Latest news with #Jacobins
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Strength Is His Greatest Weakness
I've detested at least three-quarters of what the Trump administration has done so far, but it possesses one quality I can't help admiring: energy. I don't know which cliché to throw at you, but it is flooding the zone, firing on all cylinders, moving rapidly on all fronts at once. It is operating at a tremendous tempo, taking the initiative in one sphere after another. A vitality gap has opened up. The Trump administration is like a supercar with 1,000 horsepower, and its opponents have been coasting around on mopeds. You'd have to go back to Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration in 1933 to find a presidency that has operated with such verve during its first 100 days. Some of this is inherent in President Trump's nature. He is not a learned man, but he is a spirited man, an assertive man. The ancient Greeks would say he possesses a torrential thumos, a burning core of anger, a lust for recognition. All his life, he has moved forward with new projects and attempted new conquests, despite repeated failures and bankruptcies that would have humbled a nonnarcissist. Initiative depends on motivation. The Trump administration is driven by some of the most atavistic and powerful of all human desires: resentment, the desire for power, the desire for retribution. The administration is also driven by its own form of righteous rage. Its members tend to have a clear consuming hatred for the nation's establishment and a powerful conviction that for the nation to survive, it must be brought down. This clear purpose gives them the ability to see things simply, which is a tremendous advantage when you are trying to drive change. This clear purpose is combined with Trump's reckless audacity, his willingness to, say, declare a trade war against the entire globe, without any clue about how it will turn out. I have come to think of the Trump team less as a presidential administration or even as representative of a political party and more as a revolutionary vanguard. History is filled with examples of passionate minorities seizing power over disorganized and passive majorities: the Jacobins during the French Revolution, the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution, Mao's Communist Party in China, Castro's 26th of July Movement in Cuba. These movements did not always possess superior resources; they possessed superior boldness, decisiveness and clarity of purpose. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - The liberals' license: How the left finds release in an age of rage
'We should replace our piece of crap Constitution.' Those words from author Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution 'trash' and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of 'all voter registration laws.' But Mystal's radical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances. There is a counter-constitutional movement building in law schools and across the country. And although Mystal has not advocated violence, some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts. It is part of the 'righteous rage' that many of them see as absolving them from the basic demands not only of civility but of legality. They are part of a rising class of American Jacobins — bourgeois revolutionaries increasingly prepared to trash everything, from cars to the Constitution. The Jacobins were a radical group in France that propelled that country into the worst excesses of the French Revolution. They were largely affluent citizens, including journalists, professors, lawyers, and others who shredded existing laws and destroyed property. It would ultimately lead not only to the blood-soaked 'Reign of Terror' but also to the demise of the Jacobins themselves as more radical groups turned against them. Of course, it is not revolution on the minds of most of these individuals. It is rage. Rage is the ultimate drug. It offers a release from longstanding social norms — a license to do those things long repressed by individuals who viewed themselves as decent, law-abiding citizens. Across the country, liberals are destroying Tesla cars, torching dealerships and charging stations, and even allegedly hitting political dissenters with their cars. Last week, affluent liberal shoppers admitted that they are shoplifting from Whole Foods to strike back at Jeff Bezos for working with the Trump administration and moving the Washington Post back to the political center. They are also enraged at Mark Zuckerberg for restoring free speech protections at Meta. One '20-something communications professional' in Washington explained 'If a billionaire can steal from me, I can scrape a little off the top, too.' These affluent shoplifters portrayed themselves as Robin Hoods. Of course, that is assuming Robin Hood was stealing organic fruit from the rich and giving it to himself. On college campuses, affluent students and even professors are engaging in political violence. Just this week, University of Wisconsin Professor José Felipe Alvergue, head of the English Department, turned over the table of College Republicans supporting a conservative for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He reportedly declared, 'The time for this is over!' Likewise, a mob this week attacked a conservative display and tent on the campus of the University of California-Davis as campus police passively watched. The Antifa protesters, carrying a large banner with the slogan 'ACAB' or 'all cops are bastards,' trashed the tent and carried it off. Antifa is a violent and vehemently anti-free speech group that thrives on U.S. college campuses. In his book 'Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,' Mark Bray explains that 'most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists. … From that standpoint, 'free speech' as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.' Of course, many of the American Jacobins are themselves bourgeois or even affluent figures. And they are finding a host of enablers telling them that the Constitution itself is a threat and that the legal system has been corrupted by oligarchs, white supremacists, or reactionaries. This includes leading academics and commentators who are denouncing the Constitution and core American values. