How can it be that we have found the Founding Fathers of America and Canada to be a racist and selfish bunch of men, working for their own upper-class status and well-being? The Revolt was all for the privilege of not paying taxes to a foreign nation or social higher-ups while embracing the same power once held by the English and French, lording it over their fellow citizens and the conquered people of North America.
History has shown us that all things human are cyclical in nature, as is history itself. Americans revolted against their British Masters, calling for freedom, and emancipation as the French did in their French Revolution, and what did they do once they achieved these goals? Suppress political opponents, maintain and spread the economic system of slavery, push the Native People away from their lands, and prosecute them for many decades. Women who stood proudly for the freedom espoused did not receive a vote in any election for many decades and still await financial equality to this day.
Gated communities spread across the continent, keeping away those the elite community fear and detest, the brown, black, and the unwashed, while they continue to struggle to try to find their place in the communities they reside. Incidents of violence occur within these communities, with the continual sales of guns both legal and illegal. The wealthy become wealthier by selling weapons to us, knowing these weapons will be used not against the elites, but against you and me. “Give Us Liberty or Death” has become “if you’re not armed, you’re not free”. Organizations like the National Rifle Association(NRA) bribe, manipulate, and assault our freely elected officials through social media and protest actions, all the while allowing State Legislatures to attempt to expel three members of the legislature for demanding gun control, expelling the two black members and leaving the single white member to carry out her business. Outright racism shown by the Republican Party in place, allowed but socially criticized. Institutionalized racism and classism still exist and are becoming more ingrained within our societies.
American and Canadian Democracy moves to the Right politically, with the possible return of former President Trump to power and vindication. Only in a polarized America could this happen, and the growing extreme conservatism of America has moved northward to Canada, with Pierre Poilievre attempting to take his grassroots organization to power. The anti-this and anti-that agenda of the right will be in our faces soon enough. Abortion, Native Rights, LGBQT+ Rights, assistance to the working person, and spending for social benefit will all be under assault by those with financial power, denying those without. The democratic way? Powerful Men will always stand against the needs and wishes of the many, calling these forces progressives, socialists, and troublemakers. Running a Government like a business is best, they say. Those in need, need to control their spending and expectations they say. When will we realize there are more of us, the unwashed, and less of the elites? Everyone has a place within our society, so long as some form of equality can exist.
The American and French Revolutions brought power to the middle class, not the poor within society. That has been the methodology since the time memorial, and it will not change. Freedom is a Right of the wealthy, and a privilege to the rest of us. This is North America after all. The New World stuck carrying on with the Old World tactics of the Old World and beyond.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario
[email protected]
