America, part 1

America. Land of the free. Home of the brave(s). Over the course of its 233 years, the nation has grown, evolved, and adapted, but I fear that the experiment is now done. The time of the United States has gone. Unfortunately, it seems like the end has been coming for awhile, but two earth-shaking events have brought the US to its knees. Before I jump into the "financial crisis"--oh how quaint a euphemism--and Cablegate, though, let's jump back in time to the very beginning of things.

When a substantial number of people in the colonies had decided that enough was enough, they decided that it was time to break off from the British Empire. Emboldened by the ideals of the Enlightenment, a small but very influential cadre of weathly landowners, merchants, and professionals--our Founding Fathers, no less, with capital Fs--cut the umbilical cord and declared independence. I use the over-politicized term "bourgeoisie" lightly here, albeit correctly. Take issue with that? Observe:

• George Washington: large estate owner, professional military
• James Madison: large estate owner, career politician
• John Adams: accomplished lawyer
• Samuel Adams: career politician, master brewer
• Ben Franklin: a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat
• John Hancock: extremely wealthy merchant, accomplished calligraphist
• Thomas Jefferson: large estate owner,  a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, musician, inventor, and he founded a university

They created a government with the Ideal Man in mind, and that Ideal Man was one of them: generally educated, wealthy, land-owning, and white. In 1776 they all thought this was a grand idea. It was the standard-bearer of republicanism, enlightened rule by the people. Which of course means that the common folk would elect educated, wealthy, land-owning, white elites to represent them, who knew not how to govern themselves.

For this upper class, things went smoothly following the defeat of the British in 1783. Most of them, after all, weren't even involved in the 7 years of Revolutionary War, the notable exception here being George Washington. That was what the lower class was for. The elites signed the documents, promising something or another to the commoner, and then the commoner fought for this promise. Then all of a sudden the war was over. After the obligatory celebration (which the slaves, poor, and loyalists couldn't afford to participate in), problems set in for those very same commoners who fought for the promises of the elites. Not being, for the most part, wealthy landowners, these veterans--to whom we owe a huge debt for actually accomplishing independence--didn't have an income to return to. They were fighting for the money (when you're starving and freezing, high ideals aren't really registering for you). Diligent and loyal as they were, after only 3 years enough was enough. An army of veterans stormed the capitol and demanded their (not insubstantial) back pay. They camped out for months until the government contracted out a private army to defeat and arrest their own army. 4 were killed, 20 were wounded, and 1000+ were arrested. They were never paid.

Of course, this led to the Constitution, which was generally seen as an improvement. However, being an experiment, the draft of the Constitution that Madison wrote that eventually got ratified left a whole lot of stuff out. Granted, they couldn't plan for every instance, but there was also nothing spelled out on appropriate ways the government could solve new problems as they arose. Turns out the ambiguousness of this document would infact break not only itself, but also the nation it was created to define and preserve.

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