Harriet Tubman To Replace Andrew Jackson On $20 Bill

Woman who liberated slaves to replace slaveholding President who presided over Native American genocide on American currency.

Harriet Tubman Twenty Dollar Bill

Harriet Tubman will be replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill:

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday announced the most sweeping and historically symbolic makeover of American currency in a century, proposing to replace the slaveholding Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the former slave and abolitionist, and to add women and civil rights leaders to the $5 and $10 notes.

Mr. Lew may have reneged on a 10-month-old commitment to make a woman the face of the $10 bill, opting instead to keep Alexander Hamilton, to the delight of a fan base swollen with enthusiasm over a Broadway rap musical sharing the last name of the first Treasury secretary.

But the broader remake of the nation’s paper currency may well have captured a historical moment for a multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial nation moving contentiously through the early years of a new century.

Tubman, an African-American and a spy for the Union, would bump Jackson — a white man known as much for his persecution of Native Americans as for his war heroics and advocacy for the common man — to the rear of the $20, in some reduced image. Tubman would be the first woman so honored on paper currency since Martha Washington’s portrait briefly graced the $1 silver certificate in the late 19th century.

While Hamilton would remain on the $10, and Abraham Lincoln on the $5s, images of women would be added to the back of both — in keeping with Mr. Lew’s intent “to bring to life” the national monuments depicted there.

The picture of the Treasury building on the back of the $10 bill would be replaced with a depiction of a 1913 march in support of women’s right to vote that ended at the building, along with portraits of five suffrage leaders: Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony, who in recent years was on an unpopular $1 coin until minting ceased.

On the flip side of the $5 bill, the Lincoln Memorial would remain but as the backdrop for the 1939 performance there of Marian Anderson, the African-American opera star, after she was barred from singing in the segregated Constitution Hall nearby. Sharing space on the rear would be images of Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady who arranged Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial performance, and of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1963 delivered his “I have a dream” speech from its steps.

The final redesigns will be unveiled in 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment establishing women’s suffrage, and will not go into wide circulation until later in the decade, starting with the new $10 note. The unexpectedly ambitious proposals reflect Mr. Lew’s tortuous attempt to expedite the process and win over critics who have lodged conflicting demands, pitting mainly women’s advocates against Hamiltonians newly empowered by the unlikely success of their hero’s story on Broadway.

Mr. Lew’s design proposals are the culmination of 10 months of often-heated public commentary that began almost immediately after he invited Americans last June to help him decide what woman from history to honor on the $10 bill. That feel-good initiative proved to be hardly as simple as he first imagined.

(…)

But nothing so roiled the debate as the phenomenon of the musical “Hamilton.”

Weighing in for his place on the $10 bill were well-to-do theater patrons and teenagers rapping to the soundtrack, as well as the show’s creator and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda. When Mr. Lew and his wife caught a performance last August, the Treasury secretary hinted to Mr. Miranda that Hamilton would stay. Just this week, the show won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

By July, in fact, Mr. Lew already had decided to keep his long-ago predecessor on the $10 note, and put a vignette of suffragists on the back, with Tubman scheduled for the $20 bill and changes to the $5 note as well.

“I had a kind of ‘aha’ moment where I said we’re thinking too small,” Mr. Lew said on Wednesday.

He decided to redesign all three bank notes to accommodate the various views, and sooner. As for the choice of Tubman, he said that in the public comments he reviewed each night, “the pattern became clear that Harriet Tubman struck a chord with people in all parts of the country, of all ages.”

“This is a good solution,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who wrote to the secretary “strongly suggesting he not remove Hamilton” from the bill.

Mr. Lew directed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to hasten the redesign of the $20 and $5 notes, contemporaneously with the $10 bill. Subsequent production of the $10 bill would take precedence, though Mr. Lew said all three notes could be in wallets before 2030. The final decision on release is up to the Fed.

One wild card is that Mr. Lew and President Obama have just months left in office. But Mr. Lew expressed confidence that his successors will not veto the currency makeovers.

“I don’t think somebody’s going to probably want to do that — to take the image of Harriet Tubman off of our money? To take the image of the suffragists off?” he said.

Not since 1929 has American currency undergone such a far-reaching change. That year all paper money changed, with more standard designs and smaller size to save costs.

