As Americans celebrate Independence Day today I thought about just trolling you all with a reminder; American owes its independence to French sailors, soldiers, and ammunition. An estimated 32,000 French sailors participated in that war, as well as about 12,000 soldiers. The French sent about 50,000 of the 60s version of the Charleville musket to America before they had joined the war, and Rochambeau's army carried the model 1777 with them when they arrived.
The French government spent about 1.3B livres helping America win independence, and in ways that many Americans still don't fully understand. The victory at Saratoga (see inset painting) is not possible without the French, who are not depicted. It is estimated that more than ninety percent of Americans were carrying a weapon provided by the French, and that all Americans were carrying French gunpowder into the battle. But, I won't just troll you today. While we don't win our independence without France, we have kept it through the force of arms of the American military, a military that has deployed and served around the world, and where more than a million servicemembers have died and more than a million more have suffered injuries. More than 40 million Americans have served in uniform, and more than 10 million living war time veterans walk this country today. To them, I offer my respect and gratitude. To our elected officials, I offer my derision and anger. I am a member of the Democratic Party, and I have to tell you it gets harder and harder to say that with any sense of pride. It's not because the beliefs of the party are wrong, frankly, they're closer to correct than the other major party. It's because we're not doing anything with those beliefs. Since Ronnie Raygun, the second most disastrous President of my lifetime, the Republican Party has embraced incrementalism, and used it to whip their followers into a frenzy. They've introduced bigoted, freedom-killing, bills one after another, and slowly moved us toward a Christofascist nation, and the entire time they've been able to point towards their ultimate goal, one they achieved with the overturn of Roe v Wade. Unable to win majorities, or control the White House, for long periods of time, they've slowly taken over state courts, and state legislative bodies, in order to incrementally move towards their version of a Christian nation, one not rooted in Christianity or freedom, but the capitalist desire for more wealth and more profit, but wrapped in patriotism and Christ. Meanwhile, on the left, the Democrats tell us to embrace incrementalism and to move forward slowly, but they never tell us what we're moving towards. The progressive wing of the party says "Universal Health Care!" and the mainstream left says "too crazy, we have to move slowly." The progressive left says "Abortion is healthcare, and women should make their own choices" and the mainstream left says "Rush me $15.00 to help me beat my anti-choice candidate." Incrementalism worked for the Republican Party because they sold their view, and actually worked toward it slowly, pointing over and over to actions that were embraced by their base over forty years of work. On the "left", mainstream Democrats never have a goal, never have a plan, they only have "We're working on it." So, a revolution must take place, and thankfully in America we can do that at the voting booths still, although Republicans are trying to make that more difficult. We're on the very precipice of disaster. Think I'm being hyperbolic? In 1930s Germany, it was Lügenpress, now it's "fake news." Hitler scapegoated Jewish people, and those of Romanian descent, Republicans use south and central American immigrants. Hitler created the SA and SS, Trump tells violent, racist, self-recruiting militias, to stand by. German Nazis leaned into protectionist economic policies to recruit in the early years. The Great Depression had hurt the globe, and many Germans had not yet recovered. The Nazi Party offered a way forward. In America, blue collar workers have been deprived of work they've held since the industrial revolution as the economy has moved more towards services and tech, and many blue collar Americans feel looked down upon by the "cultural elites" and "intellectuals." This anger empowered Hitler, and Trump. "But John," you're saying. "Trump isn't the President anymore!" Well damn skippy, you're right, thankfully. At the same time, he is still empowered by mainstream Republicans who need him, and that's an important step in the rise to power for a wanna be dictator. Afraid of alienating Trump supporters, Republicans, many of them formerly sane and patriotic, even if I disagreed with them, have parroted his lies, embraced his bigotry, and pushed his agenda. So, what about that title? What's this revolution I want? Vote left, as far left as possible. You see, America doesn't have a left-leaning party, you only think so because you've been told so, mostly by that party. Your belief that we have a left-leaning party is what I think of as cognitive bias. What we really have in this country is an extreme right-wing party looking to found a fundamentalist Christian nation, and a right-leaning corporate party seeking capitalistic, monetary, gain. That extreme right-wing party seeks religious rule no different than Saudi Arabia or Iran. The right-leaning centrist party seeks to protect capitalism and make money without religious interference. Neither is a true left-leaning party, so that's the revolution. Vote left. Save American independence by taking away the power from the two parties as they exist today, because neither cares for you and I, both care for themselves. Happy Independence Day.
