In spite of the media’s pearl clutching over Wednesday’s events on Capitol Hill, let’s not forget that America began in a revolution. America’s Founders deliberately risked their “lives, fortune, and sacred honor” to make the United States a free and independent republic.
After the new nation was established, things alternated between long periods of stability which were punctuated by brief periods of political violence. The Civil War, the labor violence of the Robber Baron era, and the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements of the 1960s stand out as notable examples. Each moment, in its own way, ushered in a new era. Each also was marked by talk of illegitimacy, revolution, and political violence.
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