Upon being told that starving French peasants had no bread, the above phrase (many historians believe wrongly) has been attributed to Maria Antoinette. A biographer of the unpopular Queen explains why the phrase was so powerful: Bread was the staple food of the French peasantry and working class. About 50% of incomes went into obtaining bread compared to, for example, 5% for fuel. Bread became an obsession, as well as a metaphor for what was thought to be the Queen’s insensitive indifference for the starving peasants and their miserable plights.
During the Revolution, the Queen was known as Madame Déficit. Maria Antionette’s lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker were to blame for France’s financial crisis.
Moving forward to the 21st Century, pollsters recently asked what the concerns of today’s citizenry were:
- Prohibitive price of gasoline
- Ruinous effects of hyperinflation
- Supply chain shortages
- Nonexistent southern border
- Escalating violent crime
None of these concerns are of apparent interest to lift-wing billionaires, argues Victor Davis Hanson in American Greatness. Today’s unpopular Democrats transcends even “Joe Biden’s daily, dangerous and tragic loss of cognition.” Low ratings among Democrats are the result of the implementation of an array of disastrous policies dreamed up at left-wind university departments and think tanks:
The Worries of Maria Antoinette Elites:
- Climate change
- Abortion on demand
- Transgenderism
- Strict gun control
What Terrifies the Non-Elites
- Not enough affordable food
- Not enough affordable energy
- No safety from criminals
Left Wing Billionaires’ Disdain
Those leading the charge of modern hard progressives are “the billionaire donor class, the highly compensated professional bicoastal elites, the ideologues who have captured and transformed the old Democratic Party.
Progressives ignore criticism of their policies, continues Mr. Hanson. Middle- and lower-class concerns are of apparent little interest to left-wing billionaires.
The border is overrun by illegal aliens. Lethal drugs, cartels, gangs, and child traffickers enter at will without consequences. American towns and cities are being swamped by hundreds of thousands of unlawful border crossers.
In response to public outcries, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas either ignores the anguished or falsely claims that the border is “secure.” Translated that means Americans either are racists or should get over the fossilized idea of a border itself.
Gasoline is at all-time highs. Joe Biden tells the public “Putin did it”—although prices soared well before the Ukraine War.
Translated, that means the spiral to nearly $5 a gallon in California by February 2022—before Putin invaded Ukraine—was “cheap” compared to the current $6.70 a gallon.
Have You a Spare $47,000?
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm laughed when she was asked whether she might take measures to ease the fuel burden on American commutes. She thought it “hilarious” that she either could or would consider such action. Better yet, Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow (Mich) “scolded clueless gas-guzzling motorists, saying they should buy a Tesla,” like she did. Sen. Stabenow drives the Model 3 Tesla ($46,990) so she can skip the greedy service stations. This is Washington’s ignorant version of “Let Them Eat Cake.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas either ignores the anguished or falsely claims that the border is “secure.” Translated that means Americans either are racists or should get over the fossilized idea of a border itself.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg brags that he likes to ride a bike and “lectures Americans on the racist origins of their once modern but now ossified freeway system.”
How, you also may wonder, does Hunter Biden, without any apparent income, afford renting a $20,000 a month mansion in Malibu? The President’s son living arrangements necessitates that the Secret Service rent a $30,000/month house nearby to watch over this “50-something trainwreck of an adult.”
The elite know that Hunter’s prior income came from quid pro quo shakedowns of foreign governments, that he failed to pay taxes in a manner that would earn any other American a jail sentence, and that he is exempt from investigation.
Governor Gavin Newsom lectured Californians on why they must wear masks and avoid social gatherings even as he declined to do so while enjoying a birthday party at the pricey French Laundry restaurant in Napa.
The multimillionaire was captured on camera, maskless again, and in the company of the celebrity Magic Johnson while the state mask mandate remained in place.
Now Newsom preens that California won’t pay for its state employees to travel to supposedly backward, homophobic Montana for business trips. But Newsom has no problem dragging his costly state security detail to his in-laws’ tony Montana ranch.
Carbon Polluting Fuel?
Does America really need lecturing/hectoring by the Obamas? Michelle and Barack enjoy pontificating to Americans about “their racist, sexist, and homophobic pathologies—but always from their Washington, D.C. Kalorama digs or their Martha’s Vineyard chateau, or now from their new, third mansion on Oahu.”
Most apparently illiberal Americans can hardly afford to fill their 250-gallon propane tank; the Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard estate tanks require 2,500-gallons of dreadful carbon polluting fuel.
What Would Nancy Do without Ice Cream?
In a clueless Antionette video of herself, Speaker Nancy Pelosi boasts about her just delivered $13/pint ice-cream stocked up in her twin $23,000 sub-zero refrigerators in her Napa estate.
Her multimillionaire husband, Paul, recently wrecked his new Porsche (a carbon guzzler) while driving under the influence.
The Left has a problem, continues Mr., Hanson,
To square that circle, of indulgence for their rich selves, and sacrifice for poorer others, they hector and preach—and thereby find medieval penance and indulgence that excuses their own spectacular levels of illiberal consumption.
To the bread-poor masses, the irredeemables, the chumps, the “right wing Latinas” they don’t quite say: “Let them eat cake.”
What they mean, though, is “Let them drive Teslas, Let them wear masks, Let them transition to a greener tomorrow.”
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