Read on Twitter
Sigh. I wrote a whole book about what Americans in the 1790s thought about the French Revolution, and how that French-inspired wave of transatlantic radicalism shaped American politics, so I guess I'm obliged to contextualize Lindsey's foolishness. https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1275811314091397122
1st point. The French Revolution was exceedingly popular in the US until the late 1790s, in part because the French were our most important ally in the American Revolution, without whom the colonies would've never won. People remembered that in the 1790s, even if they don't now.
The archives are filled with examples of American enthusiasm for the French cause. The residents of Carlisle, PA, for example, raised money to ship barrels of flour to the starving people of France. And here are more examples from my book.
By the last half of the 1790s, when the news from France became less glorious, public opinion shifted. Conservative Federalists did their best to make hay out of the bad news coming out of France, claiming it proved how dangerous democracy was and how America should avoid it.
Here's a ridiculously long thread on one of those conservative Federalists from the 1790s and early 1800s who recently got a nice shout out from none other than Bill Barr. Barr, Graham, and Ames seem to be on roughly the same political page. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1195589095705075712?s=20
One interesting similarity between the late 1790s and Graham's GOP today is that John Adams loved to be loved by his supporters, and they loved to be loved back by him. In fact, there's a whole book documenting this mutual admiration society. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1096974964417126400?s=20
Anyway, in the late 1790s the Federalist based their political appeal on a) attacking the press, b) bashing immigrants, and c) ginning up fears of an international conspiracy that sought to destroy private property and churches. In 1800, they lost, big. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/956236658923286529?s=20
By 1815, the Federalist Party, which had branded itself (in part) as very-anti-French-Revolution, basically ceased to exist. There are many reasons for that, but part of it was that the reactionary political culture of the Federalists had become a dinosaur.
In sum, the Federalists' hysterical response to the French Revolution was the first time American reactionaries tried to use the "slippery slope" argument like the GOP is doing non-stop today. It was anti-democratic then. And it's anti-democratic today. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/967795339053842432?s=20
This is not to say that everything about the French Revolution was glorious & perfect. It's only to say that it's stupid to use slippery slope arguments to dismiss world changing movements in their entirety, as if any attempts to bring about change inevitably lead to destruction.
