History Friday: Is Kerry Our Louis Philippe?

There is a theory gaining traction among political scientists that the coup that bought George W. Bush to power in 2000 was akin to the Bourbon restoration in France after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The parallels (like most parallels) are a touch sketchy, but interesting nonetheless.

Indeed, much like restored Bourbons Louis XVIII, then Charles X (not a militant French rights fighter you dummy, but king Charles the Tenth) George W. seems intent on ignoring the changes in society and the achievements of the 8 year Clinton interregnum and is feverishly trying to turn the hands of the clock back. Alas, as is so often the case with botched restorations, the successor is often much more extreme than the deposed monarch (Bush seems intent not on restoring the values and times of his father, but rather 19th Century President Ulysses Grant)and ends up in hot water. Hence today's history Friday:

The story of Charles X

Now here's the incomparable Molly Irvins on a subject touched upon here on the Wisdom Weasel; namely the defacto coronation of the American President as an absolute monarch:

This was the day that the Constitution was discarded