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Today, the people that live in the USA, have less liberty, than under King Georges rule.
Government at all levels, with the goal of controlling people more and more, has become more tyrannical than under the rule of King George and the British Parliament.
Empowering the people has been forgotten, in the push to empower the government.
It was economic disaster that prompted the revolution, the king wanted to pull the coins from circulation in our economy and that would've shut it down. That is worth fighting a war over.
Today, the people that live in the USA, have less liberty, than under King Georges rule.
Government at all levels, with the goal of controlling people more and more, has become more tyrannical than under the rule of King George and the British Parliament.
Empowering the people has been forgotten, in the push to empower the government.
Check this out: your statements are merely conclusions without any underlying rationale.
I shall check back tomorrow to see if you have decided to spell out, for instance, what liberties the American colonists had during the tenure of King George III, what liberties said colonists did not have, and then an explanation comparing such to today.
Check this out: your statements are merely conclusions without any underlying rationale.
I shall check back tomorrow to see if you have decided to spell out, for instance, what liberties the American colonists had during the tenure of King George III, what liberties said colonists did not have, and then an explanation comparing such to today.
To be fair, much of the colonies, especially on the frontiers, were practically in a state of anarchy. Tax-collection in the early United States was difficult if not impossible. The vast-majority of taxes simply were never paid, and smuggling was so commonplace that most imported goods into the United States were via smuggling(so, no taxes).
Let us remember that in every society, the common people are never really the ones in power, and they are never the ones who start revolutions. Revolutions are always brought on by the elites of a society(IE the people with the money and organizational skills to manipulate the people for their advantage).
In America, the elites were broken down primarily into merchants, farmers, bankers, and the military.
The bankers did not want a revolution, and New York City became a "loyalist stronghold"(just as it is today).
The merchants were the ones who primarily had to pay the taxes, and many of them were smugglers, so they tended to support the revolution. The farmers also hated paying taxes, and they also hated the bankers(this hatred would fuel the later Whiskey Rebellion and Shay's rebellion), and they were eager for independence. Especially after the lands won in the Seven-Years war(of which they were expected to pay the costs of the war), were to be handed over to French Catholics in Quebec.
This left big farmers(IE plantation owners) like George Washington angry, because his investments in the Ohio territory were to be lost(and to Catholics no less).
These farmers demanded the lands which were to be handed to Quebec, and part of the settlement post-Revolutionary War, was to hand roughly half of what would have been Quebec, to the United States, which we would call the Northwest territories.
The military was another problem. People like George Washington were members of the "Colonial militia". They were not members of the British military. This meant that Washington's commission in the colonial militia did not make him eligible for a commission in the British military(which is where the real honors were).
For some reference, think of the your state's "National guard". It is functionally just a state militia, and its officers are appointed by state officials, and at least historically, its members were not part of the "National Army". The National Army and the state militias were separate entities, and one's rank and commission did not carry over from one to the other.
This left George Washington angry, because all his honors and prestige, fighting in the Seven-Years war(he actually started that war), did not give him the honor he thought he deserved. When the colonial government offered George Washington a commission as the commander of the colonial Army, he took it. This is also why "Benedict Arnold" at first took up the cause of the revolution, but then after the British Army granted him rank and command in the British Army, he changed sides.
The Revolution wasn't really even very Revolutionary. Most of the people in charge in 1776, were still in charge in 1783. And although the colonies were now free of the taxes levied by Britain, it was not free of paying taxes. And one of the first things Washington did as president, was pass something called the "Whiskey Tax". Which itself led to the Whiskey Rebellion, which was based on many of the same principles on which the Revolution was supposedly fought, but George Washington himself led troops into Pennsylvania to put it down(Thomas Jefferson would later repeal the Whiskey tax as president).
The forms of government really didn't change either(there was democracy before the revolution, both in America and in Britain), and almost everything in the Constitution didn't apply directly to the states. The only real difference was that the taxes collected were going to Washington D.C. instead of London. Which gave the elites in America more power, and thus more ability to manipulate the government to their advantage. Which they have done ever since.
And by pretending that the government is "by the people", they have been able to silence all the voices who oppose them.
"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the People's Stick." - Mikhail Bakunin
As Bentbow correctly points out, the colonists were certainly more free than we are today. The only thing the British government wanted from the colonies was tax revenue, and even then, the taxes were almost nothing, and for most things you could avoid them altogether.
The British government wasn't interested at all in regulating people's lives, and almost all issues were left entirely up to the states.
