Yesterday The Daily Caller posted a quote from Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders. This is the quote:
I hope that every person in this room today understands that it is unacceptable to judge people, discriminate against people based on the color of their skin. And I will also say, that as a nation — the truth is a nation that in many ways was created, and I’m sorry to have to say this from way back, on racist principles, that’s a fact. We have come a long way as a nation. Now I know, my guess is that probably not everybody here is an admirer or a voter for Barack Obama, but the point is that in 2008, this country took a huge step forward in voting for a candidate based on his ideas and not the color of his skin.
First of all, I don’t think Americans voted for President Obama based on his ideas–they voted for President Obama on the basis of his novelty and the celebrity he managed to gain. He was never very clear on his ideas when he was running for office.
This is the modern version of the Mayflower Compact:
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.
The instructions given to the colony at Jamestown on April 29, 1607, included the folllowing:
Lastly and chiefly, the way to prosper and obtain good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the giver of all goodness. For every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.
This is from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
I am not sure why Senator Sanders believes that America was founded on racist principles. America was settled mainly by the British who reflected the thinking of the time. The new idea in America was the idea that rights came from God and that all men were created equal and had those rights. Slavery was practiced for a while, but slavery was a worldwide accepted practice at that time. Slavery is still an acceptable practice in many Muslim countries. America and Britain were the two countries who led the way to abolish slavery in western civilization.
I don’t know why the Senator has such a warped idea of what America is. America is not perfect, but it is one of the most free countries in the world (actually, it ranked higher on the world freedom scale before President Obama took office). There is equal opportunity here for those who choose to take advantage of it. There will never be equal outcome–that is not possible as long as people are free to choose how much work they are willing to do.