I know someone who has a T-shirt with rebellious US Colonists that says something like "right wing crazies" on it, which is patently wrong.
The US rebels were liberal in their politics (there is a reason "tory" means conservative in Commonwealth political systems). The rebellious US Colonists belonged to the liberal/whig tradition.
Which gets to the nest issue: Of all the formerly British Countries, why does the US have a problem with insurrectionism? The other countries have similar militia tradition. Australia had the most similar gun culture. Yet look how quickly Australia went from loose to strict firearm regulation.
And, yes, the other countries had rebellions.
Only the US, which fought a war for independence is the one that has a gun problem.
It was breaking with the rule of law and fighting the war for independence which led to this problem. It created the culture where Shays' Rebellion and all its various progeny, which includes the US Civil War could occur.
People should not be celebrating the American War for Independence, but looking at the suffering it caused both during and immediately after. The history which led to the US Constitution being written as an attempt to bring the rule of law to US culture.
An attempt which appears to have been a massive failure.
The French have tried to repair their similar mistake with five different republics (and a couple of Empires tossed in for good measure), yet the US is working with a broken constitution.
It's time for a change.
Laci, Didn't the Scots rebel in 1745? While it hasn't quite come to open civil war, isn't the Québécois movement an example of limited insurrection in Canada?
ReplyDeleteMy point is not to disagree with yours, I happen to think you are on to something by pointing to our origins as beacon to those who seek to rebel against authority and law. I don't think it was the cause, though. I think the cause is and was, there are people who will seek to establish their own rules, exploit others, and amass wealth, and they are often prevented by law (eventually) from going too far. However, in our case (the US), we have laws which have been perverted, a history which has been willfully misstated and misunderstood, to support supposed "liberties", and have stacked our courts withy sycophants who will reinforce those perverse interpretations. To me, our problem is less with our history, than with our ignorance of what is moral. Allowing people to claim there is massive fraud at our polling places without the requirement of proof, allowing states to then change laws to "prevent fraud", when in truth it is only preventing the poor from voting, is morally repulsive. Our courts are supposed to be the protection against that kind of abuse, but they are stacked with toadies after 35 years of right-wing abuse, and our fellow citizens mostly don't know and also, don't care. They don't care enough to learn civics, and they don't care enough to know our history DOESN'T support abuses of excess. We've lost our moral compass of what is right or wrong. I don't have an easy answer to how to fix it. I do know that teaching hate, reflecting hate won't (not that you are doing so here), but how do you get people to care about fairness if they really believe there is nothing their vote can do to address it?
Yes, but both of those rebellions were subdued and the rule of law reinstituted.
ReplyDeleteThe US is the only nation which was founded upon a treason and had to address that after independence.
A better example would be Kenya, but that had a repressive government and still has political problems.