Fightin' Dems

The American Revolution Was a Liberal Revolution

The self-styled conservative super-patriots have appropriated every vestige of the American Revolution they have been able to lay their hands on. If I hear one more "founding fathers" or "framers of the constitution" from them, I think I'll spit. There were conservatives in revolutionary America, all right; they called them Tories, and they sided with England. Why? The Tories feared the loss of business opportunities and a break with tradition, just as conservatives do now. They weren't patriots, they weren't even sunshine patriots, they barely viewed themselves as American. Those who had the means got themselves back to the mother country to live out the remainder of their lives.

On the other side were those who demanded change. The American revolutionaries found ready intellectual ammunition for the cause from the most "secular" of the humanists, the English and French philosophers of the Enlightenment. This humanist view of the world was the very square the framers used to square-up the edifice of our democracy. The language that Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration is theirs. Incidentally, many of these so-called "secular" humanists were God-fearing men; only the ignorant, the cowed or the radical think that humanism and religion aren't mutually supporting.

As are most revolutions, the American Revolution was prosecuted by liberals, people who were unafraid of change. (I'm the first to admit that not all revolutions have turned out so beautifully as ours.) Stick-in-the-mud, conservative types are not the ones seeking new and different ways of life; they're the ones trying to prevent this. The backbone of revolution is social change, and who would claim that conservatives are for that? Those American revolutionaries wanted freedom, the right to be treated as equals, secure homes and to worship God as they saw fit. Those are liberal values -- and if this sounds strange to you, it's because the ongoing demonization of liberals by the Right has been so effective.

Am I saying that today's conservatives believe the same thing the Tories did? No. What I am saying is that, often, yesterday's liberality is what we are conserving today. I'm saying that yesterday's liberal thinkers are the icons of today's conservative thinkers. Today, the conservatives are trying to destroy the liberals; if they succeed, what will our descendants be missing 150 years from now that will be worth conserving for their children?

posted by Max Post @ 8:41 PM