By SJ Otto
In just a few days it will be Fourth of July for 2018. Each year I write an article about the Fourth of July and what I really think this holiday means. I analyse the US Revolution/Revolutionary War and the changes it brought. From here down, I am posting what I posted last year. Not much has changed, if anything, from last year:
That is a holiday I have mixed feelings about. No doubt that there will be plenty of jingoistic TV shows and commercials on TV. There will also be radio spots promoting all the wrong things about this holiday. It was a great revolution for its time. The United States was created out of a change, based in part on the anti-feudalistic political movements in Europe and anti-colonialism in the Americas. A small group of colonies of the United Kingdom decided it was time for their own independent country. So they kicked the British out. They got rid of any form of feudal aristocracy. It all seemed good at the time. And let's not forget that this revolution was strictly for the benefit of white people of European decent. Black slaves and Native American Indians were not invited to this new world government.
Here are some of my fireworks for two days from now, including firecrackers, mortars and rockets.But then we come to the United States in 2017. We have no formal aristocrats, but we
have them informally. Such individuals as Charles and David Koch, Robert Mercer and even out own president, Donald Trump, have huge incomes and promote politics, in the Republican Party, that entitles them to the kind of wealth and power only kings, queens and other royalty are known for having. They have no formal titles, but they have so much power and wealth they don't need them.
For a country that fought off colonialism we are the most imperialistic force in the world today. We are the only country that presently occupies two nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. While we originally fought a colonial power, today we ARE a major colonial power.
If there is one thing I do like about this holiday it is the fireworks. Along with plenty of beer, grilled meat and a chance to hang out with my friends and relatives, who could ask for a better holiday? But there are those who do.
There are those who really hate this holiday and for good reasons. This is a modern capitalist country and we need a socialist movement to push it in the direction of democracy for the masses, not just the rich classes who now strangle us with all kinds of privileges for them and fewer rights and resources for the rest of us. We need a foreign policy that ends our imperialism. We need to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. We need an end to the War on Terrorism.
But still, I like the fireworks. I like spending time with my friends and family. I like drinking beer. And there was this revolution at one time and it was not such a bad event. So I will continue to celebrate the Fourth of July, this year and any years to come.
For some background on our founding fathers and their role in our revolution, here is last years summery:
While I am a leftist, that doesn't mean I don't like or admire some of our founding fathers. I like to remind people that there are both good and bad things about the US revolution. We are talking about a revolution that concluded with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, by the Continental Congress declaring that the thirteen American colonies were to become an independent nation.
Of our founding fathers, the Republicans (anti-aristocrats at that time) included both Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. They differed from George Hamilton and his Federalists who wanted to create some new kind of aristocracy. In his later writings, Paine condemned the Federalists for trying to reverse the US revolution and what it stood for.
For the rest click here.