office was that of governor of the state of Florida. That position only entitles you to affect the fortunes of that particular state, not set the terms of foreign policy.

vince porter
vince porter
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Note: Hindman said “said”, not “did”.

William Gladstone
William Gladstone
3 years ago

Trump on lots of metrics did very well. You might see him as a uniquely bad president but objectively thats wrong and yes we get the media doesn’t like him because he dared to doubt your integrity, but tough if you want us to treat you like you are truth hunting heroes act like uyou are truth hunting heroes not part of a tedious establishment propaganda machine.

7882 fremic
7882 fremic
3 years ago

This guy really is telling us how woke-revisionist history will become the new truth. Trump was a uniquely excellent (albeit goofy) President.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

Der Spiegel has been repulsive for some years, even worse than The Economist. My father no longer asks me to pick up a copy when I travel. To suggest, as they did on their cover, that Trump destroyed liberty is a travesty. He was the most libertarian president of recent times. For instance, he allowed BLM/Antifa to riot unhindered for weeks in Portland. Obama crushed Occupy after a few days, to comfort his friends on Wall St. Biden will be far more authoritarian than Trump.

Kiran Grimm
Kiran Grimm
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

The triumph of the Woke is proceeding at a rapid pace in Germany. For a taste of how this impacts popular culture try watching some German TV (plenty available on YouTube).

Just so the audience receive correct moral guidance the whole intersectional crowd, feminists, gays, immigrants, environmentalists etc, will usually be portrayed sympathetically. Men, if they do not display conspicuous anti-patriarchal credentials are shown in a negative light (ie. bone-headed, creepy, privileged, patronising, perverted).

Just like the BBC.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Kiran Grimm

Haven’t they just gaoled the other Ursula again?
That Is 92 year old Ursula Haverbeck, for insisting that Auschwitz was only a Chocolate Factory or something?
The Hun Woke, God help us!

Tom Krehbiel
Tom Krehbiel
3 years ago
Reply to  Kiran Grimm

Amazing how these bone-headed white men can fool so many intelligent white women and brainy minorities of either gender into giving them, the white men, most of the power, isn’t it? It’s a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes!

Annette Kralendijk
Annette Kralendijk
3 years ago

Joe Biden has never accomplished anything politically in 50 years. The idea that (at a less than sharp age 78) he would be able to restore anything is far fetched. He is a place holder, for whenever Nancy decides to pull the plug on him in favor of Harris or if, by some miracle, he squeaks out 4 years for whomever is the next president. (And this is assuming that nothing comes out for Joe on Hunter) I don’t dislike Joe Biden personally but he is sort of a time out for everyone. With a divided congress, he will have trouble doing much.

David George
David George
3 years ago

Yes Annette, how anyone can expect anything resembling a grand plan from Joe Biden is beyond me. He talks and thinks in sound bites, never anything interesting or original that isn’t irrational nonsense.
Expect to see the Republican’s build on President Trump’s basic platform but with someone a little easier for people to like. Nikki Haley or Dan Crenshaw perhaps.

Annette Kralendijk
Annette Kralendijk
3 years ago
Reply to  David George

As placeholders go, Biden will be pretty benign. He does not have the energy to change much assuming he makes it four years. Interesting choices Haley and Crenshaw. Both would be as anti-war as Trump I would hope. Haley vs Harris would be interesting, assuming Harris gets the nomination for 2024. Not assured, of course, as the more democrats saw of her, the worse she did in the primaries.

stephen f.
stephen f.
3 years ago

-not a “place holder” a sock puppet…and the benignity is difficult of determination when one cannot see who’s hand is up the sock…

Tom Fox
Tom Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  stephen f.

..

Annette Kralendijk
Annette Kralendijk
3 years ago
Reply to  stephen f.

