Don't Know Much About History

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_11/020830.php

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY.... A variety of Republican leaders spoke on the steps of the Capitol today, addressing a crowd that local law enforcement officials put at around 4,000, all of whom gathered to rally against fixing the health care system. Some of the speakers, however, ran into a little trouble.

Take Rep. Todd Akin (R) of Missouri, for example. Akin, who's demonstrated more than once that he doesn't really know what he's talking about when it comes to health care policy, decided to devote his remarks to the subject of religion and American history. For some reason, Akin argued that the pilgrims gave the country "her first constitution," which doesn't make any sense.

Akin proceeded to praise for the Pledge of Allegiance: "As we renew our commitment to the red, white, and blue, let us with boldness proclaim the fact that we are one nation under God. It is all together fitting and proper that we should do this ... and it drives the liberals crazy." (Yes, Republican members of Congress now believe the Pledge of Allegiance should be recited to annoy Americans they don't like. Classy.)

The problem, though, is that Akin initiated the joint recitation, and then flubbed the words. In Akin's version, it reads, "...and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all." The audience knew the actual version, which led Akin to lose his place and stumble.

Almost as embarrassing was House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who decided to wave his pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution around. Boehner, with voice raised, pledged to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the pre-amble: 'We hold these truths to be self evident ..."

In our reality, that's the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, not the U.S. Constitution.

Now, I'll gladly concede that these were fairly inconsequential errors, which were part of a fairly inconsequential right-wing rally. But the flubs were nevertheless a reminder -- self-righteous conservatives, who enjoy nothing more than lecturing others on patriotism, should hesitate on using the Constitution and the Pledge as some kind of partisan weapon, especially if they don't know what they're talking about.

—Steve Benen

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Ain't THAT the truth!

[virgogal]

2. When I was a Catholic I used to flub The Apostles' Creed. It happens.

[lpbk2713]

3. Boner is aptly named.

:rofl:

[reggie the dog]

4. Just to let you know if they have one of the pocket

constitutions from the CATO institute then it has the Declaration of Independece in it too. I have one of those pocket constitutions

[Libertas1776]

7. I actually have that one

as well as the one Boner was holding (the one printed by Congress) They both have the Declaration of Independence in them. Obviously these ass clowns like to stuff these into their pockets and waive them around at the opportune moment to pretend what a great 'Murican they are. Of course, they never bother to actually read the damn things...which is understandable what with all the big, complicated words and phrases in them like "self evident," "inalienable," and "the." Ugh, especially the last one. Damn liberal socialists and their definite articles :sarcasm:

[reggie the dog]

10. They may not do it

but lots of folks like us actually read the constitution and the declaration of independence and INTERPRET it ourselves. Some folks like to be told, some like to figure it out for themselves.

[Libertas1776]

5. They also...

don't know much biology,
don't know much about a science book,
and don't know much about the french they took. They pretty much don't know shit about anything.

(side note: There is probably a slim chance in hell they ever took a foreign language let alone French. But for the sake of Sam Cooke, I threw it in there;-) )

[blondeatlast]

6. They require immigrants to know history, but RRRepublican media-whoring dumbasses

can spew whatever stupidity they want--and get an audience for it.

[LeftinOH]

8. When in doubt, wave the flag and say the word "god"..at least once -

its easy to be a conservative!

[handmade34]

9. just to play devil's advocate...

some maintain that the Mayflower Compact, as a social contract, was influential in creating the U.S. Constitution.

that aside, the lack of knowledge of history (and understanding of historical concepts) is a very important reason congresspeople and regular citizens alike are failing this country.