It's Bastille Day — a good time to reflect on the respective fates of the Girondins and Montagnards

The proposal to cram a modern day Versailles between its far smaller neighbors on Park Avenue (previous post) offends me, not so much because of some populist resentment against the rich — heck, I might have enjoyed being one of them myself — but because of its location: 10-acre, even 30-acre lots are a dime a dozen up in Conyers Farm, and the mansion that’s planned would fit in perfectly well there, but not here.

However, better to let a few rich, arrogant Masters of the Universe disport themselves than to fall into the trap the establishment Democrats have fallen into: hoping to appease and preempt the emerging communist faction of their party, they’re shifted far left, but still short of the demands of their new hardline base. Today seems an appropriate date to remember how that same approach worked out in France in 1789.

Soon after its founding, the revolutionary Jacobin movement split between the (relatively) moderate Girondins and the radical Montagnards. As the Montagnards’ demands grew ever wilder, the Girondins kept conceding ground, hoping that their acquiescence would mollify the mob and temper its fury. It didn’t work, and they were purged by the Montagnards in June 1793. The Reign of Terror followed, led by Robespierre until, as is the way of all such movements, he himself was led to the guillotine in 1794; Chuck Schumer, and especially, Zohran Mamdani should take note.