by Bob Walsh
The history of government in North America is interesting. The first formal government document for Europeans who migrated here was, as far as I know, the Mayflower Compact. It created a socialist-communist form of organization, though of course they did not call it that. It was a miserable failure. The colonists quickly discovered that some people would dog it if they knew their neighbors would be required to take care of them and others who were industrious became resentful that they could not profit as they felt they should by the fruits of their labor and the things they stole from the natives because they had to carry the slackers. They changed direction in less than a year.
The first formalized government for the new United States of America was the Articles of Confederation. They were approved by congress in 1777 but not ratified by the states until 1781. They gave very little power to the central government and a great deal of functional autonomy to the states. It turned out to be unworkable as a form of government.
The Articles of Confederation were ashcanned by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and the new structure was adopted in 1787, giving us our current United States Constitution. It isn't perfect, that is why it has been amended along the line. The structure however is pretty darn good. The ultimate justification for any such arrangement is how well it worked. This one has worked tolerably well for over 230 years. That may not be a world record for stable government, but it has given us a country that much of the population of the world works hard to come to, many literally at the risk of their lives.
I think we can, and should, be proud of that.
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