Spinning across that shark at 90 miles an hour….

The fact is, class warfare never plays well in Peoria, and liberals should remember that here in the Heartland we work hard

…except for Cheeto-stained bloggers like you, jackass. Now shut the hell up and let the adults talk.

Jillian–what an interesting view of those times and Federalist 10. And no, it does not make you “unpatriotic scum”. It does make those NR types out there who don’t know those details look rather bad though…

The revolution never really had what you’d want to call “popular support”. John Adams estimated the support for revolution at about a third of the population in 1776, and I haven’t seen a modern historian that puts it over 40% (Adams was a smart guy). It was funded, supported and run by a bunch of rich guys who stood to get even richer off of its success and by the French, who hated England. Incidentally, if the French hadn’t been nice enough to stage their own revolution a few years after our own, there’s a good chance that the infant America would’ve failed before 1815 or so. France saved our asses twice.

I’m not really familiar with any studies talking about support for the revolution during its course, but considering how badly it went for the first five years or so, I can’t imagine it was very high. The desertion rate in the Continental army was staggering, and Washington was not above using the lash and the gallows to keep it in check.

Then, after the revolution is won off of the sweat, blood, and money of the independent yeoman farmer and craftsman – who bought war bonds to pay for the damn war – the Articles of Confederation turn those bonds into worthless paper that crafty speculators pick up for ten cents on the dollar and then make a KILLING off of after the ratification of the Constitution. The AoC couldn’t coin money to redeem the bonds, and actual working people couldn’t keep the bulk of their money in investments, but credit speculators, who knew which way the wind was blowing, surely could. And once the Constitution was ratified, there was a currency in which those bonds could be redeemed, much to the delight of the rich folks who picked them up and made insane profit off of them.

The story we’re told about the founding of America is not false, but there is a HELL of a lot of hot air in it. Read Federalist #10, which talks about “the dangers of faction”, and ask yourself how you would feel about it if folks like YOU were the “faction” under discussion. Check out in particular the part that discusses the dangers of “a rage for paper money or an abolition of debts” – who exactly was James Madison worried about forming a faction? Ask yourself why the Framers thought it necessary to write provisions into the Constitution dealing with bankruptcy, if all it is is a document enshrining human liberty.

All the pissing and moaning BEFORE the Revolution about the EVIL TAXES imposed upon us by a wicked king also neglect to mention that those taxes were in large measure to pay for the costs incurred by the crown in defending American colonists during the French and Indian war. Since when is it unreasonable to expect people to pay taxes to support their own military that actually had just defended them against an aggressor nation? But that’s not the way the story gets told.

American colonists were never starving. But “American colonists” weren’t the ones who fomented the revolution in the first place. A bunch of wealthy, landed tax resisters were. And that probably has a lot to do with why American remains a haven for wealthy, landed tax resisters to this day.

So, does this make me unpatriotic scum, or what?

Jillian, to mix up your metaphor a bit, the gamblers at the top ain’t too worried, because they’re rolling loaded dice.

The cultural equivalent of inbreeding has made the One Percenters lazy, incurious, and slow. Prescott Bush was careful to keep his dealings with the Nazis out of the public eye. “Poppy” Bush still retained enough sense of self-protection to fake populist leanings (pork rinds yes, broccoli no; speedboats yes, polo ponies no). Dubya so despises the MSM lapdogs that he lets them get pictures of him holding hands with the chief representative of a country which has fattened itself on America’s energy dollars while producing most of the 911 suicide bombers.

There’s an old proverb, “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” Improvements in modern techology and media have given the puppeteers behind the current Oval Office Occupant somewhat more scope, but it’s beginning to look as though history will treat the regime of Bush the Lesser as combining all the worst flaws of both Harding’s and Hoover’s administrations. Assuming, of course, that anyone survives the meltdown now glowing just over the horizon.

But, worst of all, the prosperity under Clinton really did improve the lot of most Americans. Even though it made the plutocrats richer, it made the rest of us richer too. As G.W. Bush can easily tell you, having money spoils the servant class. It makes us uppity; we demand higher-than-slave wages, and actual benefits, including health care. (The current health care system is great so long as the plutocrats profit from it; when they actually start having to pay for insurance for their employees, they hit the roof.) Worst of all, when the servant class are not struggling for day-to-day survival, we’ll start to ask questions. We’ll talk about how Prescott Bush made deals with the Nazis during our fight against fascism. Better to keep us fighting with each other over whatever scraps the slobs drop from the table we’ve set for them. Then, the plutocrats can distract us with bogus stories about how t3h gayz wants all our rights, and them dirty Mexicans wants our second jobs.

As Dr. Orlando Figes recounts, in “A People’s Tragedy”, the Bolsheviks did not have to impose a reign of terror. By 1917, the peoples of the Tsar’s empire were eager to burn and kill their moneyed rulers. As with us now, the combustible combination of the rulers’ naked greed and total incompetence just waited for a spark. That spark was their complete mismanagement of an optional war…

Alan, were you at the WGA meeting tonight? I thought I recognized you there.

Unfortunately, I think we probably have to start starving in order to get desparate enough for this.

I am aware from my reading how bad it was for the proletariat in France prior to the Revolution, and in Russia.

But now I’m curious how bad it had to get for the colonists before they snapped. Was it just because they were a bunch of pissed-off tea importers? IIRC, it never got to the point of starving masses.

You mean someday I could be Preznit, too?????

Seriously, we should all write loads of tripe about Hitler being a liberal and get rich like good old Jonah. I could come up with that crap. I know I could.

Signed,

Alan Smithee

Wouldn’t it make sense for the plutocracy to slow it down, throw the proles a bone, a little help, a few bucks, to kind of perpetuate their position of wealth and power?

Ironically, this is exactly what the New Deal was. Give the peasents just enough to keep happy enough to not find being gunned down by a militia a reasonable option. The irony, of course, is that the right has spent the last 75 years screaming that it was a communist plot to destroy capitalism once and for all!! FDR learned it from Stalin!!eleven

The sad truth is that these people do not obtain wealth so they and their families can live well. They obtain it because they enjoy being better than those little people. I don’t see the appeal personally, but 6000 years of human history don’t lie.

But right now? I need a nap…

mikey

Can we ever get our asses off the sofa long enough to foment rebellion? The Lords and Ladies of our great nation already provide us with strong drugs, mind numbing TV, the circuses of steroid-sports, soul eating religious fundamentalism, misplaced pride in our exceptionalism, and fear…never-ending fear of the raping murderous other whose identity is forever shifting.

Ahhhh FUCKIT!

I got fired a month ago. Got a little money and nothing to lose. The revolution starts now.

Um, seriously, what next? IED’s?

I’m pretty good with chemistry.