The Kingdom Come

American presidential election cycle since the establishment of the two party system reveals an interesting pattern.  The pattern shows Americans re-electing conservative administrations more often than liberal ones. (source)  This is the epitome of the Thermidorian Reaction.  The Thermidorian Reaction was so named after the events of the post-French Revolution. (source)  What happened was that French people admired the Americans & their successful revolution. But just as is often the case today, people misunderstand what Americans mean by freedom & liberty & what revolutionaries from other countries mean by it. 

Americans were NOT in class warfare as France eventually fomented ("commoners" against "nobles").  Americans were fighting for the right of the commoner AND the noble to live freely.  This is the reason that in America, a relatively poor person can easily become rich if they desire & work toward that end.

The French spent many years trying to become a classless society & in the process many lives were lost.  Eventually, the French realized that this was NOT the meaning of freedom & liberty, but of chaos & mayhem. They began to correct themselves & live more conservatively, realizing that a nation needs "commoners", "nobles", & everyone in between.  From this realization came the Thermidorian Reaction, named after the French Revolution name for the timeframe of July-August, which was the timeframe when the French reacted against the excess of the so-called "revolution".

Tying this back to the American presidential election cycles, I believe we constantly have our own minor revolutions & Thermidorian Reactions.  Every so often, a candidate will come calling for "change"...for a revolution of sorts.  Just as the French revolutionaries did, these candidates often provoke the mild class warfare among the so-called "rich" & "middle class".  In the 2008 American presidential election, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden even said it was "patriotic to pay taxes"  (source) & further compared taxing the rich more than others as "fairness". (source)  Such a concept is more in line with socialism & communism than with American freedom & capitalism.

Americans seem to fall for this false "revolutionary" speak every so often but as the re-election pattern shows, Americans typically wise up to the excesses of liberal ideology & liberal policies & then elect a conservative administration for several terms.