When it was first announced a year ago that Lew was soliciting suggestions for a woman to put on one of the pieces of American currency being redesigned over the next decade, the idea of replacing Jackson with Harriet Tubman is one that seemed to have widespread approval. Partly this seemed to be because nobody was quite sure why Jackson had ended up on the most widely circulated denomination of currency to begin with. According to some reports, the decision was essentially one made by one bureaucrat at the Treasury Department back when currency was last being redesigned. That story may be true, or it may be apocryphal because nobody wanted to take responsibility for putting someone with a checkered record to say the least such as Jackson, a slave owner who was also responsible for horrible mistreatment of the Cherokee and other Native American tribes on the Trail of Tears. Tubman, on the other hand, was an escaped slave who spent the years prior to the Civil War putting her own life at risk to help other African-Americans to escape to freedom in the North and, in some cases, Canada. To the extent the morality of a life i relevant to how much honor someone deserves, there’s clearly no comparison between Jackson and Tubman. As for the remainder of the proposed changes to the $5 and  $10 bill’s, I’ll have to wait and see the proposed designs. As described, though, they seem acceptable.

The ironic thing about all of this is that one wonders how much anyone is really going to notice these changes. We are increasingly becoming a cashless society, or at least one in which cash is used far less than it was in the past. By the time these new bill start circulating more than ten years from now, those changes are likely to become even more widespread in the coming years. Given that, there may not be as many new bills circulating as Secretary Lew and others might be anticipating. Indeed, in the end the group that may end up having the greatest interest in these changes may be collectors rather than consumers.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, US Politics, , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Pch101 says:

    The comment sections of websites such as Breitbart were made for stories like these. Comedy gold.

  2. SenyorDave says:

    I’m glad this happened in its own right (especially wrt Jackson, a man with some major league baggage in terms of legacy), but the frosting on the cake is that it will piss off the lunatic fringe. I see that Ben Carson has already weighed in on how its terrible to take Jackson off the bill. Carson is actually giving Palin a run for her money on the ignorance thing.

  3. grumpy realist says:

    @SenyorDave: Carson wants Tubman on the 2$ bill.

    Guess black people only amount to 1/10 the worth of white people in Carson’s world.

  4. James Pearce says:

    Now that we will have Harriet Tubman on the $20, maybe we can start work on that “social justice” thing.

  5. steve s says:
  6. Pch101 says:

    @SenyorDave:

    Over at Breitbart, the illiterati are claiming that they won’t use the Tubman $20 bills and are making all kinds of, uh, pleasant comments about black folks.

    At this rate, we will need to change the national anthem to “Dare to Be Stupid.”

  7. CB says:

    But seriously, you guys, there’s no problem with racism in the Republican base. I promise.

  8. Gustopher says:

    I don’t understand the Suffragettes on the back of the $10 — other than Alexander Hamilton apparently being quite the womanizer (according to the musical), I don’t see the connection.

    I’d like to see one bill devoted to the Revolution, one to the Founding of the Republic, one to Women’s Rights, one to Ending Slavery, and another to the Civil Rights movement — the great movements for expanding freedom in this country. $1, $5, $10, $20, $50.

    Rotate the person who gets top billing on the front, a nice montage on the back… maybe a bit more color so we can tell them apart. Hamilton might not get the front, ever, which would be a shame (it’s a very good musical), so we could give him a permanent place on the $2 or have it be him some years and FDR the others.

  9. rachel says:

    @CB: Or misogyny.

  10. Jenos Idanian says:

    Yanking one of the Founders of the Democratic Party off the bill and replacing him with a woman who worked so closely with the founders of the Republican Party? I can go along with that.

    Make it an illustration of her with her gun, and I might possibly wet myself in glee.

    @Gustopher: Your idea of variant bills intrigues me. The state quarters made a HUGE amount of money for the federal government, and making collectible bills would make even more money for the government. And more importantly, it would be getting money from people giving it up voluntarily.

  11. Liberal Capitalist says:

    What?

    They’re changing money, again?

    … meh. Who cares.

    I’ve gotten used to the bills in my wallet looking different over the years.

    Considering how infrequently I use paper money this century, why all the kerfuffle?

