So Michele Bachmann signed a pro-marriage pledge that includes this language:
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.
What part of the term general election eludes her?
Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families? What the what? Holy understatement, Batman!
Which families would those be?
The families in Africa torn apart when human beings were stolen away to America to be sold into slavery?
The families in America whose father and mother were legally forbidden to become husband and wife, to enter into a marriage contract, because they were the property of another human being?
I really want to like her. The pledge makes some good points. But there is no way for me to pretend this decision was well-advised.
I am not looking forward to the re-run debate over this one. Whining about media bias, Wiki revising, "you are missing the point," etc.
Read the thing before you sign it. Demand they revise idiotic language that is certain to bite you in [rear] before you sign it.
Is there really anything more to say?
Well there is this, how obtuse must an evangelical Christian organization be to draw on American chattel slavery in a positive light? Especially in defense of marriage.
The Apostle Paul clearly stated that the forbidding of marriage is a doctrine of demons. American chattel slavery forbade marriage. What possesses a person to draw on slavery in this context?
Bachmann has put her defenders in a difficult position. This is not a gaffe. This is a pledge she signed. The whole purpose behind her signing it was to affirm its contents. In defending her you have to defend her affirmation of the contents. That is the point of her signing a pledge.
Good luck with that.
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Jul '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
"The families in Africa torn apart when human beings were stolen away to America to be sold in to slavery?"
Nice try, but them slaves were criminals and were sold as property. That was the system.
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Jimmy Carter: "The families in Africa torn apart when human beings were stolen away to America to be sold in to slavery?"
Nice try, but them slaves were criminals and were sold as property. That was the system. · Jul 8 at 6:31pm
I don't follow- are you saying that only those who were criminals in Africa were exported as slaves?
Nov '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
If I recall Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's research correctly, the black family actually survived slavery fairly well intact; it was torn apart by the social policies of President Lyndon Johnson, the so called "Great Society", which made it possible and even profitable for black women to do without the presence of black males (and fathers) in their households.
I have not reread some of the work that gave me this understanding, but I think that my memory is pretty much accurate on this point.
Jul '11
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Stephen Hayward has a pretty thorough summary of Moynihan's work in volume 1 of The Age of Reagan.
Oct '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
I hope bachmann doesn't become another sharron angle clone, only on presidential level.
Oct '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Michele Bachmann is the best thing that happened to Mitt Romney. Since he is the frontrunner, he got all the anti-Bachmann, anti-Tea Party votes to coalesce around him--even though he has some major issues weighing him down (Romneycare for one). Bachmann is also doing a good job of eliminating Tim Pawlenty from the race.
So the primaries will come down to Romney and Bachmann. Is this okay?
Oct '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
I recommend you take a look at the work of Thomas Sowell. He has definitively backed the Moynahan perspective on the black family in America. The intact black family survived from the time of slavery and well into the 1950s, when the welfare society began and they became it's first victims.
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.
This is a factually correct statement but unfortunately it can be easily demagogued because of the careful foundation of ignorance that the Left has successfully laid.
One more opportunity to Palinize Michelle Bachmann. Will we ever get to the place where we stand behind a real conservative without being driven off by the orchestrated propaganda machine?
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
How do you win a general election against the first black President after you sign a pledge asserting (in part) the benefits of American Chattel Slavery?
I am saying this is a tall order.
Nov '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
I'm a little lost. This is actually a point that has been made in scholarly articles and books--that the modern disruption of the black family is not, as many once thought, a consequence of cultural damage done by the slave system and its associated family disruptions. Instead, the black family began to fall apart with the introduction of the welfare system around 1960. This fact in no way justifies slavery. I can't even begin to see how you would read it that way.
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
raycon: I recommend you take a look at the work of Thomas Sowell. He has definitively backed the Moynahan perspective on the black family in America. The intact black family survived from the time of slavery and well into the 1950s, when the welfare society began and they became it's first victims.
excerpted quote
This is a factually correct statement but unfortunately it can be easily demagogued because of the careful foundation of ignorance that the Left has successfully laid.
One more opportunity to Palinize Michelle Bachmann. Will we ever get to the place where we stand behind a real conservative without being driven off by the orchestrated propaganda machine? · Jul 8 at 8:16pm
I am inclined to agree with you in part. And this not directed at you personally.
Is any one willing to admit that her chumming her own shark tank is a bad idea?
Is she a victim of my ignorance? I know where you are coming from with these suggested readings.
My point is that this is not a winning tactic. "If you read more you would see the merits of slavery" is a non-starter for the general electorate.
Feb '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
The pledge asserts no such thing. It asserts the contrary.
It merely points out that liberal policies and the resulting cultural breakdown have been even worse for black families than the disastrous effects of the slave trade. In no way does that imply we should go back to slavery or that slavery had its "benefits."
I understand your larger point, that the statement will be demagogued and taken out of context. But don't be the first in line to do so.
