I've always thought that America was lucky to survive its first few years after independence given the political naivety of its politicians. That it did so is probably due more to the constituency's forebearance than because the politicians got it right.

George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were not particularly clever politicians. However, they were all intellectually extremely astute and I think that this somehow made up for their lack of real identification with "the man in the street" and an understanding of how to woo "him".

The Sedition Act was a blatant piece of political chicanery, nominally aimed at the French, but squarely fired at the Republicans. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Adams thought that it would do any good. He had made so many other "good" decisions in his life. I suspect lobbyists, personally.

Nevertheless, after the tumultuous years following independence, for the most part his presidency was the antidote which America clearly needed.

Spending July 4 in the US was interesting!


The idiot also known as Capfka ...