A place holder for either Harris or whomever gets the nomination for 2024.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

I wouldn’t say that Biden has not achieve anything in 50 years. For instance, he has:

– Massively enriched himself and his family through political influence
– Incarcerated hundreds of thousands of people for minor offences with his 1990s Crime Bill
– Fixed things for the credit card industry on many occasions
– Provided valuable support for the destruction of Iraq, Yemen, Libya and other places
– Engineered the firing of a prosecutor – who happened to be investigating the company on whose board his son sat – in another country

And one could go on.

Seb Dakin
Seb Dakin
3 years ago

As a comment on another thread notes, Trump won 72.4 million votes, a near record number, beaten only by Biden. With a very small swing, say 1% or 2% of the electorate, he would have won reelection, and this with almost the entire legacy media establishment against him, and arguably much of the new media too. It’s hard to say he’s not politically savvy, but maybe had he been just a bit less reckless, a bit smarter about COVID perhaps, the Democrats would have been buried. They have barely any mandate now – a narrow victory over a candidate that many had come to see as unelectable, in the middle of a pandemic and the dreadful economic consequences thereof.
Biden is going to have to tread very carefully indeed. There wouldn’t appear to be any real enthusiasm for insider elites feathering their nests as usual, especially during a post-COVID recession, and using woke-y nostrums to try and make elections about culture and values would most likely backfire spectacularly.

Nicholas Rynn
Nicholas Rynn
3 years ago
Reply to  Seb Dakin

But he didn’t win. However had he displayed something more refined than his boorish burbling he might have.

7882 fremic
7882 fremic
3 years ago
Reply to  Seb Dakin

Biden won by the people who do not add to the nation being mobilized through postal voting allowing them to just sit at home knowing nothing and caring less, but still vote. Trump voters are people who make America work.

bridge_spirit
bridge_spirit
3 years ago

It is a pity that such a well thought out article had to include the editorializing and assumption that all would agree “while Trump was a uniquely bad President”. When are people going to learn that insulting someone that half the country is grateful to is NOT a way to win friends and make common ground? This was a well written and fair article to that point. Trump was not a bad president at all. e was “uniquely loquacious” , yes, but not “bad” for our country. In fact, in many opinions, he was uniquely great for raising up all of us, of all colors and backgrounds and genders, we ALL had more jobs (minorities were employed at the highest level ever in our history), more money, more security, more optimism for our future, more joy at, finally, increasing peace in the Middle East, more comfort for our funded military and VA, and even under CV19, someone on the side of science( Fauci for months) combined with common sense combined with liberty. The list is long for what was good for our country under Trump. Stop insulting him and, by extension, those who voted for him, in fact start praising the good results in intellectual honesty, and you may actually start to get readers and listeners.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 years ago
Reply to  bridge_spirit

When are people going to learn that insulting someone that half the country is grateful to is NOT a way to win friends and make common ground?
Never. It’s why instead of good faith debate, people like this engage in hectoring, brow beating, and a variety of insults, followed by vapid calls for unity and wondering why we can’t all get along.

stephen f.
stephen f.
3 years ago

“…heal America…” a laughable statement-Biden and his old boss, with a complicit and compliant media did more to sow discord than anyone in recent memory. Your history lesson is interesting, but clearly is a smoke screen for a partisan take on current political events.

Mark Gilmour
Mark Gilmour
3 years ago

but while he was a uniquely bad president, he was not, in fact, Hitler

Article was OK but maybe dispense with needless signalling as per the above.

Zachary Lerer
Zachary Lerer
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Gilmour

Agree.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Gilmour

He was not ‘a uniquely bad president’. He was a remarkably good one by recent standards. Any writer who uses the word ‘Hitler’ in association with Trump (or any Western leader) merely reveals their ignorance and laziness.

Peter Dunn
Peter Dunn
3 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

You dont get it either..He mentions Germanys complete transformation after Hitler brought them utter devastation in every way…..so it’s not wrong to point out that Trump is NOT Hitler.
Or should we all pretend the 3rd Reich never happened?