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School, is the author of 'No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.' In a New York Times op-ed, 'The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,' law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the nation to 'reclaim America from constitutionalism.' Commentator Jennifer Szalai has scoffed at what she called 'Constitution worship.' 'Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us,' she wrote. 'A growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.' As intellectuals knock down our laws and Constitution, radicals are pouring into the breach. Political violence and rage rhetoric are becoming more common. Some liberals embraced groups like Antifa, while others shrugged off property damage and violent threats against political opponents. It is the very type of incitement or rage rhetoric that Democrats once accused Trump of fostering in groups like the Proud Boys. Members of Congress such as Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) have called for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be 'taken down' and said that Democrats have to be 'OK with punching.' Some take such words as a justification to violently attack a system supposedly advancing the white supremacy or fascism. Fortunately, such violence has been confined so far to a minority of radicalized individuals, but there is an undeniable increase in such violent, threatening speech and in actual violence. The one thing the American Jacobins will not admit is that they like the rage and the release that it brings them. From shoplifting to arson to attempted assassination, the rejection of our legal system brings them freedom to act outside of morality and to take whatever they want. Democratic leaders see these 'protests' as needed popularism to combat Trump — to make followers 'strike ready' and 'to stand up and fight back.' For a politician, a mob can become irresistible if you can steer it against your opponents. The problem is controlling the mob once it has broken free of the bounds of legal and personal accountability. Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of 'The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
05-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
The liberals' license: How the left finds release in an age of rage
'We should replace our piece of crap Constitution.' Those words from author Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution 'trash' and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of 'all voter registration laws.' But Mystal's radical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances. There is a counter-constitutional movement building in law schools and across the country. And although Mystal has not advocated violence, some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts. It is part of the 'righteous rage' that many of them see as absolving them from the basic demands not only of civility but of legality. They are part of a rising class of American Jacobins — bourgeois revolutionaries increasingly prepared to trash everything, from cars to the Constitution. The Jacobins were a radical group in France that propelled that country into the worst excesses of the French Revolution. They were largely affluent citizens, including journalists, professors, lawyers, and others who shredded existing laws and destroyed property. It would ultimately lead not only to the blood-soaked 'Reign of Terror' but also to the demise of the Jacobins themselves as more radical groups turned against them. Of course, it is not revolution on the minds of most of these individuals. It is rage. Rage is the ultimate drug. It offers a release from longstanding social norms — a license to do those things long repressed by individuals who viewed themselves as decent, law-abiding citizens. Across the country, liberals are destroying Tesla cars, torching dealerships and charging stations, and even allegedly hitting political dissenters with their cars. Last week, affluent liberal shoppers admitted that they are shoplifting from Whole Foods to strike back at Jeff Bezos for working with the Trump administration and moving the Washington Post back to the political center. They are also enraged at Mark Zuckerberg for restoring free speech protections at Meta. One '20-something communications professional' in Washington explained 'If a billionaire can steal from me, I can scrape a little off the top, too.' These affluent shoplifters portrayed themselves as Robin Hoods. Of course, that is assuming Robin Hood was stealing organic fruit from the rich and giving it to himself. On college campuses, affluent students and even professors are engaging in political violence. Just this week, University of Wisconsin Professor José Felipe Alvergue, head of the English Department, turned over the table of College Republicans supporting a conservative for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He reportedly declared, 'The time for this is over!' Likewise, a mob this week attacked a conservative display and tent on the campus of the University of California-Davis as campus police passively watched. The Antifa protesters, carrying a large banner with the slogan 'ACAB' or 'all cops are bastards,' trashed the tent and carried it off. Antifa is a violent and vehemently anti-free speech group that thrives on U.S. college campuses. In his book ' Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,' Mark Bray explains that 'most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists. … From that standpoint, 'free speech' as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.' Of course, many of the American Jacobins are themselves bourgeois or even affluent figures. And they are finding a host of enablers telling them that the Constitution itself is a threat and that the legal system has been corrupted by oligarchs, white supremacists, or reactionaries. This includes leading academics and commentators who are denouncing the Constitution and core American values. