Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was mocked after he argued that teaching that the founding of America was “flawed”, “corrupt” and “racist” would be “really dangerous”.
“If we teach that the founding of the United States of America was somehow flawed. It was corrupt. It was racist. That’s really dangerous. It strikes at the very foundations of our country,” Mr Pompeo tweeted in an apparent criticism of Critical Race Theory.
The academic concept has existed for more than 40 years and tries to critically examine US law at its intersection with issues of race. But it’s recently been used by Republicans to bash Democrats and educators trying to introduce a more nuanced view of American history that acknowledges the country’s problematic past.
Mr Pompeo, 57, has criticised multiculturalism as he uses culture war issues to carve out a lane for himself amid speculation he may be preparing for a 2024 presidential run.
The former director of the US Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, tweeted: “Former Secretary of State argues that slavery was not flawed, corrupt or racist.”
Howard Jackson added: “It was flawed. It was corrupt. It was racist. If we deny our past and omit it from our education we will never realize the promise of what we can be, and heal the wounds that divide us.”
Conservative political analyst Bill Kristol wrote: “The Founders themselves thought — and said! — that their founding was in some ways flawed. They argued after 1789 as before. They worried, even agonized, about compromises they’d had to make facing circumstances they hadn’t chosen. The founders were serious people. Trumpists aren’t.”
“The founding document of our government was so inadequate those founders amended it 10 times as soon as it was ratified,” William Tulloch tweeted. “It’s been amended 17 additional times since then to correct flaws (well, 15 times, Prohibition is an outlier). Do you even know American history?”
Writer Oliver Willis sarcastically tweeted: “Yes, the founding of our nation via mass genocide and continued enslavement was flawless. No notes.”
“The inability of conservatives to hold two ideas in their brain – the founding of America was good, the founding of America involved massive injustice – is a key dysfunction of that entire movement,” he added.
“The Founding was flawed, that’s why there [are] 27 amendments and thousands of SCOTUS precedents to clarify constitutional ambiguity,” teacher Nate Bowling tweeted. “The Founding was racist; there was slavery, landed white male-only suffrage, and a 3/5ths clause. It’s a country, not a cult. Get over it, Mike.”.
