In celebration of the 250th Independence Day, here are some MAGA history lessons.
First, the Koch puppet Americans For Prosperity decided to celebrate with a reading of the Declaration of Independence. They invited a bunch of their own employees, a former NFL player I did not recognize, some right wing universe talking heads, and some random lobbyists they described as “grassroots” supporters. Here’s the video:
Talk about being blinded by the white.
And if you watch the video you will notice something curious: when the reading gets to the enumeration of grievances the reading stops and a jerky animation has the list scroll by, unread. You can see it at 2:51.
Things like:
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Or
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
Or
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
They are unread in the video because they are a present day indictment of Trump. History is awkward like that.
With all of the interest in Tuesday’s SCOTUS decisions, especially because of the decision to ban trans girls from school sports, the Koch-funded “education” lobbying group here in WV put out a cringe AI graphic about what SCOTUS decisions they think WV kids should be learning about in school:
First, please note that the Big Brainiacs at the Cardinal Institute evidently think that the Constitution is 250 years old, which should disqualify them forever from opining about the public school curriculum. However it is a MAGA trick and the documents are deliberately confused by MAGA leaders like Michael Flynn:
“Democracy is always a fragile type,” Flynn said. “You read the Federalist Papers, you read [the Founder’s] writings—because this is all about the people that we’re talking about tonight running for office, and others that are out there—you read all these things, you study the history of this country, you study how it was founded. That’s why the word ‘Creator’ is in the Constitution four times. ‘We are endowed by our Creator.'”
That’s how desperate Christian Nationalists are to get the word “Creator” into the Constitution. And since the Cardinal Institute hasn’t corrected their post, they are pushing the same lie.
The second thing to note is how weird their list of SCOTUS cases is. Yes, they do hit on some of the most important ones. But look at the story they are telling with their omissions. Like no cases related to civil rights for women or LGBTQ+ people? No Roe, so no Dobbs. No Lawrence v Texas, no Obergefell. And obviously Citizens United has to be hidden away from the kids, too. It’s all ham-fisted propaganda.
I’ll close with an excerpt from one of the events from the main stage at the Great American State Fair. Have a listen:
Knowles is a fully grown adult and a Yale grad. And he still loses to a 10 year old because he literally says “I don’t know if they were guilty or not.”. This guy, who passes for an intellectual in MAGA world, is not sure if women and children in Salem were guilty of witchcraft or not.
I’ll leave you with this: