Oh, for Pete’s sake. I wish Mark Rose had talked to some historians before projecting his ideas about the Red Peril backwards onto “the Pilgrims.”

Many people like to point to the Mayflower Compact as a foundational document in American democracy. It’s the document that the men aboard the Mayflower signed on 11/11/1620 prior to coming ashore at Cape Cod in which they agreed to submit to a government which would be chosen by common consent, and to obey all laws made for the common good of the colony. (Note the repeated word — COMMON — in there.) They agreed to do this because the Separatists were not the only people on the boat; they had been forced, due to their insolvent circumstances, to accept many fellow travelers who did not subscribe to their religious beliefs. The Mayflower Compact promised political inclusion to minority voices.

Now why do you think they might have done something so exceptional? Do you think it might have been because….uh….they were going to be the only English people on the coast for some 500 miles, cut off by the stormy northern Atlantic on one side and the terrifying woods on the other and without the ability to expect a harvest for another 8 months or so? Because they had a sickly voyage — only one person had died, but many appeared on their way to collapse? By March 1621, half of their company had died and they survived by robbing cached corn from Wampanoag gravesites and calling it Providence. There were some compelling reasons to stick together.

It was also part of the short-term economic plan. The Separatists had contracted a collective debt to London merchants. These merchants had funded the voyage of the Mayflower as a speculative venture, hoping to make some money on the products that Separatists would send back. As the voyagers were all indebted, they had gone into it knowing that theirs was to be a “joint stock” company, where everyone would be equally liable for getting themselves out of debt. The plan was to pay off the merchants (probably in 5-6 years) and then divide lands. They had been promised individual tracts and cattle and sure enough, in 1627, with their debts paid and the colony on a more sure economic footing, they divided property just as scheduled.

Didn’t have a damn thing to do with the “failure of collectivism,” in other words. As a matter of fact, one can credit collectivism with keeping the Plimoth colony alive in its embattled infancy, giving them the ability to pay off their debts quickly, and providing us with a germinal document in American democratic thought.

You’d think that Mark Rose would want to get behind that.

Yea, Bridgett, but the article is a classic.

As are so many things Mark Rose tries to pass off as his own, this is basically ripped off from Rush Limbaugh.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742553/posts

Well, it seems apparent that the Mark Rose’s of the USofA aren’t really motivated towards revealing truth as much as towards trying to separate himself and special and “above” that of his fellow citizens. You see, if we are all equal, then we have to work “together” with “respect of others” to solve our common problems - something they want to avoid at all costs, even if it means distorting history.

The whole “Republicans against the Democrats” is just a guise for personal petty conceited selfishness.

Bridget,

Keep up the propaganda, red diaper baby!

A different perspective on the “first Thankgiving”:

http://www.alternet.org/story/4391

Empirical research — knowing something about something and not relying on plagiarizing stuff from that renowned historian Rush Limbaugh — makes for very truthy propaganda.

Clayton Cramer - who is pretty well in line politically with Mark Rose and Glen Dean - believes the story is historically inaccurate. According to Cramer the first Thanksgiving came before the privatization of land and livestock.

Yep. Clayton (who is admirable in his command of primary sources) is right on. The first harvest celebration was in 1621. The division of livestock didn’t happen until 1627. Mr. Rose (and Mr. Limbaugh) are just wrong about this.