Epiphany
It has recently come to my attention that most conservatives in America yearn for the days of George Washington. A weak federal government, states that have their own militia, freedom from a micro-managed economy by the state and a return to a Christo-centric domination of our culture, a constitution whereby the several states of the Union are accorded the greatest latitude in their political and economic affairs and no taxation beyond the needs of defense, roads and civil order. I have to say, I too am wooed at such a beautiful state of being and really our country was built upon those very foundational principles. However, much like the dinosaurs of yesteryear, that era in America was wiped out by a catastrophe as great as any fiery doom visited upon our supposed paleo-cousins that resulted in their extinction. I mainly speak of the catastrophe of the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865.
Many conservatives view the American way of life as ideal from the years of 1789 - 1861 when the Constitution was first ratified by the original 13 states until the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Republican Party in 1861. The reason for this romantic view of the US Government was the fact that the federal head was so fragile and its power so denuded that the States of the Union could nearly dictate to Washington their own desires and demands at will. Both in word and in deed the States reigned supreme. But the war between the States would come to completely destroy that paradigm.
As the Southern States seceded from the Union and the armies of the Union and Confederacy moblized for the coming battles a new paradigm was being formed from the crucible of war. As thousands and hundreds of thousands of Americans would perish in the civil war in the next 4 years the United States would make a subtle departure from the old way of dealing with the world. The civil war was the hinge that connected two eras in American foreign policy with the first era being that of the Washington government and the second era being the Lincoln government. The Washington government was primarily focused on insular needs such as moving west and expanding the frontier to the Pacific with a weak federal head to govern the disparate states of the Union. More importantly, Washington's era was characterized by anti-British sentiment, for obvious reasons since we broke away from the mother country in 1775 and as it was the Red Coats that burned Washington DC to the ground in 1812, as such Great Britain was the primary villain during this period of government until the advent of the civil war.
As Lincoln took the reigns of power, a new era was thus bequeathed to America as the civil war broke down the old barriers of British antagonisms that so alienated America from the Empire. After 1865, we see how the States of the Union no longer were supreme and an inverse relationship took hold as Washington DC was now the empress of state affairs. The old era was swept away by the death and destruction wrought by the civil war. The Federal Government was now calling the shots and the states would have to bow to her demands. As the cold spring waters of peace started to flow from the winter snow of war, a new budding relationship was growing between Washington and London that would bring America back into the orbit of the British Empire at least as far as foreign policy was concerned. The Lincoln era of American government was born and now America would look not just across the North American continent but the entire world as she would become a global power with all of its concomitant responsibilities and reprecussions.
The first shot fired in our rise to global ascendency in the Lincoln Era would be the Spanish-American War of 1898 in which Spain was the first European power we went to war with since England in 1812. And really, the first war with a european power in which we wanted to go to war since the Declaration of Independence upon which the United States military both army and navy were on the offensive as opposed to be being purely defensive operationally speaking. 10 years later we would see the Great White Fleet of the United States Navy under President Theodore Roosevelt make their port calls throughout the world demonstrating American capability and power projection that signalled to all of the great European sea powers especially Great Britian that America was a power to be reckoned with and a power to be used in their favor.
Ironically, as America stood up Europe would fall down with the Great War that would come to consume whole empires and leave Europe completely gutted from Paris to Moscow and from Jutland to Gallipoli. World War I sees America for the first time in its history subordinate its military command to another power, namely Great Britain. Could anyone in the United States at the conclusion of the War of 1812 have foresaw 100 years later an alliance with London and not take note that perhaps America was no longer as independent as she might want to believe? World War One brought down empires, formed the nascent modern middle east, birthed the radical movements of communism, fascism and national socialism, introduced mechanized warfare and expanded war to the air, killed tens of millions of Europes' finest soldiers all across France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy and Turkey, and finally and perhaps most importantly for the free-world brought America into a British Alliance that ulitmately would come to preserve the Empire in which the sun never set from the nakid ambitions of Germany, Italy and Japan with the advent of the Second World War just a short 20 years later. America was now the British Hessian of the Twentieth Century in service to the Hanovarian Crown that ruled the Anglosphere.
Like Atlas who holds the world upon its shoulders, America has preserved the Anglosphere from dictatorship and darkness and kept its peoples free from the tyranny of the Nazi's to the Communists and now to the Jihadists that are so eager to ingratitiate themselves upon the fat of the West. And for the future, America will remain the one and only super power as evidenced by our military capabilities and industrial capacity backed by a Christian culture infused with righteous indignation that no country could possibly compete against and rise victorious. Our prototype is the British Empire upon which we Americans now find ourselves in all parts of the world where the tan pith helmet once trekked. This "Hessian" paradigm will not change until Europe rises once more to take her place upon the world throne. Until then, America is the Steward who simply maintains the throne until the rightful ruler returns once more with royal standard unfurled. In other words, when Europe stands up then America will stand down. This event may not occur for another generation or two I suspect. It will happen someday in which America will no longer defend the Anglosphere or the free-world from aggression like it does today. Political and cultural forces in America from both the right and left want to see America return to its shores and leave the world to its own devices. Time will tell when the fates themselves are alligned properly for yet another paradigm shift that brings America home again.
