First we had Michele Bachmann. According to Rich Lizza's piece in the New Yorker:
In “Christianity and the Constitution,” the book she worked on with Eidsmoe, her law-school mentor, he argues that John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams “expressed their abhorrence for the institution” and explains that “many Christians opposed slavery even though they owned slaves.” They didn’t free their slaves, he writes, because of their benevolence. “It might be very difficult for a freed slave to make a living in that economy; under such circumstances setting slaves free was both inhumane and irresponsible.”I mean The Bible does allow for slavery, doesn't it? - Just not cruel slavery (Leviticus 25:44-46):
If you want slaves, buy them from other nations or from the foreigners who live in your own country, and make them your property. You can own them, and even leave them to your children when you die, but do not make slaves of your own people or be cruel to them.So as long as you don't whip them or anything, slavery's OK, I guess. Responsible thing to do, even, since setting them free in a bad economy would only make things really bad for them.
That's freedom and slavery for Michele Bachmann, winner of the Iowa straw poll for the Republican Nomination for the President of the United States.
Then there's Rick Santorum, one of the losers. Thinkprogress has video of our favorite ex-Senator discussing freedom:
Their transcript:
Our founders said [our] rights were given to us to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Does anyone here believe that first inalienable right is as whole as it was at the time of our founding? It isn’t. Does anyone believe that our freedom is as whole as it was at the time of our founders? It is not. [bold in original]From the top of the field to the bottom: for the GOP, slavery was no big deal. Not even worth mentioning when cheering on the great traditions of America.
I guess the GOP doesn't count human slavery as the affront to human freedom that it so obviously is.
2 comments:
Not to mention that freedom for women at the time of the Founding Fathers meant freedom from voting. OK, I just mentioned it.
I've been trying to figure out where all the pooh-poohing of slavery from the far right orginates from, and then I saw this via Ed Brayton at Freethought Blogs.
Its a Christian Coalition "leadership Manual" and its quotes all sorts of biblical verses, including those that were used in the past the justify slavery. The money quotation though, is this: "Of course, slavery was abolished in this country many years ago, so we must apply these principles to the way Americans work today, to employees and employers. Christians have a responsibility to submit to the authority of their employers since they are designated as part of God's plan for the exercise of authority in the earth by man."
It appears that the far right approvingly sees the workplace relationship as a master/slave relationship, as decreed by God. Under that reasoning, its no wonder they see organized labor as "evil."
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