See, the way I recall it from the history classes I took at an urban public school back in the day as we used to say, uh, back in the day, without irony, the United States of America actually (er, what Washington, I think was the guy what coined it--was referred to as the Great Experiment, and Lincoln in some speech somewhere made some stuff up about it being a government of the People, For the People, by the People--whatever)started because the very concerned folks here felt they they as, at the time, British citizens were not being heard and not being allowed to have a say in their governance, and well--
Let's have it out--if they didn't win, it would've been treason. We are a nation born of what would've been treason if we lost. We just didn't.
Consider Patrick Henry:
http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/smith/smith5.html On May 20, a new member took his seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses -- the fiery lawyer and orator, Patrick Henry. In getting elected, Henry had spent more than eight pounds sterling -- seven pounds to buy 28 gallons of rum, the rest to carry it to the polls.
Henry drafted five resolutions condemning the Stamp Act, then presented them to the House on May 29, coincidentally his 29th birthday. The older, more conservative members bristled. Who was this upstart and why was he trying to antagonize the ministry?
When Henry ended his speech saying that some good American would do to George III what Brutus had done to Caesar, Speaker John Robinson flew into a rage and accused him of treason.
“If this be treason,” Henry famously replied, “make the most of it.”
Ben Franklin, who I think would've been a moderate, really, at heart, because he was prudent and all, said, "We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." They knew the score, they just also knew that government has to be open and they weren't getting that, has to be representative and they were denied that, (wow--like, check out the Declaration of Independence and see the list of grievances--it's about how they weren't getting represented or heard) and to that end, once independence was gained, they made a thing we call a Constitution. And they did it because they wanted to rationally decide how to balance power in such a way that it wasn't concentrated in the hands of a frigging goober like George the III. They argued over whether a Bill of Rights would be a good idea--it got in.
http://www.answers.com/topic/bill-of-rights-in-u-s-constitutionIn short, we as a nation are supposed to be, were born into, are--entitled to, for the sake of Nature's God, it devolves upon us to be: revolutionaries. Thomas Jefferson said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." In a nation so founded, can mere dissent--not collusion nor aid, not physical nor moral, but merely the right to disagree, really be treated as treasonous? Or is vigorous debate not merely a right, but a duty in a functioning democracy? And is it not also appropriate, in times of desperate national peril, the right of citizens to seek redress when the government does them wrong--it being their own government?
The right has made a parallel between the anti-war left of today with the Copperheads of Lincoln's time--but Damn, were any of them hanged? In a Union bitterly divided--would it have been profitable to exclude any and all who dissented--or was the better part to let Democracy do its job? (Horses did not change midstream--)(One may do well to understand this piece of our history by checking this excerpt:
http://www.civil-liberties.com/pages/suspension.htm in re--suspension of habeas corpus.)
The bottom line--to be American in the sense of a United States Citizen and heir to the rational conclusions regarding good government of our forefathers, and with the validation of our history, as a distinct and unique progressive nation (by which one totally means being at the forefront of the liberation for folks the world over--as we ought....to be.....alledgedly)is to be a constant burr in the side of authoritatians and totalitarians anywhere whatsoever including the backside of one Gee Dubya Bush. Rather than hanged, the majority now, of people who see this war as a vast error, should have the right to transparent government and seek an answer to why we ever were enmired here, to have our countrymen bear arms against Iraqis and spend our tax-dollars in this pursuit.
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