She’s the latest hot name being floated for Joe Biden’s VP. And on Sunday she proved beyond any reasonable doubt why she shouldn’t be let anywhere near the White House, and certainly not one final Biden mental failure from the Oval Office.

She’s dismissive of our history, she panders to the mob, and she lies. To put it in terms Democrats apply to the president: Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is divisive and unpresidential.

Ignorant of History

First, the dismissing of our history, combined with the pandering to the mob. In an interview with CNN, Duckworth declared we “should listen to argument” of those wanting to tear down the statues — legacy — of George Washington. The Father of Our Country. The Man responsible for there being a United States. The man who defeated the most powerful army in the world so that we could have a democratic republic, rather than be lorded over by a king. The man who nursed the fledgling American Experiment in its first years, and set so many amazing precedents that we now take for granted.

The man whose personal integrity and grace and strength and dignity were the stuff of awe even in his own lifetime. The man who easily could have been king or dictator. Twice. But walked away. Painter Benjamin West recounted how upon hearing Washington had willingly ceded power after the Revolution, King George III thought “that act closing and finishing what had gone before and viewed in connection with it, placed him in a light the most distinguished of any man living, and that he thought him the greatest character of the age.”

So the king that George Washington had humiliated, and had ripped 13 colonies from his grasp, thought Gen. Washington “the most distinguished of any man living” and “the greatest character of the age.” But Duckworth, a top legislator in a form of government unrivaled in human history and sitting on the mountain of freedoms Washington brought to fruition, wants to talk about tearing Washington down.

To “listen to argument” — even as anarchists tear down Washington’s statue, and burn the American flag … and hold a brick over the head of anyone who stands in their way.

Anything short of an outright defense of George Washington is a concession to the mob, or proof of being part of the mob. Both of which disqualify her from being Commander-in-Chief.

We’ve Already Heard the Argument

Besides, Sen. Duckworth, we’ve already heard the argument. It’s screamed at us by the mob, and snottily reported by CNN. “He was a white slave owner!”

Okay. Yes. The greatest character of the age was born in an age where slavery still existed. A practice that existed for thousands of years before Washington and continues in places around the world to this day. Africans are being sold right now! (For little more than a pair of Colin Kaepernick Nike Air Force 1 Low sneakers.) For example, Africans are being sold in Libya, in the wake of President Barack Obama’s ruinous Arab Spring.

How odd to condemn the first president who set in motion the wheels to end slavery in America instead of calling out the last president, who helped enslave a new century of Africans.

What Was Washington Expected to Do?

Help me here, critics. Help me, Senator Duckworth. What do you condemning Washington expect him to have done? I mean, in addition to freeing us from royal tyranny.

And launching a new nation governed by “We, the People.”

And keeping 13 colonies, then the fledgling states, unified and not fighting each other.

And working out the logistics of a real “democratic republic” that wouldn’t immediately be ripped to shreds or become fodder for some other hostile or greedy nation. Including a British empire itching for a rematch.

“Yeah, yeah. But George! You didn’t end slavery! You allowed the nation to launch with slavery still a part of the system!”

“I gave you a nation. A nation built on the idea that all men are created equal. An idea that I knew well was incompatible with slavery. But I also knew if the nation could survive its infancy, that ideal would win out. And we would do away with slavery and carry out our founding creed. I could not end slavery and have the nation survive its infancy. Not all at once.”

George Washington’s sin is that he wasn’t super-human.

A potential VP who doesn’t have the wisdom or empathy or historical understanding to get this … to get Washington’s greatness and uniqueness in human history … is disqualified from the office. Or perhaps she does have the understanding, but is playing to the cheap seats and for a place on Biden’s ticket.

I think she is playing to the cheap seats. Why? Because on Sunday she took a cheap, and thoroughly dishonest, shot at President Trump.

Trump at Mount Rushmore Honoring ‘Dead Traitors’?

Second, the lies. I thought Susan Rice lying on Sunday shows about Benghazi was the most vile thing in the history of Sunday morning shows. But dang if Duckworth didn’t just come close. (Not incidentally, Rice is also in the running for the VP nod.)

On Friday night, President Trump made an historic appearance at Mount Rushmore. This, as people say Mount Rushmore should be demolished. As the four men depicted on Mount Rushmore have each had statues and other memorials to them destroyed, defaced or removed.

Donald Trump spoke specifically of each of these four giants in American history. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. He spoke of other heroes, like Ulysses S. Grant and Fredrick Douglass. And Harriet Tubman. And The Tuskeegee Airmen. And the tearing down of monuments to abolitionists.

He vowed to protect such monuments. He announced the creation of a National Garden of American Heroes.

Here’s the text of the speech. Read it. Go ahead. Or watch the video below.

Nowhere in that speech does he mention Confederate statues or Confederate leaders. In fact, he is on record as saying if local governments want to remove those statues, fine, as long as its done through proper procedures, rather than mobs tearing them down.

He’s in the shadow of Mount Rushmore in the face of direct threats against those depicted on Mount Rushmore.

And yet this Senator Duckworth says Trump “spent all his time talking about dead traitors.”

Was Washington a traitor? Jefferson? Roosevelt? Lincoln? Grant? Tubman? Douglass?

Either Duckworth thinks they were traitors. Or she’s pandering to the mob. Or she’s flat out lying. Or all three. Whatever she is, she pushed a pathetic, divisive, horrific, slur designed to push the narrative that Trump is a Confederate sympathizer. Unhappy the Union won the war and ended slavery. So let’s add slanderer to the list of reasons she’s unfit to be vice president.

So four reasons, Sen. Tammy Duckworth is unfit for America’s second highest office. When one would be enough.

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream and co-author, with @JZmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl. And if you aren’t already, please follow The Stream at @Streamdotorg.