Mar '11
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Unless there's a part of her statement that I'm missing here, I can only say that's a blatant misrepresentation of what she said. She never gave any blessing to slavery. It's not an endorsement of one evil by pointing out that another one didn't have the same destructive effects. That's like claiming the phrase "AIDS isn't as destructive as Ebola" is an endorsement of AIDS.
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Respectfully, I did not read it as a justification of slavery.
I read a portion of the pledge she signed. It compares favorably the lot of slave children over the lot black children today. (I tried to read the whole pledge but the Family Leader server cannot keep up with the current demand).
She did not sign Moynihan's work or Sowell's work.
Defending their scholarship is not defending her decision to sign this pledge. That's a misdirection. She did not sign an exhaustive, nuanced body of scholarship.
I do not think Bachmann wants to be Palinized by her defenders treating her like a victim.
Jun '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
raycon:
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.
This is a factually correct statement but unfortunately it can be easily demagogued because of the careful foundation of ignorance that the Left has successfully laid.
Speaking of quick... it has begun!
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Busy System Admin
The pledge asserts no such thing. It asserts the contrary.
It merely points out that liberal policies and the resulting cultural breakdown have been even worse for black families than the disastrous effects of the slave trade. In no way does that imply we should go back to slavery or that slavery had its "benefits."
I understand your larger point, that the statement will be demagogued and taken out of context. But don't be the first in line to do so. · Jul 8 at 8:55pm
"In no way does that imply we should go back to slavery".
I never said it did.
"In no way does that imply... that slavery had its "benefits."
I disagree and believe it is reasonable to read the statement as implying a benefit from slavery by comparison.
Jul '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
What on Earth? Why sign such a thing? It does nothing to advance the argument for intact families, while providing kindling for a needless bonfire.
Extremely poor judgment.
Jun '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
raycon: I recommend you take a look at the work of Thomas Sowell. He has definitively backed the Moynahan perspective on the black family in America. The intact black family survived from the time of slavery and well into the 1950s, when the welfare society began and they became it's first victims.
· Jul 8 at 8:16pm
Exactly.
Walter Williams, too: "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, what Jim Crow couldn't do, what the harshest racism couldn't do," Mr. Williams says. "And that is to destroy the black family."
Aug '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Douglas
Unless there's a part of her statement that I'm missing here, I can only say that's a blatant misrepresentation of what she said. She never gave any blessing to slavery. It's not an endorsement of one evil by pointing out that another one didn't have the same destructive effects. That's like claiming the phrase "AIDS isn't as destructive as Ebola" is an endorsement of AIDS. · Jul 8 at 8:57pm
I never said she gave a blessing to slavery. That would be a blatant misrepresentation of what I said.
She has not said said anything yet.
To the best of my knowledge she signed the pledge worded exactly as quoted. As far as I can tell it is an exact representation of the text she signed. I am at loss to see how I am misrepresenting her actions.
There seems to be no disputing that she signed the pledge as it was written.
Jun '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
Kenneth: What on Earth? Why sign such a thing? It does nothing to advance the argument for intact families, while providing kindling for a needless bonfire.
Extremely poor judgment. · Jul 8 at 9:04pm
So do you think Moynihan, Williams, and Sowell exercised poor judgment? They did much more than sign a little pledge. They've made examining and lecturing on the subject a large part of their life's work.
I think it is one of the best arguments to be made for showcasing how intact families have been destroyed by the Great Society. The beauty of the argument is that it recognizes the history of strong, black families held together against incredible odds. Most young blacks have no connection to that past and we should facilitate that. Educating them requires the cold, hard truth. I'd be curious to see if the press hound dogs about to be released on Bachman uncover some black kids among her 23 foster children. That would be delicious irony.
Jul '10
Re: Bachmann Signs Marriage Pledge Asserting the Two Parent Household Benefits of American Chattel Slavery: Orwellian Wikipedia Revisions Will Begin Shortly
StickerShock
Kenneth: What on Earth? Why sign such a thing? It does nothing to advance the argument for intact families, while providing kindling for a needless bonfire.
Extremely poor judgment. · Jul 8 at 9:04pm
So do you think Moynihan, Williams, and Sowell exercised poor judgment? They did much more than sign a little pledge. They've made examining and lecturing on the subject a large part of their life's work.
I think it is one of the best arguments to be made for showcasing how intact families have been destroyed by the Great Society. The beauty of the argument is that it recognizes the history of strong, black families held together against incredible odds. Most young blacks have no connection to that past and we should facilitate that. Educating them requires the cold, hard truth. I'd be curious to see if the press hound dogs about to be released on Bachman uncover some black kids among her 23 foster children. That would be delicious irony. · Jul 8 at 9:16pm
A case could be made for intact families without inflaming racial tensions. For a white Republican candidate to preach to blacks so blatantly is extremely ill-advised.