Napoleon, the Bastile and the Pachyderm Part 3

The colonists revolted when their fears of virtual enslavement came true in Boston in 1774 and 1775. Ironically, the efforts of the Crown to isolate the radicals in Boston from the rest of the colonies and quash rebellious sentiment had the direct effect of uniting the squabbling colonies and igniting the War. Let’s review the main reasons the American subjects felt they were being enslaved.

First, they lost the right to have a say in government. Their petitions for redress of grievances were simply ignored by Parliament and the King. This made it possible for the Government to be abusive and left no way for the colonists to try to fix the situation but violence; hence the Boston Tea Party.

Second, the Government striped several rights in response to the Boston Tea Party via the Intolerable Acts. Essentially the Crown put an end to democracy in Massachusetts with the Massachusetts Government Act. With the Administration of Justice Act they destroyed the rule of law by giving royal officials de facto immunity in all the colonies. The Boston Port Act stopped commerce in Massachusetts and threatened to create a man-made famine in the colony due to its reliance on the Port of Boston for food shipments. The Quartering Act was used as a punitive measure against the population at large, (the French pioneered this tactic against the Huguenots in the 17th century.)

Third, the Government tried to disarm the populace. Men between the ages of 17 and about 45 were required by law to serve in the militia. With their democracy and rights as Englishmen trampled all over by the Crown the colonists started stockpiling munitions in the town of Concord. Disarming a populace is one of the most important criteria to enslaving it-just ask Apartheid South Africa for one.

You can see these concerns clearly in the Bill of Rights. Right to redress grievances with the Government is in the 1st Amendment along with the right to assemble. The Government quartering troops in houses in a time of peace is prohibited under the 3rd Amendment. Right to bear arms is protected by the 2nd Amendment and to show its importance to the founders I have a quote from one of them

"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the
peoples' liberty's teeth" - George Washington

What all of this has to do with a plaster elephant, I am sure you are wondering, is that it is important to remember why, exactly why, our forefathers uprose, what tyranny was to them. The over quoted “no taxation without representation”-which is on the DC license plates-doesn’t do a very good job of telling the story. It was not for abstract philosophical principals that the founders threw off the Crown but over a long series of abuses and ignited by specific actions to snuff out freedom in America in 1774 and 1775

What happend to Statesmen?

Our founders, as great and as visionary as they were didn't see our long standing party politics coming. Fortunately they did come up with the most versatile democratic system to date. Their ability to take 13 colonies with at first virtually no chance of throwing off the mother country, then taking 13 very independent countries into to a small federal republic on the edge of civilization, paving the way for it to become the greatest nation in the annals of great nations. The United States of America dominates every sphere it enters. The USA dominates land, sea, air and space. We are the financial and business center of the world and our culture is spreading the world over (which may or may not be a good thing, depending on who you are.) McDonald's, that American icon, is found in 119 countries and no country with a McDonald's has ever attacked the US. But we must remember history, no great civilization has ever been destroyed from without, but crumbled from within.

Let me share a story:

When I was 19 I voted for the first time in Hyattsville, MD. I had to walk to the school where the voting was due to lack of parking (no, I don't deserve a medal, but I did get a sticker.) I knew everything there was to know about the presidential candidates but on the local level I didn't have a clue. I had only just moved there and really didn't know or care about local politics. Luckily they came with a (D) or a (R) after their name so I knew how to vote. When it came to some of them, like judges, they didn't have a little (D) or (R) so utterly confused as to what to do I either did eni mini mo or left them blank.

We have a two party system in this country today run by politicians. Politicians have screwed this country over, big time. The need to get a (R) or (D) created the need to pay homage to the party elites and the corruption, partisanship and enforcement of the party line stifles patriotic fervor, selflessness and compromise. Our two party system, simply strangles statesmen and turns them into politicians. My favorite Congressional leadership position are the Party Whips. Party Whips are responsible for getting the members of the party to vote with the party. I am not sure how they go about that but that is where the name, Whips, comes from.

The founders risked all they had to create and serve their countrymen, even before there was a country. They were statesmen everyone, not doing it for personal gain or personal power but for the betterment of mankind. We live in a nation created by statesmen and run by politicians. If we are so great run by scoundrel politicians what would we be under more Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adams, Franklins or Handcocks?

"What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character
in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of
virtuous actions." -Aristotle