We have got to stop saying of the Founders "they were a product of their time"

An interesting thing recently happened, Planned Parenthood has come out and all but said quite plainly that Margaret Sanger was racist. Writing in the Slimes,

we must fully take responsibility for the harm that Sanger caused to generations of people with disabilities and Black, Latino, Asian-American, and Indigenous people.

and

We will no longer make excuses or apologize for Margaret Sanger’s actions. But we can’t simply call her racist, scrub her from our history, and move on. We must examine how we have perpetuated her harms over the last century — as an organization, an institution, and as individuals.

Sanger harms every minority that could be named, but no no, not racist. Whatever. It's still shameless apologism. But you know, that's not the most important part of the confession. It's this:

We have defended Sanger as a protector of bodily autonomy and self-determination, while excusing her association with white supremacist groups and eugenics as an unfortunate “product of her time.”

Have you ever defended the Founding Fathers on the issue of slavery on the basis of "oh well it was just a different time in human history" or "things were just different back then" or "they were products of their time"? There are dozens of other ways as well that this can be constructed.

If you have ever made these arguments, please stop. The reality is that there is no equivalency between Margaret Sanger and the Founding Fathers. The Founders were abolitionists and were ahead of their time. Their thought was unusual for the day. Progressive historians have done so much damage, and have taken this away from our Founders when it is rightfully theirs.

Could you imagine a situation where everybody says "Yeah, Vern Mikkelsen is a basketball player" but look at how good Michael Jordan is. Vern Mikkelsen isn't a basketball player anymore. "Yeah, Michael Jordan is a basketball player" but look at how good LeBron is. Michael Jordan isn't a basketball player anymore. Maybe its not the greatest analogy, but that's what the historians have in fact done! The notion that they have successfully sold in their historical narratives is basically "a better abolitionist came along later" so therefore what it does is "invalidates any abolitionist action prior". It's plain insanity.

Nobody on earth would accept sliding-scale basketball, but yet somehow we've been beaten into submission and acceptance on sliding-scale history. Only that which is on the very end of the sliding scale where the historians deem it valid is said to be, but everything else is invalid.

These lying historians! They have lied, they have cheated, and they have stolen - and the worst part is the stealing. Like a thief in the night, our pockets have been picked clean of any facts and reason regarding the reality of the country's founding. Our Founders, and there were many of them, did things such as the creation/founding of abolitionist societies(B. Franklin), passed actual abolitionist laws(J. Jay) and through the course of the recognition of what America stood for in the revolution - where they previously owned slaves because the king wanted it that way they freed their slaves against the king's will because it was the better way to go(W. Whipple). Is any of this a "product of the time"? What the historians have left us with is all just so insulting.

Look at this. Benjamin Wade was one of the more prominent people in the move for abolitionism in the era just prior to the Civil War and the ending of slavery. Wade said the following in a speech in congress:

But let me say to my northern Democratic friends, who are Jeffersonian Democrats, who make that their boast on every stump from Maine to Chicago, that no boast could be more glorious, for no one, in my judgment, be more glorious has ever breathed the breath of life, even among that great galaxy of worthies of revolutionary memory. I have always admired him. I have endeavored to imitate him; and now, if I have Abolitionism about me more than is due, I have come very honestly by it, for he taught me. He told me all about it, as he has told those Jefferson Democrats and Abolition men so often.( source )

Have you ever seen any of these toxic historians ever talk about this? Heck no! To admit this would be proof positive in itself that the Founders were ahead of their time and not products of the time. Thieves, the whole lot of them! Imagine how many progressive historians would be putting themselves out of business if they were to admit in the exact same sentence, that the very same Jefferson who they consider racist was considered abolitionist by some of the guys on the front lines at the time in the mid 1800s. The two don't mix! So the history has to be erased. And Wade wasn't the only one who looked at Jefferson this way. Compared to journalists, historians are far, far more dangerous. It's always the enemy you don't see who does the most damage in their sabotage.

You must, must stop saying the phrase or any of its derivatives or synonyms "product of their time" to the Founders. I know you mean well. The reality is though, that when you do this you turn the Founders into Margaret Sanger, and they deserve so much better than to be associated with filth like that.

There's no need to be an apologist for the Founders. They were on the correct side of history. We need to be BOLD for the Founders because that's what they left us and from our perspective that's what they deserve.

The king is the one. The king is who it is was a "product of his time", it's him, he is the one. Read the Declaration, he was behind on the times. And if you don't want to read it, listen to it.