So I just created this bumper sticker…

[Jackpine Radical]

[onehandle]

1. France: 1789 - Maybe they got it right?

[rhett o rick]

58. After their revolution they choose to have an Emperor rule them.

Violent revolutions don't bring freedom.

[Enthusiast]

72. Yes. They fucked right straight up.

[rhett o rick]

73. Peaceful people can't win a violent revolution w/o the help of a tyrant. nm

[hifiguy]

61. There are clearly some plutocrats

who could stand to get a shave from the National Razor.

After a fair trial, of course.

[rhett o rick]

75. That'd be too easy on them. I would sentence them to 10 years working at McDonald's for min wage.nm

[msanthrope]

2. I would buy that. The historian in me is laughing, Madame DeFarge-like. nt

[BKH70041]

3. I'll wait for the follow-up bumper sticker

And 15 Years Later
Napoleon Became Emperor

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I am not now, and never have, suggested that we ought to emulate the French style

of revolution. Quite the contrary, in fact.

I think at least once a month I post a reference to Chenoweth & Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Civil-Resistance-Works-Nonviolent-ebook/dp/B005SZEEXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406847255&sr=8-1&keywords=chenoweth+nonviolent

[BKH70041]

12. Be Careful What You Ask For

It might not end the way you anticipated. And with few exceptions, the rich stayed that way.

"As the nation was perishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me." - Napoleon

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ghgc9SFC984C&pg=PT56&dq=As+the+nation+was+perishing+I+was+born.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xs3aU4faEImlyASD3oCQBA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=As%20the%20nation%20was%20perishing%20I%20was%20born.&f=false

[Hissyspit]

21. You are saying no to violent revolution, and no to nonviolent resistance?

So do nothing?

[ReRe]

24. I await, along with you Hissyspit...

... (crickets)..

[NealK]

77. Yes, flip flop they do, young Padawan.

[daleanime]

45. ........

So "you got your's"?

[merrily]

78. Our own revolution was not about re-distributing wealth, either. Or John Hancock

would not have been so hopped up about signing the D of I.

The French took their inspiration from our revolution, which had had no modern precedent. Where our rallying cry was "No tax on tea," theirs was "liberty, equality and fraternity." They managed a better national anthem, too


With no models, neither founding was perfect, though.

We tried to make George Washington, our military guy, President for Life. I don't know how different the President for Life that we desired would have been from an emperor, if GW had been a more power hungry guy. They exalted a military guy, too. GW wasn't interested in the job. Napoleon was.

Eventually, the French managed to exile Napoleon and we stopped electing slave owners as President and hoping they'd serve for life. Eventually, both nations simply elected Presidents. But, rule of our nation, and I'm guessing theirs, was always in the hands of plutocrats anyway.

I am not sure where putting down the French Revolution today gets us or why DUer seem so eager to do that. The op is about today's poor vs. today's rich, not about copying the French Revolution step by step, up to an including an Emperor.

[merrily]

79. The rich stayed rich in the new US as well. Or, if they lost their money, it was because

they did not use or manage it well, which happened under King George and other monarchs as well.

When you say the French Revolution did not end well, how are you determining the end date? They don't seem that much worse off than we are today. And probably better off than the subjects of the sultan of Brunei or Iraq under Saddam and his sons.

[paleotn]

31. Lets not forget Robespierre....

...and the Reign of Terror. Even good things tend to get more than a little out of hand sometimes.

[lastlib]

57. (We've already had Bush and the Reign of Error.........FWIW)

[NightWatcher]

4. Whoosh, right over the heads of 90% of the American populus

Go simple,

Eat The Rich

[Jackpine Radical]

7. 30% of them are lost anyway.

You may be underestimating the rest.

[DinahMoeHum]

23. Nah, "Don't Eat The Rich. Eat Their Children"

[merrily]

80. Before their children eat your children.

With global warming, the rich have been buying up farmland for years to make sure they control the food supply. When things get bad enough.....

[hifiguy]

62. Yep. Us poor folks are tough and stringy.

[alterfurz]

5. The French CEO Severance Package

[kairos12]

18. That is great!!!!

[paleotn]

28. Off with his head!!!....

....oh, wait. That's the Red Queen. Sorry.

[Hubert Flottz]

55. It worked for France!

I know they could hear 'that' coming in their last few seconds, but, "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." The ones who got the French severance package, never screwed anyone again, afterward, so it all worked out to the betterment of mankind,
back in the day.

[hifiguy]

63. Bravo! LOL!

[countryjake]

8. Heads on a pike...

is what I always think of whenever I see those two words together...French Aristocracy.

Nice!

[TBF]

9. ...

[RKP5637]

10. One day the Tea Baggers might wake up as to how they are fucked over and used ...

Well, one can hope ...

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. I want that.

Also, "Condoms Prevent Minivans".

[kairos12]

17. LOL

[BrotherIvan]

22. ...

[hifiguy]

64. Blanche, if that doesn't deserve a DUzy

I don't know what does.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

69. Lolol!

Cool!

There really is a "Condoms Prevent Minivans" bumper sticker. And I mean to get it.

I may get my nose punched, but...on the other hand....I survived for years having a sticker that said "Thank You For Not Breeding" , with a red circle-slashed drawing of the "finger-in-the-hole" gesture.

