Dylan Matthews has written quite an interesting and controversial piece at Vox titled 3 reasons the American Revolution was a mistake. Here’s an excerpt:
This July 4, let's not mince words: American independence in 1776 was a monumental mistake. We should be mourning the fact that we left the United Kingdom, not cheering it.
Of course, evaluating the wisdom of the American Revolution means dealing with counterfactuals. As any historian would tell you, this is a messy business. We obviously can't be entirely sure how America would have fared if it had stayed in the British Empire longer, perhaps gaining independence a century or so later, along with Canada.
But I'm reasonably confident a world in which the revolution never happened would be better than the one we live in now, for three main reasons: Slavery would've been abolished earlier, American Indians would've faced rampant persecution but not the outright ethnic cleansing Andrew Jackson and other American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of government that makes policymaking easier and lessens the risk of democratic collapse. [...]
The main benefit of the revolution to colonists was that it gave more political power to America's white male minority. For the vast majority of the country — its women, slaves, American Indians — the difference between disenfranchisement in an independent America and disenfranchisement in a British-controlled colonial America was negligible. If anything, the latter would've been preferable, since at least women and minorities wouldn't be singled out for disenfranchisement. From the vantage point of most of the country, who cares if white men had to suffer through what everyone else did for a while longer, especially if them doing so meant slaves gained decades of free life? [...]
Indeed, a desire to preserve slavery helped fuel Southern support for the war. In 1775, after the war had begun in Massachusetts, the Earl of Dunmore, then governor of Virginia, offered the slaves of rebels freedom if they came and fought for the British cause. Eric Herschthal, a PhD student in history at Columbia, notes that the proclamation united white Virginians behind the rebel effort. He quotes Philip Fithian, who was traveling through Virginia when the proclamation was made, saying, "The Inhabitants of this Colony are deeply alarmed at this infernal Scheme. It seems to quicken all in Revolution to overpower him at any Risk." Anger at Dunmore's emancipation ran so deep that Thomas Jefferson included it as a grievance in a draft of the Declaration of Independence. That's right: the declaration could've included "they're conscripting our slaves" as a reason for independence.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Palin secedes from office. Also:
So Sarah Palin has resigned. From four colleges. From her job with the Oil & Gas Commission. And now finally, from her job as governor.
Highly unusual for someone once so determined to climb the political ladder that she stayed on in Texas to deliver a speech to the Republican Governors' Association, even as she went into labor with her fifth child. But, hey, that's Sarah. Also.
Now, my first thought was that she merely meant that she was tired and wanted to recline, but alas, she left little doubt about her actual intentions with her extended, often rambling speech, during which the local waterfowl laughed repeatedly.
Palin's first draft, by the way, reportedly began: "When in the course of human... stuff... (also)."
It's truly been an amazing few weeks for the America, as we found out that GOP governors celebrate Father's Day with adultery, and July 4th by resigning from office.
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