The Probability Broach

Imagine a world—like our own, only more so—in which the American Revolution was never quite consummated, in which the bright promise of freedom gradually faded, gradually died. Imagine an America swamped by rules and regulations and taxes, an America marred by blighted hopes and ravaged lives. Imagine rationing: The dole (and Dole). And gun control. Imagine, if you will, a kind of universal slavery accepted and imposed by an almost-unanimous consent.
 
Now project a different world, built on a different principle: a world in which President George Washington was slain as a traitor to his country for trying to impose new taxes … in which the so-called Whiskey Rebellion was a success … the Constitution was scuttled as too Draconian … and, because the Declaration of Independence has a single extra word in it, the State has virtually withered away.