There was a confusing period of time after the Revolutionary War ended and before a Congress was convened and Washington elected President. In that time, the smart people, the Robert Morris’s, the Alexander Hamilton’s, and the Thomas Jefferson’s tried, and failed, to get anything done.
A lot of second-rate “intellectuals” kept the smarter people from forming a government with taxing powers, even as British ships plundered American vessels with no fear of retaliation. The shallow, bitter men, the Lee’s, Howell’s, and their kindred spirits formed a group that could stop the smarter people from getting anything done. The smart people quickly tired of arguing with them. They all went home.
In a few years, the dumber, bitter, and extremely jealous personalities had run things into the ground. Then, after the nincompoops learned their place and began to keep their big, fat mouths shut , the smarter people came back, and got things straightened out.
The same differences still dominate democracies. There is always a shrill, unhappy band of bitter complainers trying to keep those who are smarter, happier, and more accomplished from clearly showing how superior they are. In the short, wonderful period after the Revolutionary War, the poseurs and pretenders were given their way. They failed. Colossally.
They continue to duplicate their past achievements.
P. S. In this period, one of the most bitter and unhappy men was Thomas Paine. Immediately after the Revolutionary War was over, he made life difficult for the smart people. He quickly realized that the dumbs weren’t able to get anything intelligent done. He saw that they’d throw away the freedom that had been gained in eight long, difficult years of war. As he began to understand how unable the chronically unhappy were, he threw in his lot with the smarter people. Admittedly, he was influenced to some degree by being put, as a professional pamphleteer, on billionaire (in today’s dollars) Robert Morris’s payroll. He may not have helped make the dumber people get smarter, but he did expose the fallacies in their thinking so effectively that fewer people took them seriously, which helped the United States become exactly that.
