RWE on American Radicalism/Russian conservatism.

Yes the American founding was an new codification of Enlightenment principles, but the Founders justified themselves within the English constitutional tradition at the same time. Jefferson’s “Summary View” (1774) was an appeal to King George based on the colonists rights as Englishmen, and even more telling, Edmund Burke (the philosophical father of conservatism and a British member of parliament) argued that America was justified in revolting because they were upholding their rights as Englishmen (a “revolution” connotes something returning to it’s original position, as in a circle). America like Sparta, had a revolutionary founding that has endured for quite a while compared to respective neighbors on a firm constitutional basis.

But above that, we’ve got a two-hundred plus year record of a stable political tradition. Ever notice that few European countries (for all their pride in their ancient heritage) can boast of that? Russia has a long cultural tradition yes, but it’s political tradition has been one of turmoil and revolution for the last hundred years. In that sense, they like Athens, are the revolutionaries. And their current system, a supposed democracy co-opted by a single strong-man, does parallel the demagoguery of Pericles and Alcibiades.