Will America have another revolution?
Violence lurks close to the surface today
The American Revolution was the product of courageous people wanting freedom from the tyranny of royals whose only claim to power was their blood line. King George III was a vacuous and often absent leader who did little to keep America as a colony but send in the troops. Passed by Congress July 4, 1776 and signed a month later, the Declaration of Independence founded a Republic, not a democracy, based on simple principles - life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The Declaration is eloquent as to those values.
The founding fathers of the American Republic established institutions designed to protect the people from its government and ensure the government served the people. President, Congress and Judiciary comprise co-equal branches of government, each able to constrain the actions of the others to a certain extent. In theory, the legislative branch (a Congress made up a House of Representatives and a Senate) enacts the laws; the executive branch (the President and his Administration) enforces the laws; and, the judicial branch (headed by the Supreme Court) interprets the laws.
Citizens are entitled to carry arms, a vital freedom if government is to be constrained.
For 345 years, the American Republic has flourished. Now the world’s strongest economy and most powerful country, the United States of America benefited from their adherence to the institutions created by the founding fathers. No other country has achieved as much.
Today, much of the institutional foundation of America democracy is in tatters. A history of mutual respect between the three branches of government has deteriorated into warring groups whose relationships are characterized by hatred and disdain, and even within the legislative branch, the two parties which have evolved since Independence are at odds with each other on most issues letting partisan political gain overwhelm reason and even common sense.
American students are rarely given an education in American history untarnished by political rhetoric. The Democrats today represent themselves as the party of the common man, claim a historic adversity to slavery and subsequent subjugation of Black Americans, but the reverse is factually the case. Writing for the American Thinker in 2016, Paul Murphy wrote:
The “Pesta” Murphy is referring to is teacher Duke Pesta who found the majority of his students in an American high school had no idea that slavery existed outside of the United States before Independence and was endemic in Europe, with the King of England and later Queen Victoria entering into agreements as to who would be licensed to take slaves and how much the monarch would receive for the licenses granted. Blacks from Africa were not the only persons sold into slavery. Oliver Cromwell under the direction of the King of England committed atrocities against the Irish people including selling hundreds of thousands of Irish men into slavery in Barbados and the West Indies.
Black Lives Matter, founded by an avowed Marxist and a convicted terrorist, has done little for Blacks but has used the millions it has raised from the public who have been duped into believing the organization advances Blacks to promote Democrats and support their election.
Leading Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar all made a run for President and all have extreme left wing views, with Sanders at times admitting he is Communist; Warren wanting to punish successful Americans with her proposed “wealth tax”; and, Klobuchar nodding in agreement with both Sanders and Warren at every opporunity. Exteme left wing Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar seem to want to upend capitalism in its entirety.
The unifying theme of the Democratic Party is not simply socialism but its hatred of Republicans.
The Republican Party is no better than the Democrats in terms of their antipathy to Democrats. Nonetheless, they are the party that wishes to preserve individual freedoms and uphold the values of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Soiled by the extreme rhetoric that emitted from President Donald Trump on a daily basis, their adherence to traditional values is rightly attacked for its continued support for Trump as their leader come hell or high water. It is an odd quirk of history that despite his vile character Trump will be remembered for policies that define his legacy as a great President while the very popular Barack Obama may well have been the worst President in American history. The polarization of American society into left and right will undoubtedly surface millions who will dispute either claim so it is left to citizens to make up their own minds.
The unifying theme of the Republican Party is no longer American values but is now its hatred of Democrats.
For hundreds of years, the best description of the differences between left and right in America has been mutual respect and even cooperation to bring about an improved life for Americans, with extreme views on either side yielding to common sense and policies finding a reasonable middle ground. Democrats and Republicans golfed together, vacationed together, attended one another’s weddings and christenings, and generally got along very well. That has all changed in the post Clinton years with mutual respect replaced by outright hatred. Barack Obama can take a large part of the blame regardless of your political leaning and Hilary Clinton’s attempt to become President while calling Republicans “deplorables” did little to bring harmony.
The riots in Portland, Seattle and the January 6, 2021 riot in D.C. are symptoms of the breakdown of American democracy with Democrats soft-pedalling the mayhem in Portland and Seattle and even defending it while Republicans downplay the Washington protests. Objectively, summer of rioting driven by Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists saw numerous deaths, arson, looting and violence while the only violence in D.C. was the shooting of an unarmed protester by a Capital law enforcement officer. Even so, strident Democrats claimed the unrelated death of a Capital police officer from natural causes was his murder at the hands of rioters and the shooting of the hapless rioter in D.C. was justifiable, while right wing Replublicans decried the lawlessness of the summer riots including the gun violence that took place therein.
This does not end well. The United States is a powder keg of hatred which could blow up into a serious conflagration at any time, and may do so when the poorly thought through policies of President Biden which weaken the economy, make citizens more and more dependent on government, and, destroy the vital energy industry bear fruit in the form of widespread energy shortages and potentially economic collapse should a bond issue (to fund the massive deficit) fail owing to a buyer’s strike in the face of rising inflation.
History teaches us that violent outbreaks are not a smooth transition from peace but an emotional reaction to a single event or speech.
The Russian revolution broke out in St. Petersburg when citizens revolted and the brutal response of Czar Nicholas was labeled by historians as “Bloody Sunday”. The ensuing violence saw the Czar overthrown and a series of uprisings leading to the ultimate Communist government under Vladmir Lenin after a short but unsuccessful flirtation with democracy.
In Cuba, Batista’s seizure of power and suspension of the Constitution created the conditions that led to his violent overthrow by forces led by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
Louis XIV’s ouster in France followed his profligate spending on building the Palace of Versaille which bankrupted the country coupled with an economic collapse and widespread poverty and starvation.
In the United States today, we have in Joe Biden a leader who seems intent on destroying capitalism, squandering trillions on a vain effort to alter nature, and intent on dramatically increasing taxation on the industrial elite who have created the wealth the Democrats want to share with those who have created little. That is a powder keg of historical proportions and paves the way for a sharp and protracted American economic recession that might well lead to violence.
I am hopeful that the institutions created by the founding fathers remain strong enough to avoid the breakdown of society in the United States but I am not optimistic.