In both these cases, the elites were on board, that is to say the actual elites vs the old system.
In France, it was the class of traders, bankers and businessmen that had established itself with the growth of capitalism and who had all the money vs. the waning feudal aristocracy that, despite their official privileges, was deeply indebted to the former and couldn't fund itself to (literally) save their lives.
In the nascent US, it was a very similar story, amplified by the fact that the King was an ocean away. The King had decided to start taxing their businesses and intervene in them running the colonial governments.They wouldn't have it and so they kicked the King out.
The French one was clearly worse. At least in the US, freedom is an ideal that all can share, and even if freedom was won by the rich purely for their own selfish ends, freedom was still won. What's going on currently resembles the French situation much more, complete with proto-communists running around for a while destroying everything tied to the old order before Napoleon (who was clearly on the side of what would now be Wall Street) just declared himself Emperor. "I'm in charge, now you all shut up."
What we're seeing here is the new elite overthrowing the old system, except the old system in this case is democracy. In the American Revolution, the rich were allied with the commoners against the foreigners. Now the alliance is the other way around, and old democracy will not work anymore. This is them saying: we're the ones who are really in charge and it's time we nakedly take power.
To win a revolution you need money and power on your side. The whole reason you even need one is because you don't. There's not going to be a revolution.
In both these cases, the elites were on board, that is to say the actual elites vs the old system.
In France, it was the class of traders, bankers and businessmen that had established itself with the growth of capitalism and who had all the money vs. the waning feudal aristocracy that, despite their official privileges, was deeply indebted to the former and couldn't fund itself to (literally) save their lives.
In the nascent US, it was a very similar story, amplified by the fact that the King was an ocean away. The King had decided to start taxing their businesses and intervene in them running the colonial governments.They wouldn't have it and so they kicked the King out.
The French one was clearly worse. At least in the US, freedom is an ideal that all can share, and even if freedom was won by the rich purely for their own selfish ends, freedom was still won. What's going on currently resembles the French situation much more, complete with proto-communists running around for a while destroying everything tied to the old order before Napoleon (who was clearly on the side of what would now be Wall Street) just declared himself Emperor. "I'm in charge, now you all shut up."
What we're seeing here is the new elite overthrowing the old system, except the old system in this case is democracy. In the American Revolution, the rich were allied with the commoners against the foreigners. Now the alliance is the other way around, and old democracy will not work anymore. This is them saying: we're the ones who are really in charge and it's time we nakedly take power.
To win a revolution you need money and power on your side. The whole reason you even need one is because you don't. There's not going to be a revolution.
The greatest irony of the french revolution was the bourgeoisie eliminated the very class they aspired to