King Washington the Wicked

[Rooster Cogburn]

He may not have openly wanted to take power for himself, but in that quote he did refer to America as "my" country.

If there is evidence he secretly wanted to assume royal trappings, I am not aware of it. What we know of his private writings seem to suggest the opposite. The possessive form is and was the normal manner of speech when talking about the place you're from. I'd be more worried about being thought a Tory if I didn't call it "my" country. I don't think it can be construed as at all monarchical:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

(emphasis mine)
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis 1776

Besides, if he wanted to be king, he would have been.

A great read. It's so hard to find a decent discussion about the Revolution because it's become so corrupted in the modern imagination. If this keeps up I will be a regular reader.

If you replaced Washington with Obama and Democratic-Republicans with teaba- I mean "tea partiers", I would think that it was taken out of today's headlines. Shows how little America has actually changed.

That's the Glenn Beck version of history, don't believe it.

 

[mattaui]

I've never been particularly interested in the AC series, but this has intrigued me to such a degree that I now want to go back and play all of them.

The alternate history DLC is a tremendously cool concept, since that's not a particularly common 'what if' scenario, compared to something like the Axis winning WW2.

Concern over the shape of the presidency and the power the office would wield has always been a concern in American politics, on all sides, so I think you'll get a lot more overall positive press on this than anything negative.

I highly recommend 'What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America' by Daniel Walker Howe for those interested in some early American history. It's a huge tome and it starts later than the revolutionary war (more in the aftermath of the war of 1812 through the earliest hints at crisis in 1848), but you might be surprised how early so many aspects of US history and culture were already taking shape.

 

[Sylveria]

Kinda funny that the states who do and always have wanted strong state government with little federal oversight are the ones that do all the immoral stuff.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Kinda funny that the states who do and always have wanted strong state government with little federal oversight are the ones that do all the immoral stuff.

"Funny" isn't the word. And maybe have that log in your eye looked at. But it's an interesting point. Back then, the "common knowledge" was that local government would favor the poor and disenfranchised, because that is where the smaller man had the bigger voice. It was feared the federal government would be used by the rich against the poor (in modern terms). Perceptions have definitely shifted.