1778 And All That

America looks likely to resume the Special Relationship that she has ever really had (whereas she has never had one with Britain), namely her Special Relationship with the European power that bloodily secured her independence. From Britain.

In the meantime, that power has reinvented herself, at least in theory, as the purely Enlightenment project that the American Republic has always been, but which Britain has never been.

"Liberal interventionism", such as in this case, makes sense entirely and exclusively in those terms.

But France is a fascinating polity and culture, in which full-blown Marxists and full-blown anti-Revolutionaries are both still integral parts of political and intellectual life. And not averse to agreeing with each other.

As on this, for example.