Fair And Balanced
Steven Thomma at McClatchy noticed the trend of “conservatives” rewriting history:
WASHINGTON — The right is rewriting history.
The most ballyhooed effort is under way in Texas, where conservatives have pushed the state school board to rewrite guidelines, downplaying Thomas Jefferson in one high school course, playing up such conservatives as Phyllis Schlafly and the Heritage Foundation and challenging the idea that the Founding Fathers wanted to separate church and state.
The effort reaches far beyond one state, however.
In articles and speeches, on radio and TV, conservatives are working to redefine major turning points and influential figures in American history, often to slam liberals, promote Republicans and reinforce their positions in today’s politics.
The Jamestown settlers? Socialists. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Ill-informed professors made up all that bunk about him advocating a strong central government.
Theodore Roosevelt? Another socialist. Franklin D. Roosevelt? Not only did he not end the Great Depression, he also created it.
Joe McCarthy? Liberals lied about him. He was a hero.
If you have an interest in real American history, Kenneth C. Davis at Smithsonian has a four-page article, America’s True History of Religious Tolerance, explaining how nasty we have always been. The real history gives you the information needed to understand why religious tests were specifically excluded by the Constitution, and why religion was covered in the First Amendment to stress the point.
