Why the Turkey is not our national bird, and a reminder that America belongs to us

Summary: A holiday reminder about our history and who we are.

For our Constitutional regime to survive the coming troubles we’ll need social cohesion. That means remembering who we are as a people and nation. Remembering our shared history. And most of all, remembering that America belongs to us, its citizens. No matter how powerful our elites grow, how much of its wealth they take into their hands, we can regain control and reform our institutions.

So they respond by polarizing our politics, sowing divisiveness and distrust. Divide and rule. Can we overcome our divisions, as we have during the crises of our past? Perhaps we should see our ruling elites much as the Founders saw Great Britain, aristocrats rulers ruling in their own interest — from whom we must seize control.

For an intellectual analysis showing this, see Christopher Lasch’s work, especially The Revolt of the Elites: And the Betrayal of Democracy (1994). For an equally clear presentation see the movie 1776. The song “The Egg” by Sherman Edwards from the play “1776” is especially appropriate for Thanksgiving, explaining why we have the eagle as our national bird — not the turkey or the dove. It’s worth five minutes of your time.

Adams:
It’s a masterpiece, I say!
They will cheer every word, every letter

Jefferson:
I wish I felt that way

Franklin:
I believe I can put it better
Now then attend, as friend to friend
On our Declaration Committee
For us I see immortality
In Philadelphia City

Franklin:
A farmer, a lawyer, and a sage
A bit gouty in the leg
You know it’s quite bizarre
To think that here we are
Playing midwives to an egg

All:
We’re waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
Of an eaglet being born
We’re waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
God knows the temperature’s hot enough
To hatch a stone, let alone an egg

All:
We’re waiting for the scratch, scratch, scratch
Of that tiny little fellow
Waiting for the egg to hatch
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Adams:
God knows the temperature’s hot enough
To hatch a stone

Jefferson:
But will it hatch an egg?

Adams:
The eagle’s going to crack the shell
Of the egg that England laid

All:
Yes, so we can tell, tell, tell
On this humid Monday morning in this
Congressional incubator

Franklin:
And as just as Tom here has written
Though the egg may belong to Great Britain,
The eagle inside belongs to us!

All:
And as just as Tom here has written
We say to hell with Great Britain!
The eagle inside belongs to us!