Revisionist history has a good element, which is setting the
record straight, for example. This morning on Steve Kornacki’s MSNBC show, UP, the subject was the Jefferson-Jackson
day dinner. Kornacki’s position was that because of the central role Jackson played
in the “Trail of Tears, the dislocation of the Cherokee Nation from the East to
Oklahoma, we should not honor the man as an icon of the Democratic Party. In my
opinion, this is shortsighted view of revisionist history.
Our American heroes are not perfect. Recent histories of presidents are examples. I
know of no president that was perfect. In fact, I know of no one who is perfect.
This means a person can review the life of our so-called great-men in history and
find something in terms of modern standards that are a moral. Thomas Jefferson
fathered children with slaves, the great land-steal from Columbia for the
Panama Canal, the invasion and cruel subjugation of the Philippines, even the
idea that George Washington had hand carved wooden teeth and died of diarrhea. The
idea of national leaders, as heroes, is to emphasize the great accomplishments
of these historical figures; examples for our children (and adults) of what is the
right thing to do and the moral way to act. I can come up with something devastating
about each of the four faces on Mount Rushmore, and I am not a historian. A
professional historian, with detailed knowledge, could choose to destroy the reputation
of anyone they choose.
Political operatives use revisionist history as a political
tool. As a liberal, I could point to the overt racism of Teddy Roosevelt as documented
my James Bradley in his book, the Imperial Cruse (Amazon, 2009) and avoid any
mention of his antitrust legislation. Steven Kornacki chose to the Trail of tears to defame Jackson. The unusual
thing is that Kornacki is a Democrat and so was Jackson. Republicans defame Democrat
Jackson and now Kornacki piled on too. Teddy Roosevelt is a Republican but rest
assured that no one in that party would join me in condemning him for his racism.
Yesterdays post on this blog site with the mocking title, “Maddow
and Hays Hate Obama” had to do with Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes attacking
President Obama about government wiretapping. These two liberals, the same as
Kornacki, will pat themselves on the back for “attacking one of their own” to
show how fair they are in evaluating the news. Liberals wonder why we have such a big tent
but still lose elections. Obama’s face should be on Mount Rushmore for
protecting us, even if he attended a meeting with a domestic terrorist.
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