    (hey! racist kids… get off my lawn.)

  12. Tyrell says:

    Let me say from the start that I have no criticism of Harriet Tubman: I am sure that she did a lot of good.
    I must strongly protest this spurious, mischievous action by this Secretary Lew; apparently in some misguided effort to please and placate a few vocal people. Andrew Jackson had his faults, and was certainly no saint, but can anyone name a president who was ? Jackson’s accomplishments and contributions to this country far outweigh his faults. As a child I remembered clearly the story of the time when, also a child, Jackson stood up to a British officer and received a saber cut on his face. Jackson also stood down the British at the masterful victory of New Orleans. Jackson put his efforts into the growth of this country. For Jackson, it was “nation first”.
    Jackson is the only president to have an era named after him: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt do not have that. Jackson was and still is a giant among American leaders of that time. There are those who seem to think and say that if they were around back then that they would not have gone along with the treatment of the Native Americans. I don’t know about that. That is certainly easy to say. Jackson was not the only one involved and most other leaders and the people supported him.
    We are in an age in which our past leaders are being defamed and denigrated in some misguided effort to rewrite and erase the past. When I was in history class, we were taught the bad with the good. There was no sugarcoating or efforts to strike things out of the history books the way they do now. This, being pushed and paraded by some of the “news” media.
    The Jackson era was the time of traditional American heroes: Daniel Boone, Bridger, Crockett, Eli Whitney, Sam Houston, and several others. I guess they are in disfavor now also. Who comes next on the list ? Washington, Jefferson, Madison. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Douglas McArthur, George Patton ?
    How about Grant and Sherman – their role in the settlement of the plains and west ?
    I will make my objections in writing and send them to the Secretary. This is a decision that should have had input from the people !
    A short account of Jackson at age 13:

    http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/andy.html

  13. Kylopod says:

    So we might not actually begin to see these new bills until 2030, nearly a decade and a half from now. By my reckoning a majority of the people shaking their fists at this development will no longer be around by then. In fact I have the strange feeling that to youngsters in the future this stuff will sound as alien as anti-Irish discrimination sounds to us.

  14. An Interested Party says:

    Or misogyny.

    Humph, wait for the general election…you ain’t seen nothing yet…

    Yanking one of the Founders of the Democratic Party off the bill and replacing him with a woman who worked so closely with the founders of the Republican Party?

    Left out of this statement is the fact of how radically both major parties have changed since the 19th century…Harriet Tubman would be a Democrat these days and Andrew Jackson would probably be a Republican, especially if we connect how he felt about blacks and Native Americans with how many Republicans of today feel about blacks and Hispanics…

  15. Liberal Capitalist says:

    @Tyrell:

    Andrew Jackson had his faults, and was certainly no saint…

    So, you prefer to keep a slave owner and a man responsible for genocide of Native Americans (“the trail of tears”) on a 20, instead of a real American hero, and civil war veteran?

    Before the self–righteous indignation, read about a real American hero:

    http://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11469736/harriet-tubman-twenty-why

  16. Liberal Capitalist says:

    @Tyrell:

    Oh, and by the way…

    There are those who seem to think and say that if they were around back then that they would not have gone along with the treatment of the Native Americans. I don’t know about that. That is certainly easy to say. Jackson was not the only one involved and most other leaders and the people supported him.

    Yeah, it’s easy to gloss over 10,000 dead. Especially when you are stealing their land.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

    The U S federal government had been pressured to remove the Native Americans from the Southeast by many white settlers, some of whom encroached on Indian lands while others wanted more land made available to white settlers. Although the effort was vehemently opposed by many, including U.S. Congressman Davey Crockett of Tennessee, President Andrew Jackson was able to gain Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the government to extinguish Native American title to lands in the Southeast.

  17. Pch101 says:

    @Liberal Capitalist:

    You’re interfering with the message that white people — most specifically, white men — have a monopoly on virtue and American heritage. That simply will not do.

  18. CB says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Yanking one of the Founders of the Democratic Party off the bill and replacing him with a woman who worked so closely with the founders of the Republican Party? I can go along with that.

    Man, I’ve always liked you as a dissenter here, not a troll. But come on, what is this garbage?

