The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”
Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.”
Right. Who could have possibly thought that our founding fathers kept slaves, anyway? These Tea Partiers are also adamant that America is not a democracy. They insist that we're a republic, instead. What, is this because "democracy" is too close to "Democrat"? Crazy, isn't it?
This isn't the only example, of course. Not even close. But here's another situation that's just knocking me off my feet:
You know that Sarah Palin was criticized for claiming she was suffering "blood libel," right? She didn't actually invent that, since many right-wing groups have been using the term lately. (I didn't figure she was that imaginative.) But blood libel is historically significant as a terrible accusation against Jews that often led to mass murder - not what Sarah Palin is going through, I assure you.
But now, the right-wing Washington Times, founded by Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church (the "Moonies"), is claiming that this criticism is a "pogrom against conservative thinkers." Right, because peaceful criticism of the right is just like those bloody massacres of Jews.
Call me naive, but this apparently deliberate attempt to anger Jews still shocks me. Is antisemitism still that prevalent in America, that it can be used for political advantage? Haven't we gotten past that yet, more than 60 years after the Holocaust?
Of course, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, we still haven't gotten past racial discrimination, or even slavery, have we? But I'm just astonished that this stuff works for the right-wing like it does. After all, if it didn't work for them politically, they wouldn't keep doing it.
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2 comments:
Re: Anti-semitism: short answer is "hell yes." People still make the same anti-Semitic comments as before. It's just hiding behind phrases and terms like, "Judeo-Christian," and "well god has his plan (for them)." ((Yes, this is the short answer.))
Re: "not liking the word democracy because it's too much like "Democrat." I had a fight with a guy over this. Lo, he did not understand the concept of democracy as a political system as opposed to a political PARTY. I was so "...the hell?" I just gave up talking to him.
Rena, I'm from a small town in Nebraska. It wasn't until I got to college that I heard my first antisemitic comment. I remember I was completely astonished by it. I guess I really was naive, huh?
And I suppose I should do some research on why the loons are so insistent about "republic," rather than "democracy." But you know, I have yet to hear them say anything that makes sense, so it hardly seems worth my time.
If I stumble across their reasoning - assuming there is any - I'll listen to it. But I'm not going to waste my precious time searching it out, not unless it becomes a lot more important than it seems right now.
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