Until then, God save the Queen!
Many conservatives view the American way of life as ideal from the years of 1789 - 1861 when the Constitution was first ratified by the original 13 states until the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Republican Party in 1861. The reason for this romantic view of the US Government was the fact that the federal head was so fragile and its power so denuded that the States of the Union could nearly dictate to Washington their own desires and demands at will. Both in word and in deed the States reigned supreme. But the war between the States would come to completely destroy that paradigm.
As the Southern States seceded from the Union and the armies of the Union and Confederacy moblized for the coming battles a new paradigm was being formed from the crucible of war. As thousands and hundreds of thousands of Americans would perish in the civil war in the next 4 years the United States would make a subtle departure from the old way of dealing with the world. The civil war was the hinge that connected two eras in American foreign policy with the first era being that of the Washington government and the second era being the Lincoln government. The Washington government was primarily focused on insular needs such as moving west and expanding the frontier to the Pacific with a weak federal head to govern the disparate states of the Union. More importantly, Washington's era was characterized by anti-British sentiment, for obvious reasons since we broke away from the mother country in 1775 and as it was the Red Coats that burned Washington DC to the ground in 1812, as such Great Britain was the primary villain during this period of government until the advent of the civil war.
As Lincoln took the reigns of power, a new era was thus bequeathed to America as the civil war broke down the old barriers of British antagonisms that so alienated America from the Empire. After 1865, we see how the States of the Union no longer were supreme and an inverse relationship took hold as Washington DC was now the empress of state affairs. The old era was swept away by the death and destruction wrought by the civil war. The Federal Government was now calling the shots and the states would have to bow to her demands. As the cold spring waters of peace started to flow from the winter snow of war, a new budding relationship was growing between Washington and London that would bring America back into the orbit of the British Empire at least as far as foreign policy was concerned. The Lincoln era of American government was born and now America would look not just across the North American continent but the entire world as she would become a global power with all of its concomitant responsibilities and reprecussions.
The first shot fired in our rise to global ascendency in the Lincoln Era would be the Spanish-American War of 1898 in which Spain was the first European power we went to war with since England in 1812. And really, the first war with a european power in which we wanted to go to war since the Declaration of Independence upon which the United States military both army and navy were on the offensive as opposed to be being purely defensive operationally speaking. 10 years later we would see the Great White Fleet of the United States Navy under President Theodore Roosevelt make their port calls throughout the world demonstrating American capability and power projection that signalled to all of the great European sea powers especially Great Britian that America was a power to be reckoned with and a power to be used in their favor.
Ironically, as America stood up Europe would fall down with the Great War that would come to consume whole empires and leave Europe completely gutted from Paris to Moscow and from Jutland to Gallipoli. World War I sees America for the first time in its history subordinate its military command to another power, namely Great Britain. Could anyone in the United States at the conclusion of the War of 1812 have foresaw 100 years later an alliance with London and not take note that perhaps America was no longer as independent as she might want to believe? World War One brought down empires, formed the nascent modern middle east, birthed the radical movements of communism, fascism and national socialism, introduced mechanized warfare and expanded war to the air, killed tens of millions of Europes' finest soldiers all across France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy and Turkey, and finally and perhaps most importantly for the free-world brought America into a British Alliance that ulitmately would come to preserve the Empire in which the sun never set from the nakid ambitions of Germany, Italy and Japan with the advent of the Second World War just a short 20 years later. America was now the British Hessian of the Twentieth Century in service to the Hanovarian Crown that ruled the Anglosphere.
Like Atlas who holds the world upon its shoulders, America has preserved the Anglosphere from dictatorship and darkness and kept its peoples free from the tyranny of the Nazi's to the Communists and now to the Jihadists that are so eager to ingratitiate themselves upon the fat of the West. And for the future, America will remain the one and only super power as evidenced by our military capabilities and industrial capacity backed by a Christian culture infused with righteous indignation that no country could possibly compete against and rise victorious. Our prototype is the British Empire upon which we Americans now find ourselves in all parts of the world where the tan pith helmet once trekked. This "Hessian" paradigm will not change until Europe rises once more to take her place upon the world throne. Until then, America is the Steward who simply maintains the throne until the rightful ruler returns once more with royal standard unfurled. In other words, when Europe stands up then America will stand down. This event may not occur for another generation or two I suspect. It will happen someday in which America will no longer defend the Anglosphere or the free-world from aggression like it does today. Political and cultural forces in America from both the right and left want to see America return to its shores and leave the world to its own devices. Time will tell when the fates themselves are alligned properly for yet another paradigm shift that brings America home again.
Until then, God save the Queen!
posted by Bruce R. McConnell | 6:29 AM
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