And had we not overthrown that government, it is likely that we would be more-free today than we are now, because the government would have never had the "pretended" legitimacy it currently possesses, giving it the supposed right to do almost anything it wants, because it is doing so by "the will of the people".
If a monarch overstepped his bounds, resistance was legitimate, and so monarchs rarely attempted to overstep much because it might lead to rebellion/civil-war. And the real power in Britain was not held by the King anyway, it was held by the parliament(why do you think we wanted representation in parliament?).
The King was merely the enforcer of the laws, an executive, he didn't truly hold the power. But since the position of King was usually based on a theory of "Divine right"(IE Romans 13 in your bible), then the King himself(and thus parliament) was always limited by the bible, or at least the Church(which further bound his hands).
"No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then, be surely doomed." - John Jay
It reminds me of what Lord Acton wrote to Robert E. Lee....
"I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy. The institutions of your Republic have not exercised on the old world the salutary and liberating influence which ought to have belonged to them, by reason of those defects and abuses of principle which the Confederate Constitution was expressly and wisely calculated to remedy. I believed that the example of that great Reform would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom purged of the native dangers and disorders of Republics. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo."
Today, the people that live in the USA, have less liberty, than under King Georges rule.
Government at all levels, with the goal of controlling people more and more, has become more tyrannical than under the rule of King George and the British Parliament.
Empowering the people has been forgotten, in the push to empower the government.
Yet you can still run for office and enter politics any time you want.
If it's so tyrannical, how did all our elected representatives get into government?
How did people from poor families enter politics?
So many of our elected officials started out with nothing and crawled their way to government positions.
Let me remind people here in the simplest way I can.
All governments are controlled by the elites. If a government keeps its elites happy, it can stay in power indefinitely.
The founding fathers were not commoners, they were America's elites. And the only reason America fought the Revolution, was because our elites thought they would have more money/power by leaving Britain than by staying.
This same principle applies to southern secession as well(IE the Confederacy). The southern elites consisted primarily of wealthy plantation owners, who believed they would have more money/power by having their states secede, rather than stay in the union.
It had less to do about slavery than about tariffs(though the two were intrinsically linked, and the slave-question was more easily exploited). In the 1850's, the states had fought over tariffs, because Northern industry required them to protect their industry. The South opposed them because their economy was built on exports, and high tariffs would hurt their economies, and thus the elites who controlled them.
The Congress had proposed the "Morrill tariff", which would have nearly tripled the effective tariff rate on all imported goods. It was passed in the House of Representatives in May 1860. Then in the election of 1860, the Republicans made it clear during their campaign that they intended to pass the tariff once in office. They won the election in November 1860, and then South Carolina declared secession in December 1860. The tariff was signed by Lincoln in March 1861, and the Civil War broke out in April 1861.
Keep the elites happy, and they'll help you keep the commoners in subjection. It is true in America, and it is true everywhere. Look at communist China, or Soviet Russia, or Great Britain. None of these countries care about the common people. They manipulate them with lies and propaganda, to make sure they remain obedient workers, soldiers, and consumers, who are led to believe naively that they are free.
"The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes – a large class, no doubt – each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,” and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change." - Lysander Spooner
The Revolution wasn't really even very Revolutionary. Most of the people in charge in 1776, were still in charge in 1783. And although the colonies were now free of the taxes levied by Britain, it was not free of paying taxes. And one of the first things Washington did as president, was pass something called the "Whiskey Tax". Which itself led to the Whiskey Rebellion, which was based on many of the same principles on which the Revolution was supposedly fought, but George Washington himself led troops into Pennsylvania to put it down(Thomas Jefferson would later repeal the Whiskey tax as president).
The forms of government really didn't change either(there was democracy before the revolution, both in America and in Britain), and almost everything in the Constitution didn't apply directly to the states. The only real difference was that the taxes collected were going to Washington D.C. instead of London. Which gave the elites in America more power, and thus more ability to manipulate the government to their advantage. Which they have done ever since.
It was about taxation without representation. The folks who think taxes are theft are merely cheap and not patriotic.
It was about taxation without representation. The folks who think taxes are theft are merely cheap and not patriotic.
The old "paying taxes is patriotic" leftist canard. America was founded in some part due to an anti-tax mentality.
We don't have representation now. We have fake representation where we are told we are being represented only for our taxes to go to enhancing the lifestyles of the elites.
I have teh internet therefore I have a right to complain about superficial things.
Just remember, real tyranny doesn't give you options like voting, running for office yourself or renouncing your citizenship.
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