Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) gave a Republican colleague a much-needed lesson in American history yesterday during a debate in the House of Representatives.
According to HuffPost, Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) was speaking on the subject of adding a citizenship question to the U.S. census when he referenced a line in the Pledge of Allegiance which reads, “and to the Republic for which is stands,” which led him to quote Benjamin Franklin.
“After our Constitution was ratified, he talked about giving us a republic, if we can keep it, and I think people should analyze those two little quotes and wonder why there were references to republic in both of them.”
That led Raskin to note that he had been “inspired” by Grothmans’s comments, and then he took his GOP colleague to school.
He said that “radical Baptist minister” Rev. Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. He was concerned over the continued salute of the Confederate battle flag in the South.
“And so he wanted to write a flag salute that would be unifying for the Union,” explained Raskin, who noted that Congress added “under God” in 1954.
The Maryland Democrat also noted that Franklin was a strong supporter of immigration and added he had once loaned a friend some money.
His friend assured him that the principal was well invested, but paying interest would be against their religion, Raskin said. Franklin then told his friend that he meant to say it’s against his “principle” to pay him interest on the loan and against his “interest” to pay him the principal.
“Well look, here our principles and our interests converge, very much,” Raskin said.
“The principles are set forth in the Constitution, which is we count everybody and everybody is part of the census, and everybody is part of the reapportionment process. It’s been like that since 1790.”
Mocking the proposal to add a citizenship question to the censu, Raskin concluded his remarks with this salvo:
“But it’s also in our interest because, as my colleagues have said, this is a land that is built on immigration, except for the Native Americans that were already here and the people who were brought over as slaves. All of us are descendants of immigrants to this country.”
It has been said before but needs to be repeated: Jamie Raskin is a national treasure.
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