The circus and side show carnival, known as the Republican Party, is at it again. Showing an understanding of history equivalent to the level of an infant, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann put her hoof in her mouth again.
While in Iowa on Thursday, July 7, the House member signed a pledge from Iowa’s conservative Family Leader group. Included in the pledge were statements opposing Sharia Islamic Law, pornography and, most idiotically, a statement suggesting that African Americans were better off during slavery than they are now. Yes, that’s right.
Specifically the statement read: “Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the
USA’s first African-American President.”
Not only is the statement that black families were more stable during slavery than they are today both ridiculous and insulting on its face, it already has been proven inaccurate. One would think that, with an Oral Roberts University education, Bachmann would be more aware.
Maybe this is why, during an address to the National Press Club, she said, “Other than Native Americans who were here, all of us have the same story.” She continued, saying that all who came to America “knew when they came here they weren’t coming for a welfare state.
“They were coming here for the thrill of writing their own ticket. Who did we attract? People that wanted a better life and were willing to do what it took to get it.”
–torrance t. stephens, ph.d.