Daniel Hannan: resisting quangocracy and the EU

By Smitty
Eloquent as when flailing his Prime Muddler, Daniel notes why he shan't emigrate to the colonies, despite invitations, describing a wonderful day in Shropshire. His conclusion is both complimentary to the Founders and a reminder that we shouldn't try to suck up all the good leadership in the world.

And where did the ideology that actuated the American Revolution originate? Who first came up with the idea that laws should be passed only by elected legislators? We did. That idea was Britain's greatest export, our supreme contribution to the happiness of mankind.
Forget subsequent flag-waving histories of the War of Independence, and go back to what the colonist leaders were arguing at the time. They saw themselves, not as revolutionaries, but as conservatives. In their eyes, they were standing up for what they had assumed to be their birthright as freeborn Englishmen. It was Great Britain, they believed, that was abandoning its ancient liberties.
And here, my friends, is Britain's tragedy. The things those colonists feared - the levying of illegal taxes, the passing of laws without popular consent, the sidelining of Parliament - have indeed come about. They have come about, not as the result of Hanoverian tyranny, but in our own age, driven by rise of the quangocracy* and the EU.
To put it another way, British freedoms thrive best in America, and British patriots should be campaigning to bring them home. I'll be staying here, Larry, working to repatriate our revolution.

*The initial letters (the first two letters for the first word) of "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization."

UPDATE (RSM): Thanks to his recent appearances on Fox News, Hannan is becoming something of a hero to American conservatives. I saw him just this evening on "Hannity's America," warning against the consequences of socialized medicine. Good on ya, Smitty, for linking Hannan.