Bachmann, Santorum sign marriage pledge, disregard history of slavery

Pledge asserted slave families better-off than present-day African-Americans

Two Republican presidential contenders are heeding some warranted criticism after recently signing a marriage pledge.

Michele Bachmann from Minnesota and Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania both signed "The Marriage Vow - A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family." The vow encourages candidates who have signed it to "defend" marriage (in a conservative view), supporting among other things the overall aim to dismantle the same-sex marriage movement.

There's no surprise that both Bachmann and Santorum were fast to sign the pledge -- both have been steadfast opponents of same-sex marriage for quite some time. But controversy beyond their stances seeped into this whole event when, apparently unbeknownst to the pledge signers themselves, the vow included commentary on slavery.

One line in the preamble of the pledge stated quite unequivocally that:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President.

That line, however, is completely untrue: African-American slaves in most cases weren't allowed to marry, and oftentimes were separated from their children, where both parent and child were sold at auction to the highest bidders.

It's a historical omission that is nothing short of disgusting. To forget that slaves were refused the right to marry, much less the right to keep their families intact, in a pledge that is about preservation of families is a disgraceful action. It's disrespectful that the clause was even fathomed as legitimate enough to have been considered placed within the pledge; that it passed the supposedly scrupulous hands of several members within the organization sponsoring it is even more disheartening, maddening even.

The organization itself, the Family Leader, has since apologized for the inclusion of the monstrous statement in its pledge. But the candidates themselves have sullied their names in signing it. It was there, plain to see without any obstruction.

Having signed the original pledge, Bachmann and Santorum put themselves in a terrible position. Either they weren't thinking and just decided to sign any pledge that included barring rights to gay and lesbian couples, or they read the troubling clause and figured it must have been true, glossing over a disgraceful piece of our nation's history with rose-colored glasses they seemingly don't mind wearing. In both cases, it's troubling that these two contenders for the presidency are actually being given serious consideration by conservatives within the Republican Party.

Bachmann and Santorum ought to do one thing truly beneficial for the future of our country, to the future of their own party even -- they ought to totally remove themselves from politics altogether.