Late yesterday, Sanjay Talwani revised and extended his rather uncritical reporting from Saturday concerning David Barton’s appearance at the Montana Governor’s Prayer Breakfast. Citing John Fea and me, Talwani addressed the obvious historical problems in the speech but also addressed the issue of partisanship at what is supposed to be a non-partisan event.
It is hard to imagine a more partisan figure than Barton. His book Setting the Record Straight: History in Black and White slams the current Democratic party and lauds the GOP because of the role each party played in the Civil War era and beyond. In his book and this video, however, he fails to address the damage done by Goldwater’s lack of support for the Civil Rights Act and the subsequent “southern strategy” used by the GOP.
More recently, Barton’s widely distributed and redundantly titled article America’s Most Biblically Hostile U.S. President about President Obama screams the opposite of bi-partisanship and bridge building.