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School, is the author of 'No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.' In a New York Times op-ed, 'The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,' law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for the nation to 'reclaim America from constitutionalism.' Commentator Jennifer Szalai has scoffed at what she called 'Constitution worship.' 'Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us,' she wrote. 'A growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.' As intellectuals knock down our laws and Constitution, radicals are pouring into the breach. Political violence and rage rhetoric are becoming more common. Some liberals embraced groups like Antifa, while others shrugged off property damage and violent threats against political opponents. It is the very type of incitement or rage rhetoric that Democrats once accused Trump of fostering in groups like the Proud Boys. Members of Congress such as Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) have called for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be ' taken down ' and said that Democrats have to be ' OK with punching.' Some take such words as a justification to violently attack a system supposedly advancing the white supremacy or fascism. Fortunately, such violence has been confined so far to a minority of radicalized individuals, but there is an undeniable increase in such violent, threatening speech and in actual violence. The one thing the American Jacobins will not admit is that they like the rage and the release that it brings them. From shoplifting to arson to attempted assassination, the rejection of our legal system brings them freedom to act outside of morality and to take whatever they want. Democratic leaders see these 'protests' as needed popularism to combat Trump — to make followers ' strike ready ' and 'to stand up and fight back.' For a politician, a mob can become irresistible if you can steer it against your opponents. The problem is controlling the mob once it has broken free of the bounds of legal and personal accountability.
Telegraph
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
The threat to the Church of England comes from within
Believe it or not, the That said, the nature of the Church of England's travails in 2025 is fundamentally different. It is now threatened most from within. A maelstrom of scandal, a Pandora's box of failures and a rotten managerialist culture has rocked the ship. More departures are likely. All of it obscures and threatens the genuinely good work done by the ordinary people of God on the ground in parishes. What is worryingly different in the crisis of today from that of the mid 17th century is the Church's leadership itself. Then By contrast, our current bishops are not serving souls. They are theologically unimpressive, devoid of political nous and pastorally moribund. Worst of all is the visceral contempt in which they seem to hold the ordinary people of God. It is everywhere: from reports which brand them racist, via mission plans which wish them away in favour of imaginary new and trendier converts to the denouement of thinking they can be hoodwinked over abuse scandals. There are exceptions- I marked the anniversary of Charles's death by hearing perhaps the best sermon I have ever heard preached by a retired Indeed the quality of the bench is so bad that it threatens the Church itself. There are Jacobins- of left and right- who use this latest scandal to argue for its destruction. Everywhere this has happened before- France, Russia and even in the awfulness of Puritan England itself- attacks on the Church have been precursors to restrictive and evil regimes. Despite history's worrying precedent there are those who are beginning to accept arguments for the Church's disestablishment. The paucity of the Bishop's bench is no longer just a matter for internal ecclesiastical grumbling but becoming a matter of the Church's survival. Now, some would say 'so what'? There are those who are happy to accept the dominion of an Italian church over an English one, still others who reject crown and mitre entirely. But those are not solutions acceptable to many consciences in the heart of the nation, nor are they of any real constructive help to the British state, whose problem this is as well. After all, the liberties and constitutional stability which we have enjoyed in this country is inherently linked to the union of Church and State. More pressingly perhaps, the Church's enslavement to management speak and corrupted appointment structures is not unique: every national institution is suffering similarly. The solution is not to throw the baby out with the bath water: we do not need 'no bishops' but better ones. The current set need to go. At the end of Taylor's sermon he reminded the newly consecrated bishops that while the earthly church of the past had failed to discipline them, the truth would out. He wrote: 'When the early church deposed a Bishop from his office, they ever concealed his crime, and made no record of it: yet remember this, that God does, and will call us to a strict and severe account.' I ask the bishops of today- do they believe this? Do they believe that part of the creed which they will have recited so many times, that He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead? If so why do they persist in placing the Church which He gave to them in such grave peril? Why do they so dishonour the ordinary people of God? To quote Taylor again, 'The time will quickly come, in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet, Where is the Flock that was given thee, thy beautiful Flock? what wilt thou say when he shall visit thee?' And if they do not believe this of Him, then what are they doing seeking to lead that beautiful flock at all?
