History, according to Texas Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

So irate am I, let me quote the TP post in full:

The Texas State Board of Education review committee is preparing to vote on a draft of proposed standards for history textbooks. Noting that the draft has "nothing about liberals," the Houston Chronicle reported:

The first draft for proposed standards in United States History Studies Since Reconstruction says students should be expected "to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority." [...] Others have proposed adding talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.

The 15-member committee, stacked with 10 Republicans, is expected to vote along party lines. Earlier this year, a panel of right-wing "experts" produced a report urging the committee to remove biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen F. Austin, and César Chávez, and instead add history about the "motivational role the Bible and the Christian faith played in the settling of the original colonies."

So, let's recap:

-- George Washington? OUT.

-- Newt Gingrich? IN.

-- Abraham Lincoln? OUT.

-- Phyllis Schlafly? IN.

-- Liberalism? OUT.

-- Christian fundamentalism? IN.

This, apparently, is the way Texas Republicans want it. It's amazing how much Republicans resemble Bolsheviks and other totalitarian revisionists of the last century, isn't it?