Newsweek op-ed on how the Tea Partiers get the Constitution wrong. (grokked from Eric)
Also, they tend to have a worship of the Founding Fathers and portray them as this collegial group that agreed on How Things Should Be(tm). Nothing is farther from the truth. They bickered and were snide to each other. Adams and Jefferson had a falling out that last years. It's better to say they all compromised and found a middle ground and said, "This is the best we can do."
5 comments:
Though one shouldn't use a Broadway musical as a history source, "1776" clearly illustrates the sausage making aspects of wrangling the Declaration. One cannot imagine that just a few years later that the forging of the Constitution was any easier or free of fractious disputes.
That both documents (a) were the products of compromise and (b) have survived to our benefit for over two centuries speaks to their quality -- and the ignorance of the My-Way-Or-The-Highway squads.
Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil, well "1776" tracks well to my knowledge of what happened in the 2nd Continental Congress (although in a simplified and dramatic manner).
I most often go to Franklin's line during the great compromise. "What posterity says won't bother us, we'll be long dead. And what will they think? That we were demigods? We're men, no more, no less, trying to get a country started against greater odds than a more benevolent God would allow."
Hi Steve! I've never seen the musical- never seen any musical really. But anything that lampoons the government decision making process and has some singing sounds well worth the price of the ticket.
Rich, 1776 is a great musical. Really takes on how the Declaration of Independence was created and ratified. Shows the founding fathers as very human and the intensity of debate that went on ("Sit down, John", "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve" and the excellent, "Molasses to Rum to Slaves"). Also discusses a little about the gravity of what was happening ("Hey Mama, Look Sharp"). Highly recommended.
Here's a sample, "The Egg" on YouTube.
Okay, and as a counter to the lightness of The Egg ("And just as Thom here has written, we say to Hell with Great Britain, the eagle inside belongs to us!") Molasses to Rum to Slaves.The song about when the South walked out.
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