The Establishment

There has always been a strong anti-establishment sense in this country, going back to our colonial days.

Many of our earliest settlers were intent on escaping authority in their home countries, often because it was attempting to make them conform to standard beliefs.

Of course others saw the establishment offered them no opportunity for advancement and came here because it had both freedom and opportunity.

As the "establishments" grew here, originally on the East Coast, the answer was an escape into the frontier, which followed some laws, but not all of them.

Of course when the British attempted to get us under control we had the Revolution.

A lot of the anti-establishment feelings were relieved by the movement west, into the states like Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and the southern plains followed by Texas and the West.

This spirit lived on as the establishment spread and slowly but surely exercised control.

Being anti-establishment isn't the same as being unpatriotic, because most Americans feel the country belongs to them and that the "establishment" is trying to control it at their cost.

This is the great populist movement that has existed since the colonial period which at times rises to the top and upsets the apple cart.

Andrew Jackson, a poor boy who became a war hero and a rich slave owner was able to capture this to get elected to the presidency.

He was viewed as a man of the frontier who wasn't going to let the "establishment" control people's lives.  Of course after him the establishment reared its ugly head again.

The establishment is of course necessary to avoid complete chaos but what is the good part versus what isn't is often a matter of how it impacts you.

When you see your factories close and your job opportunities disappear, that's the establishment doing it.  When you see unarmed members of your race shot down in the streets, that's also the establishment.

The establishment is whatever is in control and it will always exist.  Call it the deep state, or the "Man", its effectively the same thing.

We just don't like it.