“Once upon a time a brave nation liberated itself from the tyranny of the British empire and birthed freedom and democracy into the world.” This is actually true, but what most people of all political persuasions fail to understand is that the battle did not end there. American history has been a constant tug of war between those who thought that breaking with the Empire was a good idea, and those who did not. The Confederacy attempted to re-join the British, and the British were on the verge of a formal military alliance when Tsar Alexander of Russia sent his fleet to New York and San Francisco, and warned the Brits that if they joined the South, he would join the North. Franklin Roosevelt informed Churchill of his intention to free British colonies after WWII, but his untimely death and the advent of Truman thrust the US firmly back into the British camp,ushering in the Cold War. Any attempt to understand the history of the US which ignores these things is incompetent.