[Dean's World] Dean: Post-Independence Day Thoughts

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Post-Independence Day Thoughts
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152164058.shtml


   Matthew Yglesias had an interesting essay the other day, arguing that
   [1]the world might have been a better place if people in America and
   the United Kingdom had been smarter.

   He makes some good arguments, although honestly his title tips his
   hand too much, and his more snotty comments about America's founders
   kind of dilutes the message.

   I have long argued that had George III and his Parliament been smarter
   there would never have been a serious uprising in the 13 American
   colonies, certainly not a big enough one to matter anyway. But I think
   it's wrong to put that on both sides, for many of the founding fathers
   struggled mightily to get the Crown to redress their grievances in
   order to avoid rebellion, including Ben Franklin himself.

   I would also point out that while it is true that the British wound
   up--in the long run--treating the Canadians, the Australians, the New
   Zealanders, the Indians, and other former colonies quite well, the
   truth of the matter is I'm not at all sure they would have if they
   didn't have the embarrassing matter of the Americans to rub it into
   their noses what could happen if they were too high-handed.

   I think that, much as Catholics often grudgingly admits these days
   that many of Martin Luther's biggest complaints were valid, causing
   them to implement changes, I think the loss of the 13 colonies under
   George III changed how the British treated their Imperial subjects.

   The bottom line is, the Crown and the majority in Parliament were not
   smart in the 1770s, and that, as they say, is history. It's also not
   something to have bad blood about; the British and the Americans are
   best friends now, and no reason it should be otherwise.

   But really, the idea that the American founders were to blame? I'm not
   seeing it. And I think this wonderful cartoon from my childhood
   expresses perfectly how I feel about it, even if the literal history
   of it is a little childish. ;-)

   [EMBED]

   (Thanks Scott.)

References

   1. http://yglesias.tpmcafe.com/blog/yglesias/2006/jul/03/the_tragedy_of_american_independence