Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) took Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) back to U.S. history class on Wednesday following the Republican’s comments on the word “republic” as it appears in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Grothman, who addressed the House floor before GOP lawmakers passed a bill that looks to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census, pointed to part of the pledge (“and to the Republic for which it stands”) before referring to a quote often associated with 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,” Grothman said.
Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, said he was “inspired” by Grothman’s remarks on the pledge before declaring that he “wrote a paper about it” when he was in sixth grade.
He said that “radical Baptist minister” Rev. Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Americas and 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.
Raskin later shared a “wonderful story” about Franklin — who he described as a big immigration supporter that displayed an anti-German bias in some writings — loaning a friend money.
His friend assured him that the principal was well invested but paying interest would be against their religion, Raskin said, only for Franklin to tell 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.”
He added that lawmakers don’t need to start “finger painting” the Constitution with “this silly election year proposal.”
“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.”
Grothman attempts to lecture Raskin on the use of the word ‘Republic’ in the pledge of allegiance. Raskin provides Grothman with a history lesson pic.twitter.com/aSGsQw1wy1
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 8, 2024
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