-By Warner Todd Huston
On Tuesday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced that he was joining the other 75 or 80 candidates for the 2016 GOP nomination for president. But during his announcement, Christie seemed to prove that he is illiterate about American history.
One of Christie’s great themes during his announcement is that the nation needs a great compromiser in chief, a candidate who will “reach across the aisle” and work with “our friends the Democrats.”
But in touting his fealty to “compromise,” Christie made an analogy to the Founding fathers that was both clumsy, and completely incorrect.
A little less than half way through his comments, Christie delivered this paragraph:
And both parties. Both parties have failed our country. Both parties have stood in the corner and held their breath and waited to get their own way. And both parties have lead us to believe that in America, a country that was built on compromise, that somehow now compromise is a dirty word. If Washington and Adams and Jefferson believed compromise was a dirty word, we’d still be under the crown of England.
Firstly, when he said, “If Washington and Adams and Jefferson believed compromise was a dirty word, we’d still be under the crown of England,” this doesn’t even make any sense at all. None of these three founders “compromised” with England. Neither did any of the other founders. Once they chose separation and independence there was no longer any thought to compromising with the British government.
So, right there that line makes no sense at all.
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Chris Christie: Historical Illiterate”