I spent the day with family, in particular with my brother, his wife and daughter, and my stepmother. My father was TDY out of the country, but the rest of us got together to spend the day having fun, eating barbeque foods, and generally hanging out. We passed on fireworks this year (we had already decided not to go to see the DC fireworks, on account of small child), and instead watched 1776 (the DVD version with the extended scenes cut from the theatrical release and the VHS release) - a family favorite, but one that my stepmother had not been introduced to as yet. Despite some minor historical inaccuracies, it is still both an enjoyable musical comedy and a reasonable portrayal of one of the pivotal moments of history. When I got home, I saw that Glenn Reynolds had linked to this article and read it myself.

I am, when ruminating on this period in American history, constantly amazed by the quality of men that rose to the challenge. It's not just that we had one Great Man - we had several. We had, contemporaneously, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and all the rest of the luminaries that made up the Continental Congress and then the Constitutional Convention, and on into the early days of the Republic. These men mid-wifed a revolution, kept it organized, won it. Then they created a government. After that, when the first government (under the Articles of Confederation) failed they created another government, even more radical than the first. And then they proceeded, despite bitter personal and political enmity in many cases, to give up power to their enemies in the belief that they would in turn get their own chance to return to power.

It took them a couple of tries, but these are the men that wrote the world's most successful document on how to run a government. The US government has been operating under substantially the same Constitution for 240 years this September. That makes it the oldest governmental system in the world (the only other close competition would be Great Britain, and while they haven't had an official revolution, the constitution they operate under is not the same as it was in 1787; the balance of power between the Crown and Parliament has changed significantly since then - if nothing else, the near-abolition of the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords has finished off the possibility). Even if you start counting from the end of the US Civil War, it is still clear that the British Crown had rather more power vis a vis Parliament at the beginning on Victoria's reign than after.

And it's not like the current period of partisan anger is the worst we've had in this country - try the lead-up to the 1860 presidential election. I hope it isn't, anyway. I don't see half the nation attempting to secede if Hillary Clinton (much less anyone else) is elected. I hope not anyway, as that question was more or less settled by 1865...

On the other hand, it's not unthinkable, either, anymore; and that's scary. And in this case, I blame both sides of the aisle, and both ends of Pennsylvania Ave. Jointly and separately, the elected representatives of this country are, as a group, destroying trust and faith in government in the name of power. (While I don't exactly blame Bush himself for this, people acting in his name are among this group - and I do blame him for being more interested in loyalty to his people than effective and transparent government).

I hope to live out my life without having to choose sides in a civil war; I no longer believe that the possibility of civil war to be something only to be found in bad fiction. And isn't that a hell of a depressing thing to be thinking on the 4th of July?

As I went to post this article, I found another article on the front page of JoeUser, asking if I would ever consider leaving this country. I absolutely would not - I've lived overseas, known people from other countries, etc. I've been to more countries than I have states of the union, lived in more countries than states, even. But the USA is my home.

Oh, and to head off anything at the pass - knowing what I know now, I still would have voted for Bush in 2004. Held my nose harder, perhaps. If I regret anything about that election, it is that the Democrats didn't run a candidate that I could vote for, either in the primaries, or in the general election. Still aren't. Not that the Republicans are doing much better. I can live with Fred Thompson. I don't know if I can bring myself to vote for either Guiliani or for McCain, though