Break It Down!: "Politics Today: The Unlikely Intersection of Marriage, The Family...and Slavery!"

It's time to Break It Down!

After a two-week crusade of personal sharing, this week the conversational pendulum swings back to a topic of national interest and, for some anyway, wider import.

For most of the next 16 months,

America

will be immersed in the spectacle of political theater we refer to, broadly, as the 2012 Presidential Election. In its current state, much of the action is centered on identifying the central characters seeking the Republican Nomination.

In the frantic and seemingly endless race to create a more perfect union, ostensibly by virtue of designing a more conservative

America

, a litany of splinter groups has emerged with their own Candidate Purity Pledges. The Grand Old Party (GOP), led off with its Tea Party-inspired No-Tax Pledge, which has single-handedly all but shut down negotiations to raise the budget ceiling; the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List followed last month, adding a Pro-Life Pledge; last Thursday, The Family Leader, a conservative group, based in Iowa, released its controversially worded Marriage Vow Pledge.

It is altogether possible that if you’ve been under a rock, or simply not yet tuned-in to the pre-Labor Day political machinations, you’ve missed this latest iteration of what passes for contemporary GOP probity. What’s more likely is, unless you live in Iowa, or you are a political junkie, or better yet, you are involved in some facet of the Tea Party (Movement), you have never heard of The Family Leader.

If the latter is the case, consider this post your introduction to the group, and its gaffe…yes, I am extending the benefit of the doubt and accepting that the the otherwise scurrilous slur to President Obama was unintentional...wink, wink. Two prominent Republicans, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum, signed the Pledge right away. Afterward, both spent more than a few uncomfortable moments answering (or perhaps fielding, but not answering) questions about Slavery. Fortunately, The Family Leader helped diffuse their misery by walking back the outrageously contentious assertion.

Party front-runner, Mitt Romney refused to sign the Pledge, and called it undignified, and inappropriate. Libertarian Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, and a GOP Presidential Candidate called the Pledge offensive and un-Republican. Newt Gingrich, a 3-time husband, former Speaker of the House, ever the Party intellect, and also a GOP Presidential Candidate, refused to sign, contingent on The Family Leader adapting the Pledge to incorporate language more to his liking. Most interestingly, presumably, all this reluctance and outright disdain was voiced after the most offensive, abrasive, and for good measure, false/historically incorrect language was removed.

So what was the key proviso that caused such a dust up that The Family Leader removed it from the Pledge?

No surprisingly, it was yet another statement in a too-long long list of pointedly anti-Obama rhetorical flourish, fashioned predominately by Conservatives, of course. The Pledge, officially entitled, THEMARRIAGE VOW: A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family is essentially a three-part document, consisting of a 14-Point Pledge, preceded by a 5-point Preamble, and followed by a Signature Section.

The first bullet point in the Preamble contains the irresponsibly offending section, which includes the assertion that reads:

“Slavery had a disastrous impact on African American families, yet sadly, a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”

Just so we are clear, Africans arrived on the shores of Virginia in 1619, more than 150 years before the founding of the United States. But the practice of slavery existed in the Spanish colonies as early as the 1560’s. Moreover, there are two interdependent fine points, as it relates to The Family Leader’s original Pledge language:

1. Slavery in the

United States

continued officially until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865

2. During Slavery, it was illegal for blacks to marry

When points one and two are considered in tandem, it is imminently clear that the number of two-parent slave households in 1860, or in any year during slavery, for that matter, was zero! Ergo, the initial postulation put forth by The Family Leader is, pure, unadulterated BS. Excuse me; what I meant to say was, The Family Leader erred, and made an inaccurate assertion in predicating its Pledge. It was really quite generous of them to walk it back…after having been called on it. The official statement, termed a misconstuance, follows:

“After careful deliberation and wise insight and input from valued colleagues we deeply respect, we agree that the statement referencing children born into slavery can be misconstrued, and such misconstruction can detract from the core message of the Marriage Vow: that ALL of us must work to strengthen and support families and marriages between one woman and one man." The Family Leader added, "We sincerely apologize for any negative feelings this has caused, and have removed the language from the vow.”

Lest you are left with the notion the Pledge is a single purpose document, while the 14 Points do focus, primarily, on marriage, the document also manages to incorporate numerous other areas, apparently, of fundamental interest to the Conservative base, including:

Conjugal intimacy

Human trafficking

Sexual slavery

Promiscuity

Prostitution

Pornography

Infanticide

Abortion

Sexual harassment

Adultery

Sharia law

The federal deficit

Downsizing government

The federal budget

Heterosexual monogamy

It is important to be mindful that we are still early in the process. Given my anticipated proliferation of “Pledging,” I believe we are apt to see many more assertions made between now and November 2012; some even more preposterous than bullet point number one of The Marriage Vow Pledge. To wit, keep your eyes open, and your brain engaged. Vigilance may not be just your best defense; quite possibly, it is the only fortification between you and the black hole of misanthropic ignorance, deceit, and misinformation.

And that gentle readers, is the summation of “Politics Today: The Unlikely Intersection of Marriage, the Family…and Slavery!” I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Vander_Plaats

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/12/marriage_pledge_vander_plaats

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/The-Family-Leader-Presidential-Pledge.pdf

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/missionbeliefs

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/ifpc

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/marriage-matters

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/iowa-family-pac

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/iowa-for-freedom

http://www.thefamilyleader.com/inside-tfl/leadership

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Bachmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Santorum