TLDR, the Revolution was probably inevitable, and while the nation’s founding fathers had their hearts in the right place with their ideals, they had some cognitive dissonance and slapped together a very flawed system.
On the revolution itself, I think it was probably inevitable. The Seven Years War/French & Indian War exacerbated some preexisting faults between the 13 American Colonies and the British Parliament. While I do think there is probably some post-revolution revisionism surrounding the American Revolution, it only happened because there was sufficient desire to leave the British Empire.
As for its founding fathers and their ideals I think their hearts were in the right place, but they did not properly follow through. While the US is generally moving towards a “More perfect Union” there was definitely cognitive dissonance between the founding fathers and their own ideals; how Jefferson could genuinely write:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
while himself owning slaves is only possible if there was some serious cognitive dissonance.
On the whole, they managed to slap together a government that has lasted 235 years (at the time of writing). That, I think, is pretty good considering the 13 colonies were a shit show of competing, conflicting ideas and visions for what the US should be. Indeed, some were even under the impression that it would be 13 separate countries. Consequently, the government they put together is extremely flawed. While some of these flaws can be explained away as them trying to navigate the issues of the time and get the 13 colonies to simply agree to a union, the simple reality is the consequences of their compromises are being felt today. Slavery, of course, was the nation’s “Original Sin” and biggest fault line, requiring a Civil War to finally end it. Even then, however, the lasting effects of slavery still haunt the nation and were never adequately addressed.
As for the rest of the flaws, they all boil down to having too much emphasis on the individual states and not enough emphasis on individual voting and equal representation of citizens between states. (In my opinion, this is ironic because the lack of representation was explicitly stated as a cause of the Revolutionary War, and then they created a new system wrought with unequal representation). It is understandable how this came to be - at the time, a system based on population alone would have been dominated by Virginia - but that does not change the fact it is damaging and improper in our contemporary context.
The solution to these problems is outside my area of expertise, but on a surface level I would propose at least the following structural changes:
Abolish the electoral college. It is outdated and dilutes the principle of equal representation (1 citizen = 1 vote, always)
Repeal/amend the Reapportionment Act of 1929 which resulted in citizens of large states losing some representation in the House of Representatives. (Additionally, they are already knee-capped by the electoral college and the Senate).
The Senate. I do not know what we should do about the Senate. By design, 2 senators from each state is a violation of the principle of equal representation of citizens between states. That aside, they are usually the more rational and civil of the two chambers of the legislative branch. However, the fact that states like Wyoming, with a population of 576,000, has the same voting power as California (39 million), or Texas (32 million), or Florida (23 million) or New York (19 million) is very questionable. There are many more small states with a very low population that have outsized influence over the nation because of the Senate. This is true when one takes into account population sizes, but also economic output.
TLDR, the Revolution was probably inevitable, and while the nation’s founding fathers had their hearts in the right place with their ideals, they had some cognitive dissonance and slapped together a very flawed system.
On the revolution itself, I think it was probably inevitable. The Seven Years War/French & Indian War exacerbated some preexisting faults between the 13 American Colonies and the British Parliament. While I do think there is probably some post-revolution revisionism surrounding the American Revolution, it only happened because there was sufficient desire to leave the British Empire.
As for its founding fathers and their ideals I think their hearts were in the right place, but they did not properly follow through. While the US is generally moving towards a “More perfect Union” there was definitely cognitive dissonance between the founding fathers and their own ideals; how Jefferson could genuinely write:
while himself owning slaves is only possible if there was some serious cognitive dissonance.
On the whole, they managed to slap together a government that has lasted 235 years (at the time of writing). That, I think, is pretty good considering the 13 colonies were a shit show of competing, conflicting ideas and visions for what the US should be. Indeed, some were even under the impression that it would be 13 separate countries. Consequently, the government they put together is extremely flawed. While some of these flaws can be explained away as them trying to navigate the issues of the time and get the 13 colonies to simply agree to a union, the simple reality is the consequences of their compromises are being felt today. Slavery, of course, was the nation’s “Original Sin” and biggest fault line, requiring a Civil War to finally end it. Even then, however, the lasting effects of slavery still haunt the nation and were never adequately addressed.
As for the rest of the flaws, they all boil down to having too much emphasis on the individual states and not enough emphasis on individual voting and equal representation of citizens between states. (In my opinion, this is ironic because the lack of representation was explicitly stated as a cause of the Revolutionary War, and then they created a new system wrought with unequal representation). It is understandable how this came to be - at the time, a system based on population alone would have been dominated by Virginia - but that does not change the fact it is damaging and improper in our contemporary context.
The solution to these problems is outside my area of expertise, but on a surface level I would propose at least the following structural changes:
Abolish the electoral college. It is outdated and dilutes the principle of equal representation (1 citizen = 1 vote, always)
Repeal/amend the Reapportionment Act of 1929 which resulted in citizens of large states losing some representation in the House of Representatives. (Additionally, they are already knee-capped by the electoral college and the Senate).
The Senate. I do not know what we should do about the Senate. By design, 2 senators from each state is a violation of the principle of equal representation of citizens between states. That aside, they are usually the more rational and civil of the two chambers of the legislative branch. However, the fact that states like Wyoming, with a population of 576,000, has the same voting power as California (39 million), or Texas (32 million), or Florida (23 million) or New York (19 million) is very questionable. There are many more small states with a very low population that have outsized influence over the nation because of the Senate. This is true when one takes into account population sizes, but also economic output.
Edit: Spelling