Frank's Musings

This may be a stretch; but the Ken Burns film on The American Revolution can be interpreted as a lesson that the United States was formed because the colonies’ governing authority and loyalist sympathizers failed to recognize how different and independent thinking the colonists had become.   Today, the liberal democratic rationale of the U.S. government is being threatened by a reactionary cabal that resents the cultural changes that are the inevitable result of the humanistic policies on which the country was founded 250 years ago.

At that point, Great Britain did not realize that establishing a distant colony would encourage people to act independently.   Even in the eighteenth century, stubborn defenders of a right to enjoy the privileges of conquest were doomed to be left behind in the technological and intellectual development of man.  And so, the listless desire of the MAGA Crowd to abdicate personal responsibility for and participation in self-government will inevitably be defeated by the advance of the human spirit. 

Of course, realization of Mr. Burns’ optimistic expectation could take a long time unless a determined coalition, directed by a widely esteemed leader, renews the country's dedication to common values. Perhaps 250 years is not surprisingly long for us to have to reform our political system and recapture its purpose.