Tom Krehbiel
Tom Krehbiel
3 years ago
Reply to  Peter Dunn

The author’s pointing out that Trump is not Hitler is a very left-handed compliment. Fraser and others have pointed out that Trump managed quite a bit of good in his (almost) four years. Saying that he was a uniquely bad president is simply unjustified. It is that point – not the red herring of denying the historical existence of the 3rd Reich – that is objectionable to many, including myself.

Peter Dunn
Peter Dunn
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Gilmour

The writer already dealt with Germany and its rise from the ashes so his point regarding Trump not being Hitler was a perfectly valid one..

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago

“he was succeeded by his brother, James II ” a tactless oaf. The result was the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 ” in fact, a coup that deposed the wrongheaded, but rightful, king and installed an iffy Dutchman in his place.”

… who was his son-in-law reigning as joint monarch with his daughter, so it really wasn’t a revolution at all.

Adrian
Adrian
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

Yes, but Parliament chose the King this time, and relatively painlessly. That was different.

The hierarchy of power between Parliament and the King has barely changed since, though when Britain was an Empire, the King (actually Queen) began to gain power, but that didn’t last long.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

And the world has been worse of because of that. Those who betrayed James should have felt shame for the rest of their lives.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

Indeed, Thomas Packenham’s excellent Scramble for Africa relates Queen Victoria fairly peevish correspondence, as an advocate of “forward policy”, with Gladstone.

Adrian
Adrian
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

I wish I was as widely read as you, I only glean this stuff of the telly. Christian colonialism was the wokeness of its day, and Victoria was even more woke than Harry Sussex.

1850s Victorian colonialism was a woke, progressive, philosphy tacked onto centuries old globalism as the monopoly model started to founder. This barely fifty years before the whole system finally collapsed in a world war.

I hope history isn’t repeating itself.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

Don’t be modest. You seem very well informed and are probably better read than me. I don’t even have o-level history, but just happen to have read Packenham’s book.

“1850s Victorian colonialism was a woke, progressive, philosphy tacked onto centuries old globalism as the monopoly model started to founder.”

Known I believe as the three C’s: Commerce, Christianity, and Civilisation.

7882 fremic
7882 fremic
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian

A good re-read of Kipling’s ‘White Man’s Burden’ will point you in that direction.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

And a damned disgusting thing it was they did.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

Why so?

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

Because they removed their rightful King/ their father, for no crime other than religious tolerance etc.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

They betrayed their king, they betrayed England and invited in thr rot.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

He was if I recall correctly a rather notorious “botty bandit”, but this didn’t prevent him taking the fight to Louis XIV.

I am also told that one of the actors on “The Archers” is the direct descendant of one of William’s catamites.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Brom 4689!

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

Blenheim,
Ramilles,
Oudenarde,
Malplaquet!

Those were the days!

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Indeed so. A mnemonic we were taught at prep school in the 1970’s.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

So was I, but many years earlier.
We were both obviously taught to take great pride in our History.

Sadly it is the complete antithesis today, where cretins reel away in horror at the tales of Empire, from Crecy & Agincourt to Omdurman & the Somme.

They have lost their birthright! Fools!

D T
D T
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

He was also the son of James II’s eldest sister, Mary, the Princess Royal, and thus fourth in the line of succession in his own right.

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  D T

Thanks, I’m always grateful when someone tells me something I didn’t know.

Lindsay Gatward
Lindsay Gatward
3 years ago

Biden is in bed with the CCP – If you only get your information from the MSM you won’t know this – Meanwhile still much to play out on the election shenanigans although again MSM do not agree and Social Media Oligarchs are actively censoring – We may come to realise we are intended to be sleepwalking into a whole new world of control and subjugation.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago

Biden is a Quisling? I would never have guessed.

7882 fremic
7882 fremic
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

In as far as Quisling waited for the actual German invasion before surrendering totally, Biden is not a Quisling, as He has surrendered to China before they even have a working plan for the invasion.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  7882 fremic

That sounds like the text book description of a Traitor.
Does the US Constitution even contemplate such an eventuality?

