Michelle Bachmann gave a quick history lesson to the Iowans for Tax Relief. Unfortunately, it gets the facts a tad wrong.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had an interesting take this weekend on America’s first European settlers, who she said “had different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions.”
“How unique in all of the world, that one nation that was the resting point from people groups all across the world,” she said. “It didn’t matter the color of their skin, it didn’t matter their language, it didn’t matter their economic status.”
“Once you got here, we were all the same. Isn’t that remarkable?” she asked.
And of course, by a “tad wrong,” I mean, utterly and completely wrong. I admit though, that I found this vision of American history rather naively sweet. But as a member of Congress, Michelle Bachmann has to grapple with policies dealing with the consequences of American racism, slavery, and genocide that still permeate our society today. Turning a blind eye to reality is bad history and makes for bad policymaking.
