It is always worth pointing out that narrow nationality wasn't the reason for the American Revolution, but rather transatlantic liberty - liberties which, although imperfect, had been secured in law on both sides of the Atlantic in 1688 & 1689, but which the new 1770s London government of Lord North's Tory Party was taking away.
Almost half of the MPs in Parliament were supportive of the stand for liberty being taken by the American colonists.
There will always be a ruling elite of some kind, no matter what form of government is in place - the real issue is how much liberty does the citizen have.
This is what Northern Ireland's nationalistic binary mentality does not compute. Some people here have been so irreparably moulded by nationalistic thinking that they would happily choose chains, as long those chains had their preferred national flag attached, and their preferred tyrant in charge.
However, if government truly serves the people, then nationality is not the end goal, the people's liberty is. Here's a t-shirt I photographed in Colonial Williamsburg on 4 July 2016.
For example, why was there such widespread opposition to Home Rule for Ireland in the late 1800s and early 1900s? The text of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant gives four reasons, the second of which was liberty. The likelihood was that the form of Home Rule that would be implemented across Ireland would be "subversive of our civil and religious freedom".
As Rev John Pollock, the minister of Ireland's largest Presbyterian congregation said in 1914, "I am a Home Ruler on principle ... I have no objection to a free Parliament on College Green in Dublin, but I do object to Italian rule". Here's the introduction from the rare 1913 book Intolerance in Ireland; by an Irishman …
They expected that the 20th century (Free State / Republic of) Ireland would be ruled by Catholic integralism; 21st century Ireland is ruled by what the author Paul Kingsnorth calls an authoritarian progressive integralism. In the 21st century United Kingdom you can be imprisoned for tweets.
Back to 1776. The American colonists weren't rejecting British rule, they were reclaiming their full British liberties. Had those liberties been restored to them, there would never have been a Declaration of Independence. Independence became necessary, not as an end in itself, but in order to pursue liberty.*
Below is the voice of an anonymous writer, described only as "A Native", in The Virginia Gazette (Dixon & Hunter Edition) on 8 June 1776 - less than a month before the Declaration of Independence would be published.
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"What has been the government of Virginia, and in a revolution how is its spirit to be preserved, are important questions. The better to discuss these points, we should take a view of the constitution of England, because by that model ours was constructed, and under it we have enjoyed tranquility and security.
Our ancestors, the English, after contemplating the various forms of government, and experiencing, as well as perceiving, the defects of each, wisely refused to resign their liberties either to the single man, the few, or the many. They determined to make a compound of each the foundation of their government, and of the most valuable parts of them all to build a superstructure that should surpass all others, and bid defiance to time to injure, or any thing, except national degeneracy and corruption, to demolish.
In rearing this fabric, and connecting its parts, much time, blood, and treasure, were expended. By the vigilance, perseverance, and activity of innumerable martyrs, the happy edifice was at length completed under the auspices of the renowned King William in the year 1688. They wisely united the hereditary succession of the Crown with the good behaviour of the Prince; they gave respect and stability to the legislature, by the independence of the Lords, and security, as well as importance, to the people, by being parties with their Sovereign in every act of legislation. Here then our ancestors rested from their long and laborious pursuit, and saw many good days in the peaceable enjoyment of the fruit of their labours. Content with having provided against the ills which had befallen them, they seemed to have forgot, that although the seeds of destruction might be excluded from their constitution, they were, nevertheless, to be found in those by whom their affairs were administered...
... However necessary it may be to shake off the authority of arbitrary British dictators, we ought, nevertheless, to adopt and perfect that system, which England has suffered to be so grossly abused, and the experience of ages has taught us to venerate..."
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* of course, with human nature as it is, the newly independent ruling class of the new United States of America began to accumulate power to itself, and began to look not much different to the overlords which it had just thrown off. After all, it was the same men in the same wigs meeting in the same buildings, but now with no London to answer to or to be taxed by. Another story for another time...
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