Audacity As A War-Fighting Ideology

By James Lewis

Obama's "Audacity of Hope" slogan goes back to the French Revolution, now mainly remembered for its bloodthirsty guillotine executions of the French aristocracy. As Edmund Burke wrote in his classic work Reflections on the Revolution in France, the French Revolution was all about destroying the Old Regime in pursuit of a utopian dream, while the American Revolution was about constructing a new, practical style of government. The American Constitution survives two centuries later. The French Revolution collapsed into anarchy, and was transformed by Napoleon into the first European imperial conquest since the Romans. Napoleon went on to kill tens of millions of people before driving his armies into the hell of the Russian winter. The phrase "we need audacity, audacity, always audacity!" was coined by George-Jacques Danton, described as a "gigantic revolutionary with extravagant passions, a high level of intelligence, and a willingness to use violence as means to an end." Obama's version of this is "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." None of.... (Read Full Article)