Yeah, chest beaters like Sam Adams and Patrick Henry, what did they ever accomplish Not much. Sam Adams was the master of a mob and considered pretty low by the rest of his family. He probably instigated the Boston Massacre, and was responsible for a good deal of counterproductive mob violence. His only purpose was to act as the "bad cop" for the voices of reason like his cousin John and the other thoughtful patriots of Boston.
Patrick Henry - as is not well known - after his famous outburst in the House of Burgesses apologized abjectly because he was afraid he was going to be charged with treason.
The firebrands provided the oratory, but it was the nuts and bolts workers like Adams and Washington and Morris and Hamilton and Madison that actually put the show together.
Something of the same sort is going on here. Ideological purity makes for grand flights of rhetoric, but clear thinking gets the goal accomplished. And the goal here is getting rid of the "AW"B.
I'll take one Henry willing to raise a body of troops with his own funds over 10 Hamiltons wishing to erect a strong central government with a new king.
The nations descent into democracy and tyranny our direct consequence of the ignorance and placidity of the populace.
A free republic will not be restored by driving off the cliff more slowly (or more quickly, considering the rapacious appetite of our GOP Congress has demonstrated for spending money these last two years and handing power to the president). Bush is now on record supporting banning guns. If he puts his signature to a bill banning guns he'll do more damage to his party and the cause of freedom than he would by standing for freedom and explaining why to an American public that trusts him. I don't think the GOP benefits from masking it's intentions like the Democrats, it benefits from clearly elucidating them.