GOP Presidential Candidate History: The Battle of Concord, fought in 16th Century New Hampshire
I’ve been down this road too many times with various Tea Party favorites, so I’ll make it brief:
- If you are going to keep talking about the Founders, the Declaration, the Constitution and the Revolutionary War, get your facts right. Paul Revere was not warning the British (Sarah); the Shot Heard ‘Round the World was not fired in New Hampshire, no Founding Father did spend his life trying to get rid of slavery, and John Quincy Adams wasn’t a Founding Father (Michele); and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” isn’t from the Constitution (Herman).
- Don’t make the public more cynical than it already is about the intelligence and competence of its elected leadership by sounding like an ignoramus.
- Don’t make our already historically ignorant public even more ignorant by giving it bad information, from a supposedly trustworthy source.
- One of the duties of elected leaders is to be civically competent and literate, which means knowing American history. It’s a qualification for the job.
For Gov. Perry, I’ll add this: if you are going to make a big deal about how lousy a student you were, as you have, on the theory that academic credentials don’t make effective leaders, you cannot afford to sound like Homer Simpson or Gracie Allen (a dated reference, but a good one) when discussing U.S. history. The public will accept the argument that good grades don’t tell the whole story, but if you say really stupid things…and stating that the Revolutionary War took place in the 16th Century is a really stupid thing to say…it will have to conclude that in your case, the grades were a red flag.
Academic achievements has a tenuous relationship to effective leadership at best, but at least being brilliant and knowledgeable aren’t handicaps. Recklessness, laziness, arrogance and confusion, however, are.
[An aside: Why is this particular group of candidates so historical gaffe-prone? Could it be that the coverage is more relentless and unforgiving—appropriate, since mistakes are also more widely seen and heard? Did Stephen Douglas mistakenly attribute the Magna Carta to Leonardo Da Vinci? Did Williams Jennings Bryan tell a campaign audience that the Constitution that won all those sea battles in the War of 1812 was the document, not the ship? Did Barry Goldwater suggest that Marilyn Monroe was President Monroe’s wife? Or, as a New York Times headline asks in the science fiction novel “I.Q. 83,” in which a runaway virus gradually turns the American people into morons, “Is We Geting Dummer?”]
Ethics Alarms 
As usual, “this particular group of candidates….” has an exception. And, as usual, he is being ignored… Ron Paul. Rule #1 about poliicians: they lie. Rule #2 about politicians: see rule #1. Ron Paul is not a “politician” in any conventional sense of the word. I may have missed a “gaffe” on his part regarding Founding Fathers, the Declaration, the Constitution, the Federalist papers, etc, but I doubt it.
If we, as a people, continue doing what has failed in the past (i.e. vote for conventional politicians), how likely are we to suddenly become successful in the future? What’s that about the definition of insanity again….. ?
I don’t entirely agree with Mr. Paul’s ideas for policies, but I don’t understand why he is being ignored. Of the candidates that have been in the debates, he has made the most sense, and without pandering to anyone.
I like Dr. Paul as well. I know that his ideas are out there and he would make a terrible dictator. But as president, I think you’re viewpoints only reflect the direction from which you will tackle a problem. A president still can’t do anything without the buy-in and support of the congress.
He’s REP Paul; and he’s a smart, nice, dedicated guy…and his foreign policy would get us nuked by Iran or somebody else….completely irresponsible. If and when I move to Montana and away from DC’s Ground Zero, I may, in total despair of all alternatives and consistent with my belief that ethical leaders are paramount, I might be willing to take a flyer on such an ideologue.
“… and his foreign policy would get us nuked by Iran or somebody else… completely irresponsible.” Now, Jack, you are subjecting us to even more of your hyperbole than usual. Do you really believe this? Have you read his foreign policy statements on his campaign website? He’s one of the only current Presidential candidates, including the sitting President, with personal history of honorable military service (along with….. uh, remind me, who else?). Defense is not the same as building empires or self-promotion as the world’s policeman.
Such an idealogue? Like those who believe in government funding of solar companies politically connected to the Speaker’s relatives? Lke those who believe in providing guns to Mexican drug cartels to “trace” their activity? Like those who believe in government takeover of the health system and removal of the treasured physician-patient autonomy that is one of its only unchallenged legacies? I think I will take a little more of REP. Dr. Paul’s ideology than what we’ve been served.
And, Jack, sorry about the grades on the pre-med courses. You can’t take away the credentials the man has earned, which inform his capacity for analytic thinking, and adherence to principle.
I never took any pre-med courses, or if I did, they tricked me into it. I think the Dr. bit is irrelevant. Paul might be the best of the recent Dr-pols, but their collective track records lead me to believe that the link between that particular credential and political leadership is miniscule. Blame Dr. Dean.
Somebody needs to be the big, brave honest kid on the World block, and the US is the best available candidate. It’s a dirty, thankless job, but it has to be done.
I know he has a policy position against being the world’s police, and he’s stated that he’d like to pull all of our troops home. (Probably close every foreign soil base.) Do you think he’d do that in one fell swoop or do you think he’d get his security briefings and look for ways to pull back without compromising the mission? Do you think he’s an unreasonable man? I wouldn’t confuse idiocy with idealism. While closely related, idealism lends itself to reason and practicality while idiocy does not.
