This week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid D-NV went to the floor of the United States Senate and made a mockery of himself by ignoring, distorting and rewriting history to suit his narrative that, opponents of the current healthcare “reform” bill are akin to those that fought abolishing slavery or opposed women’s suffrage.
Of course Senator Reid’s interpretation of history has little to do with reality. Reid ignores the fact that it was a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, that freed the slaves. He ignores the fact that it was Democrats that fought to maintain Jim Crow laws and against the Civil Rights Act. In fact the only current member of Congress that was once a member of the KKK, is Democrat Senator Robert Byrd.
So when Reid says, “You think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, slow down, it’s too early. Let’s wait. Things aren’t bad enough…” He’s talking about his party.
They used to say that “history is written by the victors”, nowadays it seems that history is rewritten by the Progressives. Whether it’s former-President Carter trying to make people believe that he was a great president, or Barney Frank trying to convince people he had nothing to do with the demise of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the mortgage crisis, the theme is the same. These progressive politicians spout historical misinformation to support their positions and the liberal media, rather than fact checking and correcting, reports the falsehoods as fact.
One of my favorite examples came from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this year. While crying crocodile tears and expressing as much emotion as her Botox paralyzed face will permit, Pelosi talked about how concerned she was “… about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late ’70s in San Francisco, this kind of rhetoric. … It created a climate in which violence took place. … I wish we would all curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements and understand that some of the ears that it is falling on are not as balanced as the person making the statements may assume. … You have to take responsibility for any incitement that may cause.” Now first of all the language the Speaker was referring to was simply people peacefully expressing their opposition to excessive taxes and spending from Washington, DC. Beyond that Nancy ignores the fact that she and her fellow Democrats were calling people that attended Tea Parties and town halls “un-American” for exercising their 1st Amendment rights and that the only actual violence that has occurred was by those on the left. SEIU thugs beating a black man in Missouri for selling “Don’t Tread On Me” patches, a pro-healthcare protestor biting the finger off an anti-Obamacare protestor and numerous incidences of those on the left spitting on their rivals on the right. In addition the violence in the late ‘70s she was referring to was the murders of Democrats George Moscone and Harvey Milk by the deranged Dan White, another Democrat!
Our own president, an Ivy League graduate, in talking about why he’s uncomfortable using the word “victory” with regard to Afghanistan, “because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur,” distorted history. For those that may be victims of the progressive education system, the Instrument of Surrender in WWII between the Allies and the Japanese was signed onboard the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay, by several Japanese government and military officials, not Emperor Hirohito.
History does not smile on the progressive movement or its follower’s attempts to “fundamentally change America”, which may explain why they have such distain for it. It also explains why a progressive version of history and civics is being taught to American children in public schools and in our colleges and universities. The next generation won’t be able to tell you why December 7th, 1941 was a pivotal day in our history, much less why September 11th, 2001 was. The teachers and the textbooks they employ teach our children a history lesson that most of us wouldn’t even recognize. This is dangerous and shameful and it won’t end until we insist that facts be taught as history. Until then they’ll continue to ignore, distort and rewrite history to suit their needs.
