attackfish

I was thinking of things we almost did to ourselves without any British interference at all: proposals to give Washington a crown right after the Revolution, the Alien and Sedition Acts less than a decade after the ink was dry on the Bill of Rights, etc. -- again, much like what many newly "liberated" colonies have done to themselves as the era of colonization collapsed. But yeah, the consequences of losing the Revolution would have been pretty grotesque too. 1812, I'm not sure -- by any reasonable measure, we did lose that war, but by that point the British were willing to deal with us as they would have a defeated European power.

The British have their own history of revolutions -- real ones, directed at the government in situ, not far away across an ocean -- celebrated in song and story, of course. Add that to pervasive American cultural influence, and you've probably got your answer.