Liar, liar, pants on fire: The historical revisionism of the right

The right wing has been distorting American history since the United States was founded. Let's take a look at some of the biggest lies. 

1.The US was founded as a Christian nation. Most of the people who migrated here believed in God but not necessarily organized region. We call such people as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin 'deists. People who believe in organized religion are called theists.

The US Constitution does not mention God, Jesus or Christianity. The Establishment Clause or the First Amendment establishes barriers between church and state and does not allow a religious test for holding public office. In fact, the Treaty of Tripoli 1996-97 specially states the US is not a Christian nation.

2. The Founders were brilliant men who wanted static laws and courts that were strict constructionist. First of all the Founders were a diverse lot and Alexis de Tocqueville noted some startling differences between the people who settled the North and the South. De Tocqueville even predicted the people in the South might one day undermine the new nation.

Trying to make the founders into a collective noun is a mistake. There were great arguments when the Constitution was being written and sentries were placed around the hall in Philadelphia so no one could ease drop.

The Bill of Rights was an afterthought and two political parties: Jefferson's Democratic Republican party and and Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party formed immediately after the nation was founded. If the Founders didn't allow for change, why did they create a House , a Senate and a judiciary? Why did the Founders allow the Constitution to be amended?

3. The Civil War was fought over State's Rights. The Abolitionist's in the North were certainly against slavery, but the real issue was the expansion of slavery into new US territories.

In fact, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America had the same supremacy clause that is in the US Constitution. The Confederate States had some rights to regulate and tax commerce on waterways, but otherwise the Confederate government's laws superseded state laws.

4. The Depression was caused by the Democratic Party. This is a huge lie because three Republicans were president prior to the great Depression: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

The Great Depression started when Hoover was president. Hoover actually started a lot of the public works programs, but his programs were conducted on too small of a scale. The Republicans also neglected traditional black Republican voters who defected to the Democratic Party after FDR was elected.

5.The Democratic party is fascist. Again, another huge lie. Many Republicans were openly sympathetic to Hitler on the onset of World War 2 and some even continued to do business with the Nazis during the war.

There was even a right wing Nazi movement called the Bund that was active in the US. In 1934 retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional committee that a group of right wing men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a coup. The US entered World War 2 against Japanese militarists and European fascist nations such as Germany and Italy.

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