Becoming American in the West Titus Techera

I won t bore you with my theory of government, but it s easy to see that as Americans multiplied greatly, the House of Representatives would eventually become Western, that the Senate would stay Northern and Southern because of the preponderance of states and therefore elites over the population, and that the judiciary would be Northern because that s where the law schools are. The parts of America on display in 1883 continue to live in our institutions and are behind the populist revolt against our elites.

But populism needs a basis, and Sheridan s 1883 is all about showing what that means. The horrors of the Old West, though in a certain sense exaggerated, are in the fundamental sense real. Who alive today is capable of understanding what America did in World War II or the misbegotten wars since, much less what Americans did to each other in the Civil War? But we need to understand that strength and harshness, those sacrifices and losses, in order to save this nation which our fathers brought forth on this continent, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

via lawliberty.org

I’ve seen the first few episodes of 1883, and I think it’s good, but too much kissing and not enough fightin’. As to the “theory of government” — it’s novel at least.