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The threat to the Church of England comes from within
Believe it or not, the Church of England has been in worse straits than this. 376 years ago today the beheading of King Charles I ushered in a period of oppression, disestablishment, violence and extremism that made it look to many as if the English Church was finished. That said, the nature of the Church of England's travails in 2025 is fundamentally different. It is now threatened most from within. A maelstrom of scandal, a Pandora's box of failures and a rotten managerialist culture has rocked the ship. The Archbishop most responsible for that culture has gone. As I write, another bishop has resigned, accused of sexual misconduct. More departures are likely. All of it obscures and threatens the genuinely good work done by the ordinary people of God on the ground in parishes. What is worryingly different in the crisis of today from that of the mid 17th century is the Church's leadership itself. Then the Church was sustained by wise and holy leaders. One such good shepherd, Jeremy Taylor, preached a sermon in 1660 at the first consecration of bishops to occur since the Charles's death in 1649. In it he described what bishops are called to do as 'to be busy in the service of souls'. By contrast, our current bishops are not serving souls. They are theologically unimpressive, devoid of political nous and pastorally moribund. Worst of all is the visceral contempt in which they seem to hold the ordinary people of God. It is everywhere: from reports which brand them racist, via mission plans which wish them away in favour of imaginary new and trendier converts to the denouement of thinking they can be hoodwinked over abuse scandals. There are exceptions- I marked the anniversary of Charles's death by hearing perhaps the best sermon I have ever heard preached by a retired Bishop of Exeter. My bishop, of Dorchester, is supremely hard working, dignified and pastoral to his core. As anyone following the life of the Church in the last few months will know, these are, alas, exceptions. Indeed the quality of the bench is so bad that it threatens the Church itself. There are Jacobins- of left and right- who use this latest scandal to argue for its destruction. Everywhere this has happened before- France, Russia and even in the awfulness of Puritan England itself- attacks on the Church have been precursors to restrictive and evil regimes. Despite history's worrying precedent there are those who are beginning to accept arguments for the Church's disestablishment. The paucity of the Bishop's bench is no longer just a matter for internal ecclesiastical grumbling but becoming a matter of the Church's survival. Now, some would say 'so what'? There are those who are happy to accept the dominion of an Italian church over an English one, still others who reject crown and mitre entirely. But those are not solutions acceptable to many consciences in the heart of the nation, nor are they of any real constructive help to the British state, whose problem this is as well. After all, the liberties and constitutional stability which we have enjoyed in this country is inherently linked to the union of Church and State. More pressingly perhaps, the Church's enslavement to management speak and corrupted appointment structures is not unique: every national institution is suffering similarly. The solution is not to throw the baby out with the bath water: we do not need 'no bishops' but better ones. The current set need to go. At the end of Taylor's sermon he reminded the newly consecrated bishops that while the earthly church of the past had failed to discipline them, the truth would out. He wrote: 'When the early church deposed a Bishop from his office, they ever concealed his crime, and made no record of it: yet remember this, that God does, and will call us to a strict and severe account.' I ask the bishops of today- do they believe this? Do they believe that part of the creed which they will have recited so many times, that He shall come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead? If so why do they persist in placing the Church which He gave to them in such grave peril? Why do they so dishonour the ordinary people of God? To quote Taylor again, 'The time will quickly come, in which God shall say unto thee in the words of the Prophet, Where is the Flock that was given thee, thy beautiful Flock? what wilt thou say when he shallvisit thee?' And if they do not believe this of Him, then what are they doing seeking to lead that beautiful flock at all? Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