  19. MikeSJ says:

    She’s did many good deeds but I don’t see her contributions rising to the level that warrants her being on our currency.

    I’d have replaced Jackson with FDR…or if you want to go with a non-politician I’d go with Thomas Edison.

    Sorry, but both contributed far more to this nation than Tubman.

  20. rodney dill says:

    I for one look forward to spending the new “Tubbies”

    (Though I hope someone comes up with a “mock-up” of the new twenty that is better quality than the one used here.)

  21. grumpy realist says:

    @MikeSJ: ….it took a hell of a lot more courage to do the things that Harriet Tubman did than the things Andrew Jackson did, especially given what they were both facing. Given where she started from, and where Jackson started from, given what she had against her due to her sex and race her entire life, I would argue that Tubman’s accomplishments are more impressive.

    Harriet Tubman is an inspiration to aspire to. Andrew Jackson isn’t.

  22. An Interested Party says:

    She’s did many good deeds but I don’t see her contributions rising to the level that warrants her being on our currency.

    It’s about more than what she did…it is very powerful symbolism to replace a slaveholder with someone who was herself as slave and who helped other slaves acquire their freedom…

  23. Jenos Idanian says:

    @An Interested Party: Harriet Tubman would be a Democrat these days and Andrew Jackson would probably be a Republican

    Still playing that “all bad things are Republican, and all good things are Democrat” game? I thought you weren’t that stupid, but I’m willing to revise my opinion.

    Tubman was a God-fearing Christian and a fierce gun owner — two things anathema to today’s Democrats. And Jackson’s war against the banks served as a role model for Bernie Sanders and the Occupy movement.

    Also, Jackson’s attitude towards Worcester v. Georgia is in many ways reminiscent of Obama’s assumption of powers previously delegated to Congress.

    Finally, while the Photoshop at the top is consistent with the current style of head-shots for currency, I would much rather an illustration based on this image be used. She was a woman of action. Plus, it would make the bill stand out even more.

  24. grumpy realist says:

    @Jenos Idanian: It would be hard for the engravers to use that image because of the lack of resolution to work from.

    You really need either a good painting or a photo. Just sayin’.

  25. Jenos Idanian says:

    @grumpy realist: That’s why I said “based on” that image, not from that image.

    Here’s one that’s a little more dynamic.

    I think I could personally benefit from that bill. It is just so awesome, I would be reluctant to spend them, and would probably hoard them.

  26. dmhlt says:

    BEN CARSON:
    “I love Harriet Tubman. I love what she did. But we can find another way to honor her.”

    CARSON was heard to continue:
    “I mean, she’s already got her picture on all those pancake-mix boxes and syrup bottles. Isn’t that enough?”

  27. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: there are plenty of Christian Democrats. There are even Christian gun owners. And of course Tubman had to carry a gun. If she’d been caught, it would have meant death or a return to slavery. I know many conservatives claim taxation is slavery, but it really isn’t the same as the threats she faced.

    Btw, I like the second bill, too. It shows what a harass she was.

  28. Pch101 says:

    Someone who can’t figure out that the political parties have changed quite a bit since the mid-19th century can’t be very bright.

  29. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: I will admit that I like that bill, too. It shows what a badass Tubman was. (Stupid autocorrect in my last comment).

  30. al-Ameda says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Tubman was a God-fearing Christian and a fierce gun owner — two things anathema to today’s Democrats. And Jackson’s war against the banks served as a role model for Bernie Sanders and the Occupy movement.

    Great game, I’ll play along.
    She was Black, definitely an anathema in today’s Republican Party.
    There, do you feel better?

  31. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Monala: “Christian Democrats?” Oh, you mean the “good” type of Christians — the types that say that they are Christian, but don’t actually get offensive about it. Meaning, they say the right things, but don’t actually do any Christian-type actions. They don’t evangelize, they don’t talk about how important their faith is to them, they don’t talk about how their faith has helped them throughout life, they don’t believe that their faith is the best faith.

    Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi both proclaim themselves Catholics, and are fiercely, staunchly, militantly pro-choice on abortion. They also opposed the Little Sisters of the Poor in their fight to not have to pay for contraception and abortion coverage.

    Hell, Pelosi argued that the Catholic Bishops don’t have the authority to speak for the Church, and (by implication) that she did.

