Centerfield

July 4: Gasbag Edition

"There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." - Otto von Bismarck

He's right, except our, er, protection, doesn't need luck or gods as much. We don't get people as stupid as Willy II on our thrones, wasting stupidly with aggression and starting WWI what Bismarck so painfully built. And when our rulers get stupid, we can turf them out in reasonable time. We don't have to live with Sihanouk of Cambodia's long cycle of increassing paranoia and hopelessness for more than four years, or eight if we get really unlucky about opposition choices.

Of course, being a monarchist, Bisarck wouldn't've had a chance to understand our luck, and clearly he didn't.

Certain kinds of governments have more potential to spread than others, and democracy seems to be the biggest that way. Here's what a more clued-in leader on democracy than Otto had to say about it: "Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves." That was just as true when Pericles, leader of Democratic Athens, said it over two millenia as it is of us today.

Every July 4th sees more freedom and democracy out there because of what this nation has done and continues to do, and thus more reason still to celebrate even beyond the already pretty good reason of having fun. The first such reason was, ironically, our enemies. According to Churchill, Georgie III's leadership had been the first such use of royal leadership during the Georgian monarchies, and it had lead rather obviously and publically to the loss of an empire. After that, British monarchs left the mental heavy lifting to the PMs. The second set was much of South America. Colombia remains continuously democratic to this day. I feel we've often failed to give them the respect they deserve. TR was especially unfair when he supported the breakaway Panama because he grew impatient over slow communications to Bogota.