Me auld mither used to say that no celebration was complete unless something happened that made her cry. This July 4 post by C. Bradley Thompson made me cry. Here’s its conclusion:
American Revolutionaries were rebels with a cause. Despite the vicissitudes that befell them—the hardships of war, the blood and toil, the starvation, the imprisonment and torture, the destruction of home and property, the loss of family and loved ones, and finally death itself—American Revolutionaries refused to compromise, or to surrender their lives, their fortunes, or their sacred honor.
The moral universe they inhabited might seem like a foreign place to 21st-century Americans, but we forget its moral lessons at our peril. Their revolution is surely one of history’s greatest monuments to human virtue. It is ours to remember, celebrate, and restore.
Read the whole thing.
Which is why I think those extolling the exalted practice of bipartisanship haven’t really thought it through. Look at where it has gotten us: the worst of two views, for the benefit of the few, and not the best of the two, for the benefit of the many.