Defiant loyalists paid dearly for choosing wrong side in the American Revolution

In my experience this is dead on. People have short attention spans but this has been happning the whole 21st century. In 2008 Obama won the primary despite the best efforts of leadership to nominate clinton. They even scrambled the "super delegates" (delegates who vote for the candidate chosen by senior leadership) hoping that even if Obama won more delegates, they could override the voters choice.

Of course, they failed, and democrats won 2 elections in a row running a candidate labeled a radical socialist. Obama became the only 21st century president to win the poplar vote twice, and the DNC has been trying to drag the party back in the 20th century ever since, blaming their own voters when it doesn't work.

It boggles my mind that they refused to even engage with the "undecided movement", which created a grass-roots get out to vote movement out of thin air. In swing states no less.

The starkest contrast between the two parties is womens rights and to a lesser extent LGBTQ rights. Although I'm not even sure how true this is anymore with so many politicians backing Cuomo, who resigned because an investigation found overwhelming evidence he sexually harrassed and assaulted female employees. And I'm pretty sure people like Chuck Schumer and other centrists view the LGBTQ community as a liability.

The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 has something to do with it.

Also, a lot of what has happened goes back to the Church Committee and the fact that no meaningful reforms were made after that.

>You're thinking of classical liberalism

Yes, that is what I typed in my comment above.

>which is something the dominating political factions are highly against.

The current Republican party's platform follows classical liberalism: "Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech."[0]

You can argue that Trump isn't following that, but it is what the Republican party has incorporated into it's platform for decades.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism

Due to our current lack of representation. We're an extreme outlier among OECD countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legislatures_by_countr...

https://www.reddit.com/r/UncapTheHouse/comments/lklp4h/the_u...

American descendants of loyalists often hide their roots.

I know this because my grandmother told me a few years before she passed that her father, a mason and devoted patriot, once confided a scandalous family secret: there are loyalists in our family tree.

Sadly, grandma's research never got her to the root of this claim despite much research, but thanks to online resources and some helpful Canadians, I discovered the truth.

Grandma's grandfather had emigrated from New Brunswick, Canada, during the Civil War, in which he served the Union.

It turns out his great-grandfather was a captain in the Queen's Guard during the American revolution, born in Connecticut. He and his wife and children had fled after the war with other loyalists to New Brunswick, Canada. They suffered many deprivations, although the loyalist commission board compensated them about half their worldly goods they lost in America.

This captain had married a woman whose brother fought for the Americans at Bunker Hill.

While researching my grandmother's grandfather from Canada, I discovered a telling white lie: he would tell the local busybody newspaper that he was visiting his sister in New York. Thing is, he had no sister in New York. Instead, I discovered the Canadian newspapers not long after were reporting he had arrived from America to visit his sister in New Brunswick.

I was blown away by all this rich history, but when I shared my discoveries with all the remaining family on that side, nobody expressed excitement. In fact, the one person who used to call me up to discuss family history, stopped calling me.