Along chapter for de Tocqueville, and one having importance for us: democracies do not breed revolutions. Anyone reading this chapter finds why a Marxist revolution never had a chance here. Only those who swallowed whole Marxism's theology of historical inevitability would believe otherwise.
Not only are the men of democracies not naturally desirous of revolutions, but they are afraid of them. All revolutions more or less threaten the tenure of property: but most of those who live in democratic countries are possessed of property—not only are they possessed of property, but they live in the condition of men who set the greatest store upon their property. If we attentively consider each of the classes of which society is composed, it is easy to see that the passions engendered by property are keenest and most tenacious amongst the middle classes. The poor often care but little for what they possess, because they suffer much more from the want of what they have not, than they enjoy the little they have. The rich have many other passions besides that of riches to satisfy; and, besides, the long and arduous enjoyment of a great fortune sometimes makes them in the end insensible to its charms. But the men who have a competency, alike removed from opulence and from penury, attach an enormous value to their possessions. As they are still almost within the reach of poverty, they see its privations near at hand, and dread them; between poverty and themselves there is nothing but a scanty fortune, upon which they immediately fix their apprehensions and their hopes. Every day increases the interest they take in it, by the constant cares which it occasions; and they are the more attached to it by their continual exertions to increase the amount. The notion of surrendering the smallest part of it is insupportable to them, and they consider its total loss as the worst of misfortunes. Now these eager and apprehensive men of small property constitute the class which is constantly increased by the equality of conditions. Hence, in democratic communities, the majority of the people do not clearly see what they have to gain by a revolution, but they continually and in a thousand ways feel that they might lose by one.
Once Republicans championed an ownership society; I recall Rush Limbaugh exhorting against it as being liberal. Not that I recall the Democrats using the slogan. Both parties have tried increasing and fortifying the middle class. Only in the past thirty years has any American political party really championed the wealthy elite over the middle class, and I put that down to too much reading of Ayn Rand. [Well, that has become clearer with the Republicans toadying to the 1% at the expenses of the middle class; oddly, the MAGA base seems happy to become serfs. sch 11/8/2023.] Our conservatives talk about the middle class while promoting policies where middle class tax dollars subsidize the rich.
All the same I remain convinced that Americans lack not only revolutionary ideas but rebellious ones, too. The Tea Party movement is a faction of the GOP, not a new party, but a repackaging of old ideas. Ideas that so helped this country between 2001 and 2008. You cannot blame the car for the wreck when the driver has their eyes closed, but the conservatives do this when they use their sabotaging of government to show government does not work. Even this will not spark a revolution - unless the conservatives manage to destroy all value in the citizenry's property. Is it possible that a copy of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution exists online? [It appears to exist, but I seem to be blocked from accessing it. Is this my monitoring software at work? `FictionFan's Book Reviews's History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky is a review I can access. Google Books has it here.sch 11/8/2023.] If so, read the opening chapters, and you will see the differences between a potentially revolutionary society and ourselves.
Count up the property you have that you not do without. Which ones do government actions threaten? The bank bailouts of President Bush kept alive the financial system which helped you pay for your house and car. Surely everyone noticed how pension plans survived the General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcies. I do not see a leftist revolution, so long as the government keeps up its programs for the middle class.
Speaking of Trotsky, why has no one really questioned the neoconservatives about their goals? Many neoconservatives began their political lives as Trotskyites. Having read a bit of Trotsky myself, I can see the interest - he might have been more dangerous than Stalin. Trotsky was a cold-blooded revolutionary with a sense of humor thinking his ideology was scientific; Stalin a thuggish, psychopath. Did the neoconservatives give up all of their earlier ideas, or were they implementing those ideas in a new cover? Only by destroying the middle-class can there be a leftist revolution in this country?
[I have typed up the last two paragraphs with gritted teeth. I knew better in 2010 that there was always a better chance for fascist revolution in this country than a leftist revolution. Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill in Reds had a great line about Americans not wanting to get rich, not have a revolution. Only a miniscule number of Americans have the slightest idea of Marxism and want to implement those ideas. Americans will always lean right than left for a political ideology. Sorry about the interrutption, I was getting annoyed with my younger self. sch11/8/23/2023.]
Trying to destroy the middle class may get us a different revolution. I am not even sure we will get a revolution even then. I look at the last election, and I do not see any great strides made by the Libertarians or the Greens. These parties offer no real alternatives to the major parties, which is why they fare so poorly. But I can think of only one Western revolution in the past hundred years and there the Fascist revolutionaries overthrew a leftist government: Spain. In Germany, Nazis won elections to get into power just as had the Fascists in Italy.
sch
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