Arkansas Legislature Votes Down Resolution Congratulating Obama

It seems thatracistsstill haven't gotten over Barack Obama's election victory, alas. For example: Arkansas. The Arkansas House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairsrejecteda standard symbolic resolution congratulating Barack Obama on his historic victory this morning, 11-6, after a couple of Republicans took issue with language describing "the United States as a nation founded by slaveowners." Oh my god.

The debate centered on competing historical viewpoints. Flowers argued that the language was not meant to be offensive, and that anyone who found it so didn't have a clear understanding of the history of the nation and the role slavery played.

Greenburg and Garner countered that while slavery was a terrible part of the country's history, to suggest that all the founding fathers were slaveowners and that the country was founded on the institution of slavery, while ignoring those who fought slavery from the beginning, was not accurate and potentially divisive.

Where to even begin? Questions of historical accuracy aside, how is this language "potentially divisive" today? It might piss off the slaveowner lobby?

 Resolution Congratulating Barack Obama Rejected In Committee [Arkansas Business]