Comparing us to the French
Friday, Jan 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* James Krohe writes: “Does the French Revolution hold lessons for Citizen Rauner?”…
Drowsy after a heavy holiday meal, I settled in to finish Stefan Zweig’s classic 1934 biography of Marie Antoinette. As I drifted in and out of sleep, the Versailles in Zweig’s account of the final days of Louis XVI and his queen faded and was replaced in my imagination with the people’s Versailles at Second and Monroe, which shares with the palace outside Paris the same elaborate etiquette, the same sycophancy, the same ambitious courtiers – and the same resentful crowds outside the gates, yearning to pull it down.
One of them, of course, is Bruce Rauner, who famously, bought himself a governorship so he could bring down from the inside a regime that is complacent, corrupt and sclerotic. He did not come to Springfield to head a government, but to foment an insurrection. When Rauner looks at the unionized public sector workers and their politician-protectors, he sees the privileged clergy and the aristocracy of old France. The government that served them was tottering under the weight of debt left by decades of foolish extravagance, and the petit bourgeoisie was up in arms about paying the taxes needed to retire it. The only interesting question was, who would push it over, and in what direction?
As in 1770s France, Illinois is split between liberals who would reform a bad system by altering the basic contract between public workers and government, and those who distrusted reform because it might drain the energy from the fight they really want, which is to alter the basic contract between citizen and government. Rauner is usually characterized by the press as merely an unconventional politician, but I suspect he prefers to think of himself as a revolutionary of sorts, like the many French aristocrats who demanded liberty in the name of The People. He is devoted not to a career but a cause; if by winning the revolution he loses the office, he will be satisfied. […]
I began to wonder whether the revolutionary generation portrayed by Zweig has other counterparts at the Statehouse. If Rauner embodies the ambitions of the Commune, Mr. Madigan is a Girondist to his core. That faction stood for the politics of the legislative chamber; Rauner will take comfort in the fact that the Girondists were defeated by the politicians of the streets, who roused the ignorant against them with half-truths and executed them en masse during the Reign of Terror, which, if things work out Rauner’s way, will happen again on Election Day, 2016. […]
But temperament is not a program. The French Revolution was a profound reordering of society from top to bottom, but the new Illinois imagined by Rauner the governor utterly lacks that kind of boldness. Rauner seems more likely to end up as our Jacques Necker, France’s director general of finance in the late 1770s, who aimed to restore the finances of the state but ended up proposing only puny efficiencies of the sort contained among the recent recommendations of Rauner’s consolidation task force.
You have to go read the whole thing. You may or may not agree with him, but it’s very cleverly written. Love me some Krohe.
* And John McCarron invokes French history in his own column about the feud between Gov. Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel…
After all, the mayor has home field advantage in this phase of the game. This is politics. And when a guy who you thought was your friend, a guy who you thought would help you out of a jam, turns out to be neither, well, it’s time to start counting votes, taking names, calling in chits.
The mayor is pretty good at that. Just ask former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich or former mayoral candidates Gery Chico and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
Three hundred years ago there was a brilliant but low-born French poet and playwright whose talents earned him the patronage and companionship of nobility. Until, that is, he offended the Chevalier de Rohan, who proceeded to have the young writer horsewhipped.
Rahm Emanuel may be no Voltaire, and Chicago no pre-Revolution Paris, but now that the Chevalier de Winnetka has reminded the mayor who he is, this contest may be headed to a whole new level.
Except there isn’t much Rahm can actually do to Rauner.
- @MisterJayEm - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:26 am:
Bruce Rauner: “You’d be amazed at what we ate. I’m not going to tell you that.”
Bet it was cake.
– MrJM
- Junior - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:26 am:
There’s little chance Rahm is surprised by Rauner. If he is, he’s not the political operator he’s alleged to be.
Rahm holds few, if any, cards in this situation.
- Norseman - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:31 am:
“It was the
best of times, it was theworst of times, …”Re-written by the Rauner revolution!
- wordslinger - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:37 am:
–Drowsy after a heavy holiday meal,–
Topped off by baked goods from Colorado, I’m guessing.
Rauner is a guy who needed an ego-stroking hobby in retirement. The GOP was for sale — cheap — and Pat Quinn was way underwater in his approval rating.
Why continue to drop millions on other politicians when the Big Chair is there for the taking for yourself?
- cdog - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:41 am:
very good stuff.
I take issue with this linkage–
“tottering under the weight of debt left by decades of foolish extravagance”
The decades of debt, created by many potters, was being effectively paid down. The progressives, that have much more optimism by nature, need to keep this fact front and center.
- Joe M - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:41 am:
==If Rauner embodies the ambitions of the Commune==
I have a hard time associating someone who makes $55 million a year from investments - as a member of the Commune or any worker’s revolution.
- Junior - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:43 am:
Joe M, unless said investor was a plaintiff’s attorney….. They are inherently trustworthy.
- Anon for now - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:49 am:
So who is Robespierre in Krohe’s melodrama/analogy? Not a role one should aspire to, but I can think of a couple of candidates.
- olddog - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:56 am:
Jim Krohe’s historical analogies usually give me heartburn, but I liked this one. He failed to mention, however, that Danton, Robespierre and the Communards succeeded only in destroying the old regime. They created nothing in its place — that would come later with Napoleon — and in the end, they were consumed by their own revolution.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 9:58 am:
So is “executed them en masse during the Reign of Terror” the same as “Shaking up Illinois?” Seems like it.
