Another Townhall joker hastens the decline of conservative scholarship because he really wants it to be Lyndon Johnson liberalism.
Unlike this Scott Rasmussen, Russell Kirk wrote knowledgeably about the American Revolution.
Kirk called it a “conservative revolution” because the American colonials were seeking to defend their historic rights as Englishmen at a time when King George’s government wasn’t respecting them.
They weren’t social progressives looking to create an improved society. They were defending what they had.
They had been demanding representation in Parliament, and if they couldn’t get that from London they would announce their independence and fight a war of rebellion to get it.
An interesting side-note of history.
Canadian schoolchildren are taught that in 1770, His Majesty's government offered Ben Franklin, the colonial representative to Parliament, a home rule solution, which Franklin rejected. What they aren't taught is that the home rule solution had one gaping flaw: It didn't address the issue of Parliament taxing the colonies.
The Magna Carta stated that an Englishman should be taxed by his peers. A proper solution would have been for Parliament to dun the individual colonies and let the colonies figure out how to pay and levy their own taxes. But Parliament had gotten into the nasty habit of taxing the colonies directly.
Franklin, as was his wont, cut to the heart of the issue. The government of England was fond of saying "an Englishman is an Englishman everywhere he goes in the world." Was an Englishman living in the colonies different from an Englishman living in the Mother Country?
In 1774, Franklin came back with a counteroffer to the home rule proposal: Turn the Parliament of London into the Parliament of Empire. Let the American colonies, Indian colonies and African colonies elect members of Parliament to sit next to members of Parliament elected from the United Kingdom itself. This would end the discussion of separate classes of Englishmen once and for all, and thus end the taxation issue.
Frank had a Rolodex long before that collection of business cards was ever invented. He knew the key players, dined with them, drank with them and swived with them. He knew his proposal was a non-starter. But he was waiting for the key players to say why.
"It would dilute the control of the Mother Country."
Ah, so it was about control! At that point, Franklin understood that independence was the only answer.
One of the what-ifs of history:
Had His Majesty's government been able to see beyond the length of its nose, Franklin's suggestion would have created a cohesive British Empire with teeth. Characters like Napoleon and Hitler would have thought twice before tangling with the British lion.