From Charlie Pierce, of Esquire:

[Lonestarblue]

15. The excerpt from Fallin's speech reads like today's history textbooks.

Republicans determined decades ago to take over the boards of education and impose their version of history on schoolchildren. They succeeded all too well. Our history books present whitewashed versions of how real Americans (read: white males) pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and created this exceptional country through a free market. We do not teach the history of this country—and perhaps we never did—we teach an idealized version of how we want to portray ourselves for posterity. The justification for the Civil War is a good example. The articles of secession plainly stated that the right to own slaves was the reason, but that reason morphed into a states’ rights issue rather than slavery because it allowed racists to pretend that they didn’t secede over the right to own another human being.

I’m wishing my life away, but November 3 cannot get here fast enough. Between being forced to stay at home to avoid the virus and the consumption of far too much news, and thus Trump, I despair for the future of our country. It will improve with a Biden win, but it’s concerning that we have a significant slice of our population that worships someone like Trump and buys into his values.