One of the greatest pleasures I find in my work as a historian is noticing parallels even when I’m not looking for them.
It’s uncanny, but the old axiom about history repeating itself is ringing true.
Patterns and events might play out in different locations under different names, but they are the same patterns nonetheless.
One such pattern is that governments, generally, hold the people they govern in contempt.
This was the case in 1776 when the British government had little regard for the people living in the American colonies. And, it seems to be the case today with the current U.S. government.
If there’s one thing the last several years have shown me, it’s that our government today holds just as much, if not more, contempt towards citizens than the British did in 1776.
In the years leading up to the Declaration of Independence the colonists had grown increasingly frustrated by a government, half a world away that would not treat them as equals to those living in Great Britain.
They raised grievance after grievance, from taxation to representation, from impressment of American sailors to King George’s cutting off trade between the colonies and the rest of the world. Throughout all of this, George III and his underlings treated the colonists like novelties, bumpkins who were to be curiously observed and ridiculed.
Today we have government officials who look down their noses at hardworking American citizens while at the same time expecting them to loyally vote to keep them in power every few years.
Just like George III, they rebuke anyone who disagrees with them as fools, telling them in effect that “we know what’s best for you even though you pay our salary,” all while wearing a big smirk.
On a daily basis, liberals sneer from their ivory towers on the west and east coasts down on the lowly, ignorant masses they see in Middle America. They bleat about helping poor Americans, they preach about leveling the playing field, all while doing their utmost to hike taxes on any hardworking American they define as “wealthy” while they themselves live in luxury.
It sounds an awful lot like George III raising taxes on the hardworking colonists to pay for the French and Indian War (which the colonists never asked for by the way). And like a monarch, neither of them have any concept of hard work. They haven’t for decades, nor do they have any concept of what life is like outside of Manhattan, San Francisco, or Washington D.C.
Seriously, when was the last time someone checked Chuck Schumer’s net worth? How much is Nancy Pelosi pocketing from taxpayers? Heaven only knows, but we can safely tell all the folks waiting on COVID relief that Pelosi sure does like ice cream.
Then there’s the bureaucracy, where unelected career government paper pushers make arbitrary decisions that affect millions of lives.
Probably the most egregious example of this in recent memory was the FBI deciding to investigate the newly elected President Trump for no other reason than its leadership didn’t like him. The great blunderer otherwise known as James Comey set off a chain of events that led to a two-year investigation and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars.
It turned out, of course, that it was one gigantic nothing burger, despite the fervent hopes of the Democratic caucus to the contrary.
If that weren’t enough, there are the text messages that came to light from Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and other agency employees showing absolute disdain for Trump and his supporters.
If this is what the folks who run the nation’s top law enforcement organization think of the people they’re supposed to protect, I can only imagine how deeply this goes across the rest of the bureaucracy.
This rot isn’t just confined to D.C. The contempt our leaders now show the people has worked its way into most of our major cities and into the hearts of many governors.
Just ask the mayors of places like Chicago, Seattle, or Portland.
These feckless idiots sat and twiddled their thumbs while the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements destroyed businesses and livelihoods.
They then had the nerve to call legitimate cries for law and order, from the people who they are supposed to protect, racist. If dismissing screams for safety while neighborhoods burn isn’t contempt, then I don’t know what is.
Then there are certain governors who have decided to make the COVID pandemic their excuse to become petty rulers of independent fiefdoms.
Andrew Cuomo has told us with a straight face that Jews and Christians can’t gather for services but has allowed BLM to run riot (literally) with impunity in the streets of New York.
Gavin Newsom loves to forbid people to gather in large groups, but can’t be bothered to follow his own guidelines when he goes to fancy cocktail parties.
Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is in a league of her own, gleefully persecuting constituents who have no other option but to keep their businesses open if they wish to survive.
Like King George III, these governors seem addicted to sticking their noses into ordinary peoples’ personal lives, disregarding their personal liberty, and upending their ability to make their own decisions.
George III and the British government let the American colonists down. They failed to protect the colonists and treat them with decency, instead viewing them as contemptible second-class citizens.
Today, the American voters face similar contempt from elected leaders and bureaucrats.
Now things have come full circle, and my how the Founders must be pleased.
Craig Shirley is a Ronald Reagan biographer, presidential historian, and four-time best-selling author. His most recent book is, ''Mary Ball Washington,'' a definitive biography of George Washington’s mother. Read Craig Shirley's Reports — More Here.
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