Yes, there is much you have so far failed to grasp.
the OlLine Rebel: "In the great scheme of things, Britain is and was the next best thing to the USA.
If you cannot acknowledge that, I can’t help you."
Sure, but so what?
Our Founders did not simply copy the British system, rather they looked at every political system in recorded history, and took what worked best from each.
But it seems your larger point is an effort to claim the Brits weren't really very oppressive, really they were nice friendly people, just like today, and so our Founders had no real cause for Revolution -- do I have that correct?
And somehow you seem unimpressed by our Founders' Declaration of Independence itemized list of dozens of complaints against "the King of England", including one eventually dropped, that "he" had imposed slavery on the colonies, and would not let them abolish it!
More to the point, the king wanted to rule over his colonies without giving them a voice in Parliament.
So "no taxation without representation" was the slogan which eventually won over our "low information" Founding generation.
the OlLine Rebel: "Don’t libel me just because I see the right to secede."
It's always amusing, and sometimes bemusing, to see how quick our Pro-Confederates are to insult those who disagree, and just as quick to "take offense" at words normal people consider non-insulting.
the OlLine Rebel: "I don’t stop seeing that right just because the secessionists had or wanted slaves.
Supporting that right is not supporting the slavery idea.
You need to separate these issues.
It’s a right for them as much as for the colonials, the American British (and that’s what they would actually have been)."
First of all, everyone on these threads acknowledges a "right to secede" -- lawfully, peacefully -- through Congress, the Supreme Court or a Constitutional Amendment, once it's approved: you're out of here, you're gone, you're history.
But if you unilaterally declare secession, "at pleasure", then start seizing property which doesn't belong to you, if you imprison, threaten and shoot at Federal officials, if you formally declare war on the United States, then you're fate will be pretty much the same as that last crowd which pulled such stunts.
Second, there's a huge difference between our Founders in 1775 and slave-holding secessionists in 1861.
For one: Founders like Ben Franklin had spent many years in London, trying to negotiate peaceful resolutions of Colonists concerns, with no results.
By contrast, the Slave-Power had ruled in Washington DC, virtually the entire time from the Republic's Founding in 1788 until secession in 1861.
For another difference: over many years, our Founders had developed a long list of actual oppressions and usurpations, which they spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.
By contrast, the Slave-Power having ruled for generations, had nothing serious to complain about, except a potential future threat to slavery represented by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln.
the OlLine Rebel: "I suppose you can libel Walt Williams as a racist slaver who self-loathes."
Is that your opinion?
I've had no such thought.
Where did I insult you, or anyone else?
I’ve had it with this circular argument. Done.