"For his whole life, Rob had weathered the seasonal challenges and political threats under his parents protection. Now, his parents and the way of life his clan had relied upon was being swept away by political winds from as far away as... France. And his own political convictions were being formed. ... He despised needless bloodshed, and fought against the injustice that plagued his clan -- aggressively but with foresight. He was to become a hero of the Highlands."
Not only that, but he was a cattleman! Unreal!
[Note to hysterical libs: clan here refers only to Scottish political/familial organizations]
Perhaps Shmeagle really is the more appropriate character for Kerry. After this election cycle he'll spend the rest of his wretched life in babbling oblivion, bottom-feeding on scraps of publicity trying desperately to re-discover his ring of power.
Essentially, Rob Roy was head of the local protection racket, in which his entire family were key players. They earned their living extorting money from cattle owners and drovers, and spent their leisure hours ambushing their hereditary enemies, when they weren't pillaging and raping. (Rob Roy's son Robin Og was eventually hanged for kidnapping and raping an heiress.) He was "out" in the '15 for what he could get out of it. His oldest son James Mor was also a bit of a rogue. Read Stevenson's David Balfour for a very clever portrait of James, and also a thumbnail sketch of the Byzantine nature of Scottish politics after the '45. As Balfour says of politics in the book, "I had seen it from behind, where it was all bones and blackness."
- I'm descended from Rob Roy's cousin Thomas MacGregor, who headed for America in the early 1700s one jump ahead of the law. Changed his name when he got here too.