When was Bush's Thermidor?

[The Mikado]

Harriet Miers.  Agree/Disagree?

[The Mikado]

Katrina.

I agree in a sense. It was one thing when 9/11 happened and Bush couldn't control that, Afghanistan had to happen, Iraq was a failure and a lie but removing Saddam wasn't a bad thing and the response to it was mostly international.

Katrina was where the nation finally realized the depth of the cronyism of the Bush administration, the ineptitude of Bush, and the "photo-op" nature of Rovian politics. It was a domestic hit tht could have been assuaged in multiple ways, yet it was utterly ignored.

For intellectuals though (which was what Thermidor really was, the rise of intellectuals against Robespierre), I think we can trace it back all the way to "Mission Accomplished." At that moment, I think, all the minds in politics scratched their heads and braced for the worst. You could smell Rove on Bush's every word.

The reason I picked Miers is that it was when the Congressional GOP first displayed signs of independence life.  The, "no, you can't put your lawyer on the Supreme Court," reaction was the first sign that Bush and the Republican Party weren't synonymous, and from that point on, he was a lame duck.

[The Mikado]

I don't read Lord of the Rings, so I have no idea what this means.

If you want to get the reference, put down Tolkien and pick up De Tocqueville.

In short, Thermidor's the point where a movement ceases to be a radical force that actually changes society and settles down into a stage of sitting on what they already accomplished.  It's the point where society says, "enough!" to a movement.  It's a reference to the original Thermidor, the end of the radical phase of the French Revolution.