I’d hope that he would only do things in a safe way, but his voting records suggests that his idealism trumps pragmatism.
I just have one question. What do we do when we need to fight another Hitler, but don’t have foreign bases? We’re a bit lonely on this continent, Tim. We need staging grounds if we’re going to fight anyone other than Canada or Mexico.
The Hitler we’ll be fighting will more than likely be on our own soil, but sure, keep all 800 bases, at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars for the eventuality. Or, make and keep alliances with nations that are willing to pony up the resources to protect themselves, instead of letting us spend our children’s collective inheritance doing it for them.
You’ve fallen for the patriotic narrative of the military-industrial complex and the global institutions that would have our sons and daughters die for their oil and drug profits. Flag-waving doesn’t do it for me any more, in this scenario. Have you read, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” by John Perkins? When you have, come back and let’s have a discussion about being the “big, brave, honest kid on the World block.”
And, by the way, whether it “has to be done” is relative, and depends on whether we can afford to do it. Guess what? We can’t afford to do it anymore without destroying the very republic whose priniciples are supposed to be preserved by doing such things. There is incredible waste and inefficiency in military procurement. Operating like a business, and concentrating on defense instead of expansionism, empire building and support of global corporations would help a lot.
There is no reason for all these bases over seas. With modern aircraft, prespositioning of supplys and Marines deployed at sea the country is capable of responding to any crisis any where with in hours if not days.
I’d close most of the bases. We need to be in South Korea and Iraq. Japan? German? No. Dr, Paul is right about them.
I would shut down all the military bases in Okinawa but keep the MCAS in Iwakuni, its the closet air base to Korea and isn basically just one big refueling station.
The only bases we really need to keep are Naval bases which allow us to project power when needed.
If I win the election, I promise to appoint you Secretary of Defense.
I agree with you, Jack. The media does make it impossible for everyone to make even the slightest gaffe. However, it doesn’t void being resonsible for mistating historical facts. Sooner or later, some lazy people will believe what they hear.
As an immigrant who carefully studied American history and civics, and read (and re-read and studied) the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in preparation for my citizenship test, I am … speechless. I worked really hard to prepare for becoming a citizen, and was quizzed for 20mins on the Bill of Rights. It boggles my mind that people born here just don’t seem to care enough,or sufficiently appreciate, their birthright. When it comes from those seeking elected office, it is so much worse.
“…no Founding Father did spent [sic] his life trying to get rid of slavery….”
Not that it changes the gist of this article, but Thomas Jefferson did try to abolish slavery for most of his life (or at least set the country in that direction and/or prevent any more Africans from being imported as slaves in the Colonies/States) because he was of the opinion that slavery was fundamentally at odds with the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence (which he authored) and the Constitution.
Notably, he “gave up” on the slavery issue later in life, having come to the realization that it would not happen in his lifetime.
Here’s a fairly concise summary from the website of Montecello.
–Dwayne
Come on. The article credits Jefferson with advocating the abolishment of slavery—while he held his own slaves all the while— for exactly 9 years after 1776, and says that his “thundering silence” on the issue began in 1785, two years before the ratification of the Constitution. Since his silence included the 8 years of his presidency and continued until his death in 1826, 41 years later, I think it’s fair to say that Bachmann’s claim that the Founding Fathers “worked tirelessly” to end slavery can’t be rescued by Jefferson, who sure tired quickly, and remained tired, and a slaveholder, for the rest of his life.
AND you had to pick the one sentence WITH A $%^%$#$%^ TYPO!!!!
At least I didn’t quote it as “…tryin’ to get rid of slavery…. 😉
–Dwayne
Jefferson’s only reason for making any move against slavery was that he saw it was likely leading to some sort of violent confrontation, whether it be a slave uprising or a civil war, it had nothing to do with any objection to slavery as an institution but to what affect its continuation would have on the new Republic.
Maybe he meant the Dutch Revolution.
Which would be educational.
Was that the one where they ate their Prime Minister?
No. The Dutch only ate burghers after an economic collapse that came after their independence. They did steal their leader’s glasses during the Rebellion, though (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Brielle)
Mmmmm…burghers!!
What? No mention of the one who claimed to have visited “all 57 states,” or the one who couldn’t spell “potato?” The gaffes you bring up are mistakes a college graduate shouldn’t make. The ones I just brought up are mistakes a second grader shouldn’t make.
A common response from the right. You must be new here. The fact that Obama has made gaffes does not diminish the gaffes of Rick Perry.
Uhhhhh. What does my comment have to do with the “right?” And, no, I’ve been visiting this site for several years, since long before the new and improved version existed. No diminishment implied. Do Jack’s complaints about the news media “burying” certain stories because they might make certain people appear in a bad light fall into this category as well? After all, the unreported sins, if reported, would not diminish the sins that *are* reported about others.
In fact, Margie is an Ethics Scoreboard Hall of Famer along with Jeff and Tim, and for a long, long time was about the only person who gave me any sense that what I was writing was being read at all. She probably kept me from giving up in disgust, in fact, by her encouraging and piquant posts. I haven’t forgotten, Margie: I ow you.
Thanks, Jack. I’m not sure you owe me, though. I think maybe we could just call it even.