JONATHAN TURLEY: When elites cheer the mob, history warns that revolutions devour their own |
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley discusses his new book ‘Rage and the Republic’ which explores the origins of American democracy on ‘Life, Liberty and Levin.’
"This is time for a revolution… They can’t take us all down." Those words from "Breaking Bad" actor Giancarlo Esposito are being echoed by a growing number of armchair revolutionaries today. Revolution is again in the air as we approach the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence.
On Tuesday, Simon & Schuster is releasing my book, "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution," an exploration of the founding and the future of our unique republic. It is a book about revolutions and how they can consume those who start them. Both the American and French revolutions arose during the same period, but one became the world’s oldest democracy while the other became a blood-soaked tyranny known as the Reign of Terror.
As I wrote the book, I found myself marveling at the comparisons between the conditions of the 18th century and today. The most telling moment came while working in my law school office. Here's how I describe it in my book:
"In May 2024, I was working on this book when I suddenly felt pulled into the pages of my research. A mob outside was crying, ‘Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine!’ Those words were not chanted on Place de la Concorde in Paris but on the quad of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. I was literally working on material from the French Revolution when it seemed like the French Revolution had come to me. Students were holding a mock trial of the university president, the provost, the board of directors and others over their refusal to yield to demands in an anti-Israel protest. Encamped for weeks in the yard next to my law school office, the students chanted ‘off with their heads’ and ‘off to the motherf---ing gallows with you.’ … The faux trial induced a certain ‘what if’ moment, considering whether we could ever actually devolve into such madness. It came at a time when protests are becoming more radicalized and, at times, violent. Despite having the most successful and stable constitutional system in history, there is still that moment — a fleeting doubt as to whether the system could survive the morning, survive the times we are living in, survive us."
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