Second American Revolution facts for kids

The American Revolution spanned from 1775 to 1783, after which the United States received recognition of independence by and from Great Britain. Second American Revolution is a rhetorical or hyperbolic historiographical term that has been invoked on a number of occasions throughout the history of the United States. While it has been used as a metonym for past events, another ideological as well as political revolution has also been called for by some groups.

Attempted or proposed revolutions

• When reviewing Ferdinand Lundberg's study of the Constitution of the United States, Cracks in the Constitution, for The New York Review of Books, Gore Vidal considered that a Second Constitutional Convention of the United States was overdue, writing "[t]he First Constitution will be two hundred years old in 1987—as good a date as any to finish the work of the second constitutional convention, which will make possible our Fourth Republic, and first —ah, the note of optimism!—civilization." Vidal deemed the 1787 unamended document as the inaugural constitution, followed by the creation of a "Second Constitution" in 1793 with the ratification of the Bill of Rights and culminating with the "radical alterations made by the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments," that created a third in 1865. Nevertheless, these development were not considered as revolutions in themselves, but "three Constitutions for three quite different republics." The review-essay was subsequently included and used as the eponymous title for a collection of Vidal's essays.
• Ronald Reagan, in his 1985 State of the Union Address, mentioned the phrase four times, considering it "a revolution carrying us to new heights of progress by pushing back frontiers of knowledge and space; a revolution of spirit that taps the soul of America, enabling us to summon greater strength than we've ever known; and, a revolution that carries beyond our shores the golden promise of human freedom in a world at peace." He then went on to state that "freedom - is the key to the Second American Revolution that we mean to bring about," as well as tax simplification, welfare cuts and space exploration as components of said revolution.
• Timothy McVeigh, perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing, wished "to spark a second American Revolution" through his terrorist attack. In addition McVeigh had also expressed in a letter to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal his opposition to taxes, his perception of American decline as well as the possibility of a Second American Civil War, writing "What is it going to take to open the eyes of our elected officials? America is in serious decline!...Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that. But it might."
• In their book, Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution, the founders of the Tea Party Patriots, Mark Meckler and Jenny Beth Martin, propose a plan "to restore America to greatness." The book includes the use of quotes by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, as well as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, espousing right-wing beliefs in small government, weak public-employee unions, low taxes, efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, American exceptionalism and the use of educational vouchers.
• When discussing The FairTax Book, which promotes the flat tax proposal and the complete dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service, with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution co-author and then-Congressman John Linder said of the proposition "[t]he FairTax would be a second American revolution. It excites the imagination of the American people, and if they get behind it and push, it can happen. It is not pie in the sky. This is a workable plan, a plan that can be great for the American people and American business. We need people who are asking how to do it, not offering reasons why we can't do it. The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union is no more. Roseanne [Barr] lost weight."
• Before participating in the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Julio Cesar Chang, a 55-year-old former police officer from South Florida, posted a now-deleted video on his Facebook profile that contained the words "The beginning of our second American revolution." In a filing by FBI agents they revealed the "[receipt of] a tip that...he had posted...on his Facebook page about being at the pro-Trump insurrection on Jan. 6, along with comments about the “deep state” and a “1776 Part 2 Revolution.”"