26A026 Foundational Flaws by Jim Davies, 6/30/2026 

On July 4th, it will be just 250 years since colonial Americans declared that they were seceding from the Britsh Empire. From a small agricultural backwater the society has become a giant in commerce, industry and world affairs. What's the source of that achievement? Its success has generated worldwide envy and its government has become widely detested. Might the founders have done better, and if so how?

Last week's ZGBlog noted the great success of Americans and named some of the positive things that caused it. If you haven't been there yet it would be good to read that first, before considering what follows here.

America has an unique position as a "City set upon a hill" a nation unlike any other in history; an exceptional society. But it could have been - and will yet be - a whole lot better. There were flaws in the settlement and founding. Here are four:

First, from the 1620s the settler farmers planned poorly for labor help, and resorted to the use of slaves, especially in the South, instead of relying on indentured labor and raising the offered price as needed to attract them. They thought it would be cheaper to buy slaves, and adjusted their consciences to fit. That had dire consequences later. Slavery was common worldwide, and not expressly forbidden by their religion, but it was a grave error.

Second, when after 150 years they very reasonably got fed up with the intrusions and taxes of the governing British, they prepared and carried out a revolt on an inadequate basis. Their complaints were eloquently listed in the Declaration of Independence, whose opening sentence is a masterpiece, and in it rejected the notion of arbitrary, distant government; but not that of government altogether. That was a fatal flaw. It reflected Tom Paine's thinking in his Common Sense; that government is evil (yes) but also necessary (no!) The idea that something evil can also be necessary is repugnant.

The Declaration continued with a long list of grievances, which includes the infamous "[The King] has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.'' Folks, there ain't no such thing. The founders' plan failed to grasp that the problem isn't a King, it's the whole idea that anyone has any right to rule any person except himself. So America's basis is inadequate.

Third, having decided to quit the Empire the founders failed to figure out how to do it, in the likely event that the Brits would object. The peaceful way is just to refuse to work for them (and not to pay their taxes - though that wouldn't work today); then they would have had to import all administrators from England and the profit in running a colony would have vanished. Instead, the colonists laid in a stock of guns and ammo (very wise) and shot back when harassed; that led to the Revolutionary War, which was narrowly won only thanks to help from the (monarchist!) French. All that violence would have been avoided, if they had planned right, and the heavy cost of fielding an army would have been avoided, along with the paper "money" that was printed to fund it.

Fourth, having blundered into debt that way, a more powerful supra-government was set up, for they supposed that the Continental Congress had too few teeth; that over time became the monstrous bunch of rulers we now have. It built an empire, aggravated the world and oppresses Us the People much more savagely than the British ever did.

The flaw here is not just that when chartering the FedGov they failed to put in place enough restrictions; they did a fair job of that in Philadelphia, especially in Amendments 1 thru 10; but that they chartered it at all and were motivated to limit its power not so much to protect individuals but to preserve as much power as they could in the existing State governments, whom they all represented. So of course they weren't anarchists! - they gave no more power to the Feds than was needed to unite their States against any possible renewed British attack. You don't abolish government by setting up a new one!

The founders' fundamental flaw was that none of them were intelligent and principled enough to trust individuals to own and operate their own lives. If they had been, their purpose, after the Brits had acknowledged the loss of the colonies in Paris in 1783, would have been to dismantle the 13 colonial governments. Instead they morphed them into States, then chartered a whole new center of ruling power.

It wasn't long before plain farmers found they had been tossed out of the fry pan into the fire. In 1786 those in Western Massachussets resisted taxes imposed by that State's government in "Shay's Rebellion" and in 1789 distillers in Western Pennsylvania rebelled against the new Federal one for those it imposed on domestic whiskey makers. Both, sadly, were violently put down - by governments many of them had risked their lives to establish.

July 4th this year is a fine day to celebrate throwing off one set of rulers; but their later replacement by another set is nothing to celebrate at all.