Posted on 04/03/2014 3:00:56 AM PDT by kingattax
We hear a great deal about how America needs to be “changed” by people who don’t seem to know America’s history, understand our country’s uniqueness, or appreciate how good we’ve had it as a people.
Until you understand what made America a great nation to begin with, you have no business suggesting any changes to the policies, tradition, and culture that made us so uniquely successful.
It’s not an accident that America became a great power. It’s because of these seven reasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at rightwingnews.com ...
“...the USA really rose to power after the WWII smashed up everyone else.”
The world’s industrial numbers were overwhelmingly American by 1871. We were just the quiet guy in the bar while all the noisy dwarves bragged and squabbled.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/06/daily-chart-8
Correction - We became a world power by smashing everyone else. The Army Air Force blasted Germany and Japan to rubble. The two atomic bombs only did 3% of the damage to Japan.
America Became A Great Power...
Don’t worry, Obama’s working as hard as he can to correct that...
Not exactly. There were some Heugenots, but in actuality America got surprisingly few immigrants from Catholic-ruled countries prior to the Revolution, or indeed after it until the Italians started arriving in the late 19th century.
The Puritans, Scotch-Irish and Catholic Irish were to varying degrees refugees from religious persecution, but it was by the Church of England (or Ireland), not Roman Catholics.
The european part of wwII was really about Germany vs. Russia.
probably 20 million dead on each side.
And russia was getting the better of germany before the USA entered.
Now the English and Americans certainly made the russian job easier by opening the 2nd front.
In the comedy Hogan’s Heros, there was a really good reason why every german in that show trembled with idea of being sent to the russian front.
I think the “Presbyterian rebellion” notion can only be maintained if one uses the term quite loosely, lumping in Congregationalists, which the Brits and Loyalists of the time probably did.
New Englanders were almost all Congregationalists, not Presbyterians proper. The South was dominated by C of E, which in some colonies was the Established Church.
Presbyterians were primarily Scots or Scotch-Irish and were mostly found on the frontier or in the Middle Colonies, especially PA.
I’d be interested if you have a reference for the 40% number. Sounds high to me.
Ran across an interesting site for religion of the 208 men it classifies as Founders. 55% were Episcopal/C of E. Presbyterians were at 19% and Congregationalists at 17%. Big dropoff thereafter.
http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html
I don’t think the Presbyterians can accurately be claimed as dominant in the Revolution, despite what its opponents may have said at the time.
But my interest is in why that happened, and my answer is the “Four Pillars.”
“...a Christian, mostly Protestant religious foundation”
Not just Protestant...but a very specific flavor. Backwoods hillbilly hardcore and hardscrabble. At the time, Ulster Presbyterianism.
40%+/- of Washington’s enlisted troops and the Over the Mountain Men in the Carolinas were of the same ilk just as example.
“A Hessian captain, fighting on behalf of the British, told a friend in Germany in 1778, “call this war, dearest friend, by whatsoever name you may, only call it not an American Revolution, it is nothing more nor less than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.”
More in Journal of American Revolution.
http://allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/presbyterian-rebellion/
Google Scottish Enlightenment (Adam Smith) and Scots Reformation (John Knox) if you seek the kernels of our liberties and American character.
“...a Christian, mostly Protestant religious foundation”
Not just Protestant...but a very specific flavor. Backwoods hillbilly hardcore and hardscrabble. At the time, Ulster Presbyterianism.
40%+/- of Washington’s enlisted troops and the Over the Mountain Men in the Carolinas were of the same ilk just as example.
“A Hessian captain, fighting on behalf of the British, told a friend in Germany in 1778, “call this war, dearest friend, by whatsoever name you may, only call it not an American Revolution, it is nothing more nor less than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.”
More in Journal of American Revolution.
http://allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/presbyterian-rebellion/
Google Scottish Enlightenment (Adam Smith) and Scots Reformation (John Knox) if you seek the kernels of our liberties and American character.
This is absolutely correct. American Catholicism, although MUCH more “latitudinarian” than European Catholicism, nevertheless usually came from a culture infused with socialism and communalism (France, Italy, Germany, or Ireland). It is a statistical fact, that Tom Sowell shows, that Irish have much preferred to work in government, the police, fire, rather than start businesses. Many of the southern European Catholics arrived seeing the president as no different from a king or dictator and had virtually no understanding of “republicanism.”
Yes, virtually ALL the colonies, even Maryland, were heavily protestant. Even PA with the Quakers had strong German Protestant influences. In other words, the US was not primarily ever a Catholic nation. This generally, though not always, meant that there was less of willingness to tolerate top-down governance, and rather a tendency to embrace bottom up common-law governance.
Yes, this is from Jeremiah and also Corinthians, where God says He writes the laws “on the hearts of the people.”
Yes. Absolutely right. A large number of the Revolutionaries who actually FOUGHT were Scots-Irish.
I thought it was mostly because we turned out to be bigger and meaner than the Japanese. :)
I agree. It was a unique blend of peoples, resources, distance, and geo-politics at the time that enabled us to to pull it all off.
In shorthand, I always describe the gentlemen Tidewater Anglican/Cavalier types (now Episcopalians) and Puritan/dissenters providing most of the money, respectability, leadership and intellect while the Calvinist/Knoxite Presbyterian/Congregationalists provided the much of the mob and muscle.
Would that diversity gave us such strength today.
Population of UK at the time around 12M, but about 4M of that was in Ireland, and most of that was hardly a group that made the country stronger. Most Irish (and Scotch-Irish) at the time were strongly anti-British, and for good reason.
Population of what became US, about 2.5M and growing very fast. A good chunk of whom were slaves.
Given the tech and logistics of the time, it was probably just not possible for UK to conquer US in 1770s, if Americans just refused to give up. They couldn’t support a large enough army to conquer and control territory of that size, particularly since America just didn’t have a single vulnerable point.
From another perspective, if we hadn’t broken away in 1776, either a successful revolution or something like Canada/Australia was inevitable sometime during the 19th century. The Brits just couldn’t continue to dominate a continent as its population and industry grew.
The Brits, after all, gave practical independence with little resistance to both Oz and Canada. But OTOH they learned a lesson the really hard way from George and the boys.
...Well said
....~\\\ I Wish I had said it ///~...
I also wish I could be that wise but that is a quote from Ayn Rand.
As is this quote :
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Ayn Rand
Long before Rand's observation, there was this quote.
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." - Tacitus, Roman Senator and Historian (A.D. c.56 - c. 115) Tacitus (c. 56/57-ca. 125) was a Roman orator and historian. In a life that spanned the reigns of the Flavian emperors and of Trajan and Hadrian, he played a part in the public life of Rome and became its greatest historian.
Fortunately, for us, some people share their observations of events that others live. Quotations provide a viable way to weave their wisdom and observations into our everyday lives.
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