Thank you, Anderson Cooper, for bringing the following two quotes from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann to our attention:
“It didn’t matter the color of their skin. It didn’t matter their language. It didn’t even matter their economic status. It didn’t matter whether they descended from nobility, or whether they were of a higher class or a lower class. It made no difference. Once you got here, we were all the same.”
I am hoping that most can agree that she has her history slightly confused. Many groups of immigrants had a rather dark period in their history as part of the US, whether it was merely because of public discontent towards them or direct government intervention. Anderson points out two groups of immigrants that have clearly been unequally treated in the past. One were the Irish (“No Irish need apply”) and another the Japanese who were interred under executive order by the FDR administration during World War II. Not to forget that only Irish (from the East Coast) and Chinese (from the West Coast) immigrants were ‘allowed’ to risk their lives to build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860’s, one of the greatest engineering achievements in US history. While in the meantime there are plenty of other examples to illustrate Mrs. Bachmann’s awfully distorted view of US history, she even fails to realize the current implications of her remarks. At a time, when a state can pass legislation that implicitly in it’s wording but clearly in its common perception discriminates against one group of immigrants. While having established that all were not the same once they got to the US, what about the Native Americans. Remember, they were here long before and never had a chance.
“We know there was slavery that was still tolerated, when the nation began. We know that was an evil. And it was a scourge and a blot and a stain upon our history. But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States. And I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forebears who worked tirelessly, man like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest, until slavery was extinguished in the country.”
This one is even better, especially from a member of the House of Representatives whose initial composition was determined by the white population and 3/5th of the slave population of every state. Slavery was in the constitution, not no more. It was a compromise. Yes, some founding father’s wanted to abolish slavery but, as Anderson says, others held slaves of their own. Anderson also points out that John Quincy Adams wasn’t even a funding father. While I honestly wouldn’t have noticed since John Adams was, I would have very well been able to place him long before the civil war. How can someone who swore to uphold the constitution be unaware of the 13th Amendment and its history?
Overall, I have a hard time believing that this woman got elected not to mention that these statements were actually made. This is beyond partisanship or political rhetoric, it is plain ignorance. It doesn’t matter in which context this speech was delivered; for once no one can say there was more to it. Worst of all, some international kid had a better grasp of US history than an elected government official. Thank you Mr. Evans and Professor Milligan. Or maybe German high school would have even sufficed for this.
Please indulge:
Oh my. Some unpleasant revisionist history going on here. I haven't listened to the audio yet (still in the classroom), but I could maybe excuse the first. While it is not a factual description of how things were, this certain has been the stated ideal of at least some (sometimes small) portion of the American population. In context, though, I'm guessing the remark is pretty off base.
ReplyDeleteThere's simply no excuse for the second one, though.
Wow, it's crazy how some of our leaders can be so negligent with their words. What we say is sometimes more powerful than what we can do with our hands. The sad part for her is that her words were recorded and what she said can never be erased from history. This is a great lesson on the responsibility we have to watch what we say in public. Thanks Felix!
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