Add a founding father, subtract a founding father. Who cares?!!!
In an
exchange with George Stephanopoli recently, Michele Bachmann argued that John Quincy Adams was one of the "founding fathers." Challenged on the point, Bachmann persisted in in the claim,using Adams as support for her belief that the founding fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery. (See an excerpt from the interview below.)
It appears that the supporters of Bachmann have gone full Stalin -- or is it full Orwell? --
doctoring the Wikipedia to assert, for the historical (or is that hysterical?) record, that John Quincy Adams was one of the founders:
'''John Quincy Adams''' ({{IPAc-en|John_Quincy_Adams_pron.ogg|ˈ|k|w|ɪ|n|z|i}}; July 11, 1767{{ndash}} February 23, 1848)
, a founding father, was the [[List of Presidents of the United States|sixth]] [[President of the United States]] (1825–1829).
* * * * * * *
(from the interview)
Bachmann: Well you know what’s marvelous is that in this country and under our constitution, we have the ability when we recognize that something is wrong to change it. And that’s what we did in our country. We changed it. We no longer have slavery. That’s a good thing. And what our Constitution has done for our nation is to give us the basis of freedom unparalleled in the rest of the world.
Stephanopoulos: I agree with that…
Bachmann: That’s what people want...they realize our government is taking away our freedom.
Stephanopoulos: But that’s not what you said. You said that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.
Bachmann: Well if you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery….
Stephanopoulos: He wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers – he was a president, he was a Secretary of State, he was a member of Congress, you’re right he did work to end slavery decades later. But so you are standing by this comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery?
Bachmann: Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved
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As is true for many of today's so-called "conservatives," Bachmann is eager to sanitize and mythologize America's founding generation. Actually, it was the slaves who were "working tirelessly," serving slave owners that included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and others.
In spirit of right wing historical revisionism, I'm rewriting my own Wikipedia page to indicate that I played with Babe Ruth on the 1927 Yankees.