[emsimon33]

13. I want one!!!

[Chasstev365]

20. Me Too!

[oldandhappy]

14. Are you selling?

I would buy. Please!

[Greybnk48]

15. I want one too!

Let us know if you sell them!

[kairos12]

16. I will attach it to the back of my Tumbrel Cart.

[riqster]

33. DUzy!

[msanthrope]

40. Thread Win! nt

[Jackpine Radical]

19. The collective answer is that if there is demand, I'll get more made & sell them.

I have no particular desire to make a profit, but small runs are sort of expensive.

I just got 5 magnetic ones made for myself & any interested friends. They cost about $7 apiece without postage. I wanted them to be removable so you can reduce the likelihood of your car being trashed, ticketed or towed by fascist ignorami when you have to park it in dubious places.

[homegirl]

59. Not very complicated

How to print your own bumper stickers. Information at:

instructables.com

[jonjensen]

25. Less subtle bumper sticker

Bumper sticker no.1 A poor person who votes republican is like a jew voting for hitler. Bumper sticker no.2 Deport republican racists not the children. Bumper sticker no.3 America a christian nation? Then who would jesus deport.

[hifiguy]

65. Or a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

[LiberalElite]

26. I like it - it's like this ad seen in recent months in an NYC subway car:

[Jackpine Radical]

56. That must have been lying around in my unconscious for a while--

long enough to forget the original source, or even that there was an original source. The theft, if such it was, was inadvertent, but I'm keeping it anyway.

[ReRe]

27. That's priceless, Jackpine

You old devil, you. Yeah, that would put the fear in 'em wouldn't it,
.........if these started showing up on bumpers all over America?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

29. I like it. nt

[90-percent]

30. I'll see your bumper sticker and raise you

one I shop on DU now and again.


""
-90% Jimmy

[Jackpine Radical]

32. What is an un-corrupt sociopath?

[riqster]

34. One that is broke?

[loudsue]

47. Hahahah!

[Jackpine Radical]

52. No, that would be a DESPERATE sociopath, likely driven

to new levels of depravity to cure their state of insolvency.

[riqster]

53. Or an unsuccessfully corrupt one. :-)

[2banon]

50. that's excellent, I like it.

[Enthusiast]

74. Dat's a good one!

[MineralMan]

35. TL;DR

[Jackpine Radical]

36. SAS;LF

[MineralMan]

38. I'm completely stumped at that one.

Try as I might, I can't suss it out.

[Jackpine Radical]

39. Short Attention Span; Lost Focus

(OK, OK, I just made it up for the occasion.)

[MineralMan]

41. I like it.

Thanks for breaking it out for me!

[Jackpine Radical]

42. I had to Google TL;DR, btw.

OMG it just struck me how incomprehensible my subject line would have been to anyone in, say, 1990.

[MineralMan]

43. I know. It's weird how much the language has

changed since the mid 1990s. We have an entirely new vocabulary to describe things we do today.

[Jackpine Radical]

49. The acronyms are enough to make you crazy--

TMI, ROFLMAO, the clear distinction in meaning between ROFL (simpatico, laughing with) and LOL (derisive, laughing at), etc.

[brooklynite]

37. When you line me up against the wall, please aim for the head...

In the meantime, I'll skip the enraged masses fantasies (has never been a part of the american cultural or economic makeup) and continue to work within the political system for the changes we can achieve.

[Jackpine Radical]

46. It's not mere wealth that makes an aristocrat.

It's what you do with it, and what your relationship is with the proletariate.

[brooklynite]

48. "The proletariate" doesn't exist in the US

If you think the French or Russian revolution is coming to our shores, you're dreaming.

[Jackpine Radical]

51. Yeah, yeah.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”--Steinbeck

And btw, I agree that a French or Russian-style revolution would be a disaster. See my reference to Chenoweth & Stephan elsewhere in this thread.

[hifiguy]

66. That Steinbeck quote is one of the wisest things

ever said about this country and its populace.

[dixiegrrrrl]

68. That Steinbeck quote is embarrassingly accurate.

It has taken me a bit too long to realize how true it is.

[padruig]

44. never saw it coming !

I like

I like !

[Hubert Flottz]

54. I love it!

Dumb bassturds!

[DeSwiss]

60. Hahahahahahaha!

- Excellent!

K&R

[marble falls]

67. Perfect. "Poor old Marat, the people call ...... we want out revolution, and we want it NOW!"

[RagAss]

70. It goes well with my long standing SIG Line, Jackpine !

[Enthusiast]

71. Kicked and recommended!

A whole bunch.

[NealK]

76. Lol, K&R!

[merrily]

81. I don't get it.

The OP is a humorous warning to today's rich that today's poor might not remain willing to be fucked over indefinitely; and many posts on this thread start go all Napoleon on the OP's ass.

Miss the point much? Anyway, was life under Napoleon really that much worse than life under the profligate French monarchs? What's the bottom line of that? That the French should not have revolted, just kept starving so the royal court could live in luxury. And what does any of that have to do with us today anyway?

Y'all do get that the OP has no time machine and is talking to the our rich today, not to Louis XVI, right? And it was intended to make us smile, not to run out and make Napoleon our head of state, right?