Newsom's far-left gambit echoes doomed French revolutionary Danton, Turley warns

In a recent opinion piece, legal scholar Jonathan Turley draws a historical parallel between California Governor Gavin Newsom's current political strategy and the fate of Georges Jacques Danton, a leading figure of the French Revolution. Turley argues that Newsom, like Danton, is attempting to harness the energy of a radical mob for his own political advancement, believing he can control the forces he unleashes. Danton, a gifted orator and lawyer, rose to power by feeding the revolution's bloodlust, sending thousands to the guillotine and orchestrating atrocities such as the September Massacres. He branded moderates as dangerous reactionaries and called for purges, but ultimately fell victim to the very violence he had helped unleash. Turley notes that Danton's warning, "Woe betide those who would provoke revolutions," went unheeded, and he was executed by the same revolutionary tribunal he had empowered.

Turley applies this historical lesson to the current Democratic Party, where radicals have recently won significant victories, including socialist candidates sweeping elections in New York. Newsom, who has positioned himself as a national figure, is now courting the far-left wing by calling for radical changes to the constitutional system, such as Supreme Court reform. However, Turley points out that Newsom's wealth and privilege make him an unlikely champion of the working class, and he is already losing ground to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New Hampshire, a key early primary state. Turley suggests that Newsom's attempt to be both part of the establishment and part of the revolution is a dangerous balancing act that echoes Danton's fatal miscalculation.

The piece also mentions that other Democratic figures, such as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, are making their own plays for the radical wing, indicating a broader trend within the party. Turley warns that the radicals are calling for purges of moderates, denouncing dissenters as part of "factionalism," a term that mirrors the language of the French Revolution. He concludes that Newsom's hope to use the mob for his own ambitions is misguided, as history shows that such forces cannot be controlled indefinitely. The article is part of Turley's broader commentary on the dangers of mob rule, which he explores in his book "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."