- Austin Blvd - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:21 am:
Let’s recap.
Rauner helps make Rauner millions in investment banking.
Rahm helps Rauner become governor.
Rauner’s elite maintain their support for Rahm in the spring mayoral election.
Rauner and Rahm subsequently spar.
Rahm tries to stay on the good side of Madigan while Rauner bashes Madigan’s brains in.
Question: Does Rahm still owe Rauner anything or is Rahm free of all encumbrances?
- Austin Blvd - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:23 am:
Oops. “Rauner helps make Rahm millions” in earlier post.
- Albany Park Patriot - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:25 am:
The only thing French about Rauner is his wine cellar.
- In a Minute - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:29 am:
In private and in off the record conversations with media, national Dems, most specifically the Hillary campaign, are saying the same things Rauner is saying (if not worse) about Rahm.
- Under Influenced - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:29 am:
“…he sees the privileged clergy and the aristocracy of old France”
I still can’t understand how a billionaire…or really anyone for that matter, can look at the status of public employees and call them “high society” or “above the middle-class”???
I’ve never considered my garbage man/woman or the maintenance worker fixing a busted sewer main to be “aristocracy”…but maybe I’m the one who is out-of-touch….
- X-prof - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:40 am:
“When [billionaire] Rauner looks at the unionized public sector workers and their politician-protectors, he sees the privileged clergy and the aristocracy of old France. ” What up-is-down, bizzaro world is this? I don’t think Bruce sees it this way. He just feels entitled … to more.
Joe M +
- G'Kar - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:42 am:
I think I would stick with the WWI analogy–Rauner as Kasier Wilhem who takes over the German Government, dismisses Bismarck (Madigan), who for 30 years had been the pilot of German policy, and then runs amok like a bull in a china shop until Germany comes crashing down.
- kitty - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 10:46 am:
A very entertaining piece, but the analogies to the revolution which took place in 1770s France are limited. In France, there were populace driven mandates. Governor Rauner has no mandate for a “revolution” as it pertains to the so-called “turnaround agenda”. He would not have been elected had he based his campaign on such.
- Union Man - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 11:10 am:
The one thing that is analogous is that income inequality in America is now greater than in Pre-Revolutionary monarchical France.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 11:22 am:
The mayor the most hated man should dance to the GOP tune,donate and endorse GOP candidates,it couldn’t hurt. Throw dunkin and gonzo in there too
- Anonymous - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 11:28 am:
Public workers are being painted as privileged and aristocratic because it is convenient to find a scapegoat to blame to distract from the thievery going on by the real privileged. And the distraction is working very, very well. For those who see clearly it is not only disgusting but terribly frustrating.
- JS Mill - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 11:51 am:
Krohe’s analogy and his attempt at parody is in error.
Rauner, although trying to affect change, is most likely to fill the role of a high ranking French noble, if not Louis XVI. In our time the group most similar to the 18th Century French aristocracy (including a segment of aristocratic clergy) would be those at the top of the Financial sector like Rauner. The wealthy aristocracy demanded more and more from the bourgeoisie and the peasant class, while they sacrificed nothing and continued to live even more opulent lifestyles. I think that is analogous to the current state of our most wealthy citizens who chafe at any taxation while continuing to make huge sums of money and even receive lucrative bailouts from the peoples treasury when their gambles fail.
- Chris - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
“Except there isn’t much Rahm can actually do to Rauner.”
What could Voltaire do to Rohan? Rohan had him locked up by the King, and Voltaire negotiated himself into “merely” being exiled.
Rahm has more leverage than *that*, even tho it’s still very little.
- Niblets - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 12:32 pm:
Clearly the world upside down.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 2:25 pm:
Non, je ne regrette rien - Dumont, renforcée par VanilleMan
Edith Piaff
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal; tout ça m’est bien égal !
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Il a acheté et payé, balayé, oublié
Je me fous du passé !
Avec mes programme de redressement
J’ai allumé le feu
Des syndicats AFSMCE
Nous n’ai plus besoin d’eux !
Balayées les règles
Et tous leurs trémolos
Balayés pour toujours
Je repars à zéro
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Ni le bien qu’on m’a fait
Ni le mal; tout ça m’est bien égal !
Non, rien de rien
Non, je ne regrette rien
Car ma vie, car mes joies
Aujourd’hui commence avec moi
- Keyser Soze - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 2:43 pm:
Let them eat horseshoes.
- Royce - Friday, Jan 8, 16 @ 2:46 pm:
It may be fun to equate some individuals in these times to those, but what is really analogous is that we are broke, and have been broke for a while, and the people in charge were acting like it wasn’t so for a long time. Necker’s Compte Rendu lead to the revolution because it enabled the crown to continue spending at exorbitant rates beyond what was reasonable. This would be the legislature for a few decades. Once the money was gone, there was also a downturn in conditions for several years that coincided (recession = famine?). Also, as stated above, no one with any money was paying taxes in France. I dont think the state employee comparison here is apt at all. I think your Second and Third Estates (nobles and clergy) are your legislators and business folks like Sears, Boeing, etc. People like to compare things to the French Revolution because of some colorful characters, but similar motivations and factors can be found in all kinds of situations, much like you can always find analogs for the fall of Rome. It’s usually more complicated, and usually comparisons are made to paint certain people in a bad light based on the opinion of those making the comparison.