Benjamin Franklin was far too enamoured with the French. So we ended up with a lousy rigid constitution, which I no longer support. I have not stood or recited the Pledge of Allegiance for years, and now regard it as a lousy document.
Our current troubles can be laid right at the door of the American Constitution. ALL rigid constitutions fail, and the US constitution is about to. I hope it is not too violent. But judging by what is happening in the Twin Cities right now, I can be far from certain of that. There is a grave danger of Civil War I think, and it could well start here in Minnesota.
Parliamentary democracies are much more endring. Henry Plantagenet was a really smart man.
Something I have been thinking about WRT your opinion- how the hell is this Franklin's fault? He was a writer, had a newspaper, was post master and ambassador, but he didn't create the form of government that exists because of the language in the Constitution, even if he was involved in some of it. Why blame him? He's not even listed as one of the writers of the original Federalist Papers.
He knew France would jump at the chance to fight against the British, but if he hadn't been able to get their support, this would still be a British territory, under the same king that overtaxed, abused, burdened and went to war with EVERYONE who irked him. It may be possible that Britain would have plundered, colonized and killed their way to being the largest world power and if you think the current form of Parliamentary government would exist, I think you're wrong. I think the colonies would have had slaves and I seriously doubt the practice would have ended when it did.
If the Crown had been a good model for government, it would have continued but the Colonists couldn't continue, so they wrote a Constitution that prevented the oppression that they had lived under. Remember, things on this continent were very different when the first English came and if you look into the practices of the leaders of the colonies, some were peaceful, many were anything but- the way they treated indigenous people was hellish and opportunistic- the idea of the colonies came about because they wanted to get away from religious persecution and through support from the Crown, the exploitation of EVERYTHING an everyone in their path. The excessive taxation around the time of the Revolution was due to England's inability to stop going to war with other countries and if you know anything about Thomas Jefferson, he was the one who stood up to the ransoms demanded by the Barbary pirates. Once he did that, it was just a matter of time before the rest of Europe stopped paying those turds and if anyone whop reads this doesn't know who the Barbary Pirates were, they should look into them. It still going on now, with different names for the offenders.
I also believe that technical innovation would be far behind the current level but it would be hard to know if/when World Wars I and II would have occurred and something similar to Nazism may have occurred since hatred of Jews had gone on since at least the 1200s. But if Europe had continued on a similar trajectory to what it did and the US had never won the Revolution, you would be speaking German because the US wouldn't have been able to supply the weapons/materiel that GB couldn't possibly have provided because it doesn't have the natural resources, manufacturing would never have reached the point that allowed the US to turn on a dime and convert from consumer/industrial goods to what was needed for the war effort.
One good thing about that- this is the number of American casualties from WWII- people who WOULDN'T HAVE been lost. And don't think for a moment that those who returned were 'whole' people. England's Royal family included Nazi sympathizers and people who were related to German rulers and declared war on Germany before anyone else during a time when hatred of Jews was rampant- WWII probably could have been prevented if people hadn't been so willing to hate a few groups of people. WWI was started because of a
- Total deaths: About 405,399
- Total wounded: Approximately 671,278
You think the Constitution is a rigid document that needs to go away- is this because you resent the successful conclusion of the Revolution? Aside from the 22nd through the 27th Amendments, all others were ratified before you were born and none of these have anything to do with the current state of politics, people's lack of control, crime or anything wlse. YOU have a problem with the 2nd Amendment and that's your right but you still came to this country- I assume it was for opportunities that didn't exist in England but you haven't offered anything in the way of solutions to the problems here, other than repealing 2A. Anyone can complain and it's all too common but nobody is coming up with ways to eliminate the problems.
This country was created as a way to stop living under the power and whims of a King in their pursuit of Life, Liberty and happiness, not to accept what the King tells us we can have and how much it will cost.
That said, people have caused EVERY problem created- it's not thefault of the Constitution or Benjamin Franklin, it's the fact that Human Nature was very badly underestimated and I doubt the Founding Fathers could have conceived of the depravity we're seeing, even considering the acts of Barbarians, Kings and others who you believe were superior to those in power now.
If Henry Plantagenit was as you believe, England should have been far more peaceful than it was, going forward. It would seem that his successors learned little from him.
