I love the USA, and not in that silly way many detractors talk about as in “I really love my country except that it’s a 200+ year imperial empire run by madmen hell bent on destroying liberty and freedom”.

I really think the founders launched what will be viewed for thousands of years as a fundamentally good and sound experiment in self management, freedom and economics.

However, I’m confident that the architects of our experiment would be troubled by many aspects of our modern manifestation of their bold experiment.

Here’s my presumptuous very quick take on how they’d view things on this July 4, 230 years after they started it all:

* Government: Far too large in scope and influence over citizens.

* Globalization: They’d love it.  They saw it coming and would be pleased the USA is leading the way.

* Taxes: Far too high, though I think they’d like progressive taxation.

* Military Spending:  Far too high and inefficient.   They’d have wanted infrastructure and recognized that a global military presence is far more stabilizing when it’s backed up with much more diplomacy than we’ve seen in years.

* War on Terror:  They would see us as creating far too much expense and international ill-will in our efforts to bring our democratic and economic sensibilities to the rest of the world.

* U.N.  They would approve of the concept of an international body, but shudder at the bureaucracy and cost.
* Religion.  They’d be alarmed at how much politics and religion mix and simply amazed how some 230 years later, religious intolerance all over the globe fuels so many conflicts and divides the USA on many issues.

Politics: They would  note that in some ways election processes have not changed all that much, but would be alarmed by the influence of money and media.  They’d be floored by the lack of citizen participation but would understand this is largely a function of the massive, bureaucratic government.

* Technology:  They’d be thrilled with too many devices to mention, but it’s probably fair to say that Space Flight would be the most amazing thing to them.  I can’t think of a more fitting tribute to Benjamin Franklin that today’s Space Shuttle launch.