One of the interesting things about this is that Napoleon is clearly a Leftist/Revolutionary French-Liberal dictator.
The Left treats him like he was a rightist reactionary against Liberal ideals, failing to note that he was the epitome of the Liberal Self-Made man, and took great glee in attacking Rightists. The whole incident where he fired on civilians with "a whiff of grapeshot" was when a royalist uprising threatened the Revolutionary government. He might not have been a Jacobin, but he was absolutely a Liberal Revolutionary. The Thermidorian Reaction was "rightist" only by the definition that they were sitting on the right side of the hall, but they too were all revolutionaries.
Modern Leftist historians keep pretending that the Revolution died with the Thermidorian Reaction, and that for some reason Napoleon was an illiberal Rightist because he was a dictator. Meanwhile, nobody in France believed that at the time, and the actual French illiberal were desperately trying to cobble together some force to restore the Bourbons, and tried to foster several unsuccessful rebellions against Napoleon, and were hoping to outlast him. They even had the majority support of the population, but no longer had any mechanism to exploit popular sentiment into political capital. (Sound familiar?)
Meanwhile the Moderate French Liberals (that were like American or British Liberals), had long since been forced to exit the conflict entirely and hope they weren't executed. Our friend, the Marque De Lafayette, had basically retired from all military service after his near execution by the Jacobins, had been imprisoned by the Revolutionary government, and tried to keep himself from being executed by Napoleon. In the end, he would condemn Napoleon for slaughtering the French people for his ambition, and did seek to conspire against him.
Napoleon is exactly what you would expect of what we would call a Leftist, albeit with startling competence.
Trump isn't even close to Napoleon, it's not even a comparison.
Leftists judge yesterday for not being tomorrow. It doesn't matter how revolutionary a historic figure was relative to their own time, that they didn't hold the correct Current Thing opinions centuries ago means they are to be condemned.
I've said before that he probably would have lost every state except Oregon. Had he sent in troops, the establishment right would have recoiled, the Left would have been outraged, the Left that were subjected to it would have been acquiesced, the right in Oregon would have celebrated.
One of the interesting things about this is that Napoleon is clearly a Leftist/Revolutionary French-Liberal dictator.
The Left treats him like he was a rightist reactionary against Liberal ideals, failing to note that he was the epitome of the Liberal Self-Made man, and took great glee in attacking Rightists. The whole incident where he fired on civilians with "a whiff of grapeshot" was when a royalist uprising threatened the Revolutionary government. He might not have been a Jacobin, but he was absolutely a Liberal Revolutionary. The Thermidorian Reaction was "rightist" only by the definition that they were sitting on the right side of the hall, but they too were all revolutionaries.
Modern Leftist historians keep pretending that the Revolution died with the Thermidorian Reaction, and that for some reason Napoleon was an illiberal Rightist because he was a dictator. Meanwhile, nobody in France believed that at the time, and the actual French illiberal were desperately trying to cobble together some force to restore the Bourbons, and tried to foster several unsuccessful rebellions against Napoleon, and were hoping to outlast him. They even had the majority support of the population, but no longer had any mechanism to exploit popular sentiment into political capital. (Sound familiar?)
Meanwhile the Moderate French Liberals (that were like American or British Liberals), had long since been forced to exit the conflict entirely and hope they weren't executed. Our friend, the Marque De Lafayette, had basically retired from all military service after his near execution by the Jacobins, had been imprisoned by the Revolutionary government, and tried to keep himself from being executed by Napoleon. In the end, he would condemn Napoleon for slaughtering the French people for his ambition, and did seek to conspire against him.
Napoleon is exactly what you would expect of what we would call a Leftist, albeit with startling competence.
Trump isn't even close to Napoleon, it's not even a comparison.
Leftists judge yesterday for not being tomorrow. It doesn't matter how revolutionary a historic figure was relative to their own time, that they didn't hold the correct Current Thing opinions centuries ago means they are to be condemned.
Correct.
Yep. Let me know when Trump fires grapeshot into crowds of Antifa. Probably would have been re elected in that case.
I've said before that he probably would have lost every state except Oregon. Had he sent in troops, the establishment right would have recoiled, the Left would have been outraged, the Left that were subjected to it would have been acquiesced, the right in Oregon would have celebrated.