THE ANCIENT REGIME

The Republican Party, staunchly refusing to extend even minimal co-operation with the Democrats on the many pressing issues the country faces, harkens for legitimacy to the Boston Tea Party. The connection cannot be missed: they claim the tyranny that challenges Americans in the 21st century is like that confronting Americans in the 18th. The situation is so severe that it can brook no compromise from true patriots. To question if healthcare, climate change, or massive unemployment might compare with a tax on tea is also, apparently, what true patriots would not do. Recalling the Boston Tea Party is certainly good P.R., but the resemblance is more like the French aristocracy in 1789, than the Boston commoners of 1773.
A moderate revolution in France, with limited bloodshed, replaced the absolute monarchy with a constitutional one. The leaders of that movement, hoping to establish a national polity along English lines, sought the King's co-operation. But the Royalists and the Nobles stonewalled, even allied themselves to the radical Jacobins, intending to render the new government incompetent, in hopes that it would force a counter-revolution, returning the Ancient Regime to power.
History shows this plan back-fired , with horrendous repercussions which only came to a halt at Waterloo in 1815.
Are Republicans aristocrats? Literally, no, since in America we do not have, or believe in, a titled hereditary ruling class. Republicans do represent the wealthy in America, and like the Federalists of our founding, believe the country prospers when the rich maintain their wealth and the power that goes with it. Along with this belief goes the conviction that when wealth is preserved it is also created, thus giving more people the opportunity to prosper. There is some substance to this belief. At any time in our country's history, it has always been possible for poor people to get rich. We hear about it often enough, and we also hear from time to time about rich people (usually in show business or sports) who become poor. The lesson we are to learn here is that in our society anyone can improve his condition with intelligent hard work. Opportunity in America is not the issue here. The fact stands out that in our society, those whose forebears struck it rich tend to stay that way. And it is no secret that tax laws, regulations, and good old tribal connections make the maintenance of this situation far easier than it would be in a democracy where all people truly have access to all avenues of economic opportunity.
So we have a de-facto aristocracy, which is obvious once the propaganda of equal opportunity is removed. No one can blame aristocrats for wanting to maintain their privileges...hence the modern Republican Party. However, since the democracy genie was let out of the bottle, we commoners also have had an interest in our society's well-being, and an obligation to maintain it. There can be no going back to letting the nobles run our country's affairs.
In our last serious economic crisis, the Great Depression, an aristocrat named Roosevelt made some proposals (and even got a few of them passed into law) that would save his class by expanding opportunities to the plebeians, although at the time he was branded a traitor to his class. Today Obama, a definite commoner, makes similar proposals and the aristocrats fight him at every turn. Lacking the numbers to defeat Obama in a truly democratic confrontation, the nobles seek allies among the commons: the Tea Party movement. This is a perilous strategy. The Tea Baggers, like the Jacobins before them, are a randomly angry lot, and no one can safely predict where the brunt of their anger might fall, should they actually gain power. But history reminds us that in post-revolutionary France, it was not only Louis XVI who suffered.