When I first noticed that the US was one of the few former British colonies to wage a bloody war of independence, while many other colonies in the empire figured a less violent way forward, I started to suspect something wasn’t adding up. Maybe the US founders were too hot-headed, as partially right as their grievances may have been. Maybe they sucked at negotiating a smarter way. Maybe the US was not the architect of democracy it crowned itself in 1776. But more disturbingly, maybe it wasn’t as interested in unalienable rights as it proclaimed in its declaration of independence.
To be clear about one thing, the monarchy in 1776 was far from perfect. As ways to lead large masses of people go, it was on thin ice and borrowed time.
And yet as monarchies go, the House of Hanover with its four Georges was fairly savvy.
Peeling back the onion:
The Kingdom already had a Parliament in 1776, albeit not exactly 100% democratic. Then again, we’re not even there in 2025 so I digress. A more brutally honest look reveals that America was not exactly God’s gift to democracy, with its revolution heard around the world. Even if to be fair it did move the needle significantly. Great Britain’s parliament dated back to 1706. Timeline check: the US founders had not even been born yet. And that parliament was actually a merger of two parliaments dating back to the 1200s (England and Scotland).
By 1776 there were two houses in the parliament of Great Britain: Lords and Commons. In more diluted incarnations Commons dates back centuries, but it finally took shape and relevance in 1706. By 1776 the monarchy, nobility and the Church controlled the House of Lords, which no doubt was a thorn on the side of the British colonies. And yet the House of Lords knew better than to not work within the boundaries of a fledgling democracy. It remembered all too well the ghost of Oliver Cromwell. A ghost that went BOO! in 1649, abolishing the monarchy altogether. Not to be outdone (unalived, erased, canceled) the Crown made an impressive comeback a mere decade later.
Almost two-hundred years later, in 1832 the Reform Act turned the tables for that fledgling democracy with another seismic shift. Not a single shot fired. The House of Commons roared as the brave new “middle class” was allowed to vote. That was one small step for parliament, one giant step for democracy (with all due to respect to women, labor class, and, oh yes, slaves.)
But wait, it gets better: almost immediately the British Parliament, led by the House of Commons, abolished slavery. Thirty years before the United States. And once again, not one shot fired.
So back to this thing we call “freedom”. Unintentionally I’m sure, the United States Declaration of Independence had set itself up for failure from the start. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Oh the humanity.
Not to let negativity consume us, let’s look at the positives. Not all founders of America were slaveowners. In fact less than you’d expect from the time. Sure, the majority were. Exactly two-thirds. Which makes you wonder about that “two-thirds majority” ratio spelled out in Article V. But nevertheless one-third is a sizable block. A David that eventually overcame Goliath. Just like Commons had over Lords.
The cynic in my brain believes that the mighty American Declaration of Independence was just another oligarchic tantrum in the history of human civilization. “We don’t want to play by anyone else’s rules anymore. Look at all this rich land. We don’t need you anymore, go away. There’s a new sheriff in town. I’m the new king now. Er, president.”
And yet the optimist and dreamer in me refuses to give up. The US has contributed wonders to the world. Even in a parallel universe, without a bloody revolution, it very likely would have still been a beacon to civilization on earth.
No matter how this ends, as the United States of America flirts with fascism and dances with the devil it once knew by another name, history will still remember America’s brief and shining moment kindly.
Progress is scrappy. Civilization is painfully slow. Evolution can only be fathomed as a freeze frame.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Take heed America: the course of human events is coming around full circle.
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