I first saw this video over on We Are Respectable Negroes:
Wait, wait, wait....let me get this straight. Glenn Beck is claiming the 3/5ths compromise was put in as a ticking time bomb against slavery? Bullsh*t.
The 3/5th's compromise wasn't a f*cking way to abolish slavery. It was a compromise that got the South to sign on to the Constitution by allowing them to retain more political power in the House of Reps and the Electoral College than it otherwise would have had have based on the fact that a large chunk of its population was technically classified as property, not free citizens! If they'd only counted free citizens, the South would have had significantly less political clout. By counting each slave as 3/5th of a person, the South ended up with a larger population of "citizens" than they actually had, as slaves were neither considered citizens nor had the rights of citizens.
I'mma need Glenn Beck to sit down. Preferably in a corner by himself somewhere, so he can think about the stupidity of the sh*t that spews out of his mouth.
Cross-posted from American Black Chick in Europe.
"...so he can think..." Therein lies the problem, does it not?
ReplyDeleteYou're assuming that Glen Beck can think?
ReplyDeleteI tend not to listen to nor believe anything that a grilled cheese sandwich says.
ReplyDeleteABCinE is back. Hooray!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if Glenn Peccary pulls stupid stunts just to draw attention to himself, to raise his flagging stock: Glenn Beck has been dropped by New York radio station WOR due to poor ratings. How do you put lipstick on a squeal?
@ Octopus - I never really left! My internship, French classes and job hunting (for when my internship ends in a couple of months) have kept me busy over the last few months so I haven't been blogging as much. But I still check out the Swash Zone to see what y'all are up to/writing about!
ReplyDeleteGlenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush, Ann and all the other lying sacks of hate-shout. Watch them slither out of responsibility for yet one more result of their hate speech.
ReplyDeleteFrom the timestamp of our Captain's comment above (@ 4:55 PM), the murders in Tucson now hang over this post, an event that ups the ante on merely stupid punditry and raises it to the level of incitement and violence.
ReplyDeleteABCiE,
ReplyDeleteYes, it's remarkable how this guy makes up American history, isn't? I mean, no need do any of that boring Marxist-professor stuff like read books and articles -- just say something and get millions of hopelessly ignorant fans to repeat it until it becomes "true." It works because so many Americans have no idea which century saw the country's founding, when the Civil War occurred, or anything else.
The deal cut at the time of America's inception was a devil's bargain, and I think the founders knew it: accept slavery, or no union. And the 3/5's rule was exactly what you say: a way to make sure the South had sufficient power in government; it was yet another way to exploit already enslaved people. My understanding is that some of the founders didn't really believe the union forged in such a way was going to last out their own lifetimes. They weren't far off in thinking so, either, since it lasted less than a century without bloodshed to bring it back together.