Ship of State
America 2.0 launched with the implementation of the Constitution in 1789. After the triumph of breaking free from monarchy, the first attempt at democratic self-rule with the Articles of Confederation failed miserably. America is compared to a ship of state throughout chapter covering the period from the passage of the Constitution to election of 1800 and the revolution of Jeffersonian democracy:
“America's new ship of state did not spread its sails to the most favorable breezes”
“The new ship of state thus set sail dangerously overloaded”
"the danger loomed that the fragile and battered American ship of state, like many another before it and after it, would founder on the rocks of controversy”
Humble Beginnings for Democracy
The first rumblings of democracy among the colonists that would eventually erupt into the Revolution had modest beginnings in the early 1700’s. Due to the lack of road connecting cities and the poor state of the roads that existed, taverns began springing up along the routes that doubled as inns. The result was increasingly large gatherings of those fomenting revolution among those who had never thought it and so:
“The tavern was yet another cradle of democracy.”
"Axis of Evil"
The 21st century has been defined by the events of September 11, 2001, but the most lasting influence was not the attack, but the response. That response, which was still having consequences well into the new century, took the form of a jingoistic call for Americans to view Iran, Iraq and North Korean as a metaphorical three-headed beast intent on their destruction that Pres. Bush termed “the axis of evil.”
“Triple Wall of Privilege”
Woodrow Wilson’s elevated to the Presidency ushered in a new normal for American economic and financial interest. He dedicated much of his term in office to reforming existing tariffs, refashioning the banking system and breaking up trusts and monopolies. Among the results of this attack were the creation of Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission. Significant reduction in tariffs put Wilson over the top:
“Energetically scaling the `triple wall of privilege,’ Woodrow Wilson had treated the nation to a dazzling demonstration of vigorous presidential leadership.”
The Greatest American Metaphor
On the night of June 17, 1972, five bungling burglars and the police who found them hiding in an office unknowingly created what has since become arguably the iconic American metaphor of the modern age. In the wake of the scandal which started unraveling that night and eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon, “it's another Watergate” has become an all-purpose metaphor for political corruption no matter how great or small the scandal. Any scandal that bears the hallmarks of being especially egregious earns its own special form of the metaphor: “it's worse than Watergate.” So quickly and deeply did this become the great American metaphor that hardly anybody who refers to "Watergate" is actually referring to the name of the building complex where the burglary took place.