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago

“He’s better known to history as Julian the Apostate”
A shallow and meretricious pretext for me to shoe-horn my Julian Assange sonnet into the proceedings:-

Sonnet 151
by Richard Craven

He’s to be scoped, the rapey narcissist,
athwart on camp-bed with a cigarette,
recalling ruefully his Swedish tryst.
It’s pretty gamey in that oubliette,
and latterly his visitors are few
and low status: just junior attachés
and interns. No more television crews
now camp beneath his balcony; that craze
of troubadour paying court to caytiff king
has passed. Now Julian’s the apostate,
there’ll be an end of virtue-signalling.
Let Cumberbatch and Gaga find new mates;
the creep will linger like a nasty smell
inside his Ecuadorian hotel.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Drahcir Nevarc

Bravo!

Drahcir Nevarc
Drahcir Nevarc
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Thanks very much!

greg waggett
greg waggett
3 years ago

11.
Effete, left-liberal democracies in the 2020s, and that’s all of them apart from Israel, have led to the madness of laissz-faire towards Islamic fanatics, XR, BLM, grotesque trans ideologies, cancel-culture and much else, placing democracy under greater threat than anything since WW2.

Charles Rense
Charles Rense
3 years ago

Trump himself was trying to restore Reaganism. He ran on basically all of Reagan’s platform planks, favored most of Reagan’s solutions, misunderstood everything Reagan misunderstood, and even stole his campaign slogan.

Of course he lacked any of the geneality and aww-shucks innocence. He was basically a bizarro Reagan.

David Uzzaman
David Uzzaman
3 years ago

It’s not just a problem the Democrats it’s a universal problem for any elected government that how ever small the majority you have won your supporters and you yourself believe that you don’t need to acknowledge the voters you didn’t win. Every incoming administration makes some half hearted speech about governing for all the people but no one expects them to do.

Chris Mochan
Chris Mochan
3 years ago

“Let us be the nation that we know we can. A nation united, a nation strengthened. A nation healed.”

Every 4 years the US public becomes enamoured with these bromides. I’m astonished that anyone could be conned by this rubbish, but the media get all misty eyed. In fact, it appears that for great swathes of the media classes, and I suppose the electorate, the ability to say lovely soothing soundbites about how the “dreams of our nation will heal our wounds” or similar, is the defining characteristic of a good president. If they can get all emotional at a press conference it doesn’t matter if the president is in hock to shady characters or has been dropping bombs all over the middle east. If Trump says something mean or petty or plain daft as he often does, then it doesn’t matter if his policies are achieving anything, he is by definition ‘bad’ at being president.

Derek M
Derek M
3 years ago

Some useful points in this article but distorted by the author’s Trump-hatred. How exactly was Trump a ‘uniquely bad president’? This ignores his many successes both at home and abroad.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago

The bourbon restoration only failed because Charles X naively believed the revolt was all over. If he’d bothered to check he’d have seen it was in Paris only. Give them a whiff of grape shot and rhe revolt ends.

The Stuart restoration would’ve continued had james stood and fought instead of fleeing, alwo he wasn’t an oaf. But I wouldn’t expect the contrived sensibilities of men like Franklin to understand that.

Nick Whitehouse
Nick Whitehouse
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

I have a different understanding to you about James.
He was a successful Admiral and was considered a good fighter. However, he was trying to turn the clock back to Catholicism.
When his Protestant daughter and son in law invaded, the army of James faded away, he had nothing left to fight with.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago

The army only faded away because he refused to hold his ground and fight. A lot of historians believe that had he stood and fought he’d have succeeded.

Also, I don’t think he was trying to turn the clock back, he wasn’t forcing anything until quite late in his reign when he thought he was being betrayed. Initially he was actually quite moderate.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

A few years later when James was a French pensioner, he witnessed the destruction of the French fleet at the action of Cape La Hogue by the Royal Navy.
Turning to his coterie of French Officers, he amusingly remarked to them “Only my English tars could have done such a deed!”. Good man.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Oh indeed,

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Aye

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

The Bourbons we always pretty hopeless. Just look at that ludicrous old fornicator, ex King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Eh, Louis XIV, Carlos iii, Ferdinand VII, Ferdinand VI, Louis XIII, Louis XVIII, Alfonso XII were all pretty good monarchs as were most of the rulers of Parma

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

Well, that is a subjective judgment, but for your seven I could offer seven who were let’s say, below standard. The Kingdom of Naples and Sicily springs to mind.

I was somewhat surprised you omitted the greatest of them all, Henry IV! Now there was a great King of France don’t you think?

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Oh he most definitely was, him living longer butterflies most of European history

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Reply to  Vivek Rajkhowa

Sadly murdered by yet another Christian fanatic!

At least the execution was spectacular.

Vivek Rajkhowa
Vivek Rajkhowa
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Aye

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago

“Don’t die two years into your reign” is a ridiculous remark Mr Franklin. As to starting an ill-considered war in the Middle East that is highly contentious to, given the aggressive nature of Sassanian Persia.

In short there is no moral to this particular part of your thesis, it was just plain bad luck. Fortuna had not smiled on Julian. Had she done so, and he had lived to his seventies like Augustus nearly four centuries before, Christianity may have been confined to the dustbin of History.

aemiliuspaullus
aemiliuspaullus
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark Corby

Very true. Or if Constantine had died at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD). This is purely hindsight. There was absolutely no guarantees that Christianity would have succeeded anymore than the Eastern religions like Mithraism, Orphism, or the cult of Serapis.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
3 years ago

The fickle finger of fate!

Meghan Kathleen Jamieson
Meghan Kathleen Jamieson
3 years ago

What I find very worrying is that it was “normal” administrations like Obama’s or Bush’s that lead to the election of Trump. Anyone who has qualms about the latter as president and wonders what could possibly induce so many to vote for him should take note of this and be wary.

This may be the real reason for the continues depiction of his voters as simply evil or completely idiotic – if that is true, there was no real reason they felt Trump was the best option, nothing more serious that needs to be addressed. The US can just get back to business as usual.

In fact, going back to business as usual without addressing the underlying problems in American society and politics will soon enough lead to the election of another populist. Possibly one who has a real agenda and ill intent, and the intelligence and will to carry it out.

Basil Chamberlain
Basil Chamberlain
3 years ago

We certainly didn’t think Bush’s administration (assuming you mean that of Bush Jr) was “normal” when he came to power in 2000. I remember journalist Hugo Young eviscerating him as “a man without qualities, save deep pockets and an empty smile – and a set of prejudices that will seriously upset the world.” It’s not hard to imagine more or less the same phrases being used of Trump sixteen years later.

Peter Scott
Peter Scott
3 years ago

The fundamental error in this author’s thinking is his supposition that the principal political parties in the USA at the topmost level (Congress, the presidency) actually care about issues and have policy-principles which matter to them.

In the case of the Democrats this is becoming true, for that party is travelling Far Left at speed.

In the case of the Republicans – and the remaining ‘moderate’ Democrats – their ranks are vehicles for grifters to join who, elected to high office, will spend their time enriching themselves in point of money and privilege, while NOT caring about what happens to their country.

Most persons in the U.S. bureaucracy are also pursuing a self-serving non-patriotic commitment.

Hence it is that Big Money owns government and the political discourse in that land; crony corporatism goes unchecked; the Military Industrial Complex is back in force to once again rifle through their atlases and find countries to invade; the programme is once more mass immigration, political correctness gone crazy, sending jobs abroad, cosying up to China, being soft with Iran and N. Korea &c.

Populism in our day is a movement, democracy-wide, which jibs at these sort of representatives and looks for common sense government which truly cares about what happens to the nation’s ordinary people, already so long ignored.