  32. Jenos Idanian says:

    @al-Ameda: She was Black, definitely an anathema in today’s Republican Party.

    Be sure to pass that pronouncement on to Mia Love, Michael Steele, Alan West, Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Alfonzo “Zo” Rachel…

    It’s almost scary when I start thinking you actually believe that racist bullshit.

  33. al-Ameda says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Be sure to pass that pronouncement on to Mia Love, Michael Steele, Alan West, Herman Cain, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Alfonzo “Zo” Rachel…
    It’s almost scary when I start thinking you actually believe that racist bullshit.

    Many thanks for pointing that there are seven or so exceptions to the general anathema that I referred to above. And thanks too, for your compliment concerning my ability to play your bulls*** game.

  34. Moosebreath says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    “It’s almost scary when I start thinking you actually believe that racist bullshit.”

    And it would be scary that you believe the anti-religious BS. Except we know you are just trolling.

  35. Pch101 says:

    In the world of right-wing nutjobs, a “racist” is someone who objects to racism.

  36. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: @Jenos Idanian: really? I have heard some prominent Democrats – President Obama, for instance – talk about the importance of his faith, but you guys don’t believe him. And funny, I must have missed the part in church about thinking your faith is the best faith being a Christian type action. It seems to me that the Bible spends a lot more time talking about being humble, loving others, serving others, and taking care of the poor.

  37. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Monala: Please. Obama’s an atheist — he just knows that he can’t admit that publicly. Hell, he once said that his idea of prayer is to ask himself questions.

    And yes, the Bible talks a LOT about those things. It talks about them as a personal obligation — not something that you can subcontract out to others. You don’t get points for “charity” when you do it through taxes, and through coercing others to “give” as well — making sure that the government gets its vig in the process.

    The virtue is in doing things yourself, voluntarily. Not in doing what you are coerced to do, and what you coerce others to do.

    But back on topic… replacing the racist, genocidal founder of the Democratic Party with a gun-toting, God-fearing Republican? I can cheerfully get behind that.

  38. Pch101 says:

    I have to admit that Jenos looks like a genius compared to some of the comments over at World Net Daily:

    -This unacceptable change must have been prompted by all that the negroes have done for humanity. If it were based on that then there should be aMudHut placed on the bill !!

    -The “War On Whites” has been raging since the 1960’s when Militant Black Racists declared a race war against the white majority as a means of destroying a country for which they have exhibited a pathological hate. It is probably going to take a hundred years to reverse all the damage Obama and his Black Nazi’s have done to this country

    -So is this Obama overture meant to be music to soothe the savage beast? I say give the beast only cold steel and hot lead.

    -We should also refuse to recognize the new twenty dollar bill with one of our greatest president’s pictures replaced by a female black due to political correctness. Also we should demand the image of the drunk Grant on the fifty Dollar bill be replaced with the image of one of the world’s greatest generals Robert E. Lee and the image of the unindicted war criminal Abraham Lincoln on the five dollar bill, responsible for the death and suffering of upwards of 1 million innocent victims, “elected”, if you can call it that by less than 39%, be replaced by the image of the great president of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis.

    I think that you can guess which party they vote for.

    A meme that is popular on these right-wing websites is equating this to putting Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner on the currency. I’m having trouble seeing the similarities, but then again, I don’t vote Republican.

  39. Monala says:

    @Jenos Idanian: yes, you are to give personally, but nothing in the Bible opposes taxation to help others. You know the tithe, the yearly ten percent tax the Israelites were obligated to pay? Every third year, it was placed in storehouses for the poor. And Jesus affirmed that we should pay our taxes.

  40. Monala says:

    I point out that when Obama talks about the importance of his faith, conservatives don’t believe him, and Jenos responds, “Please. Obama’s an atheist.” So he proved my point…

  41. Moosebreath says:

    @Monala:

    And of course he ignores lots of Democrats who are clearly religious, such as Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson, etc.

  42. Neil Hudelson says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    They don’t evangelize, they don’t talk about how important their faith is to them, they don’t talk about how their faith has helped them throughout life, they don’t believe that their faith is the best faith.

    Yeah, doesn’t it suck when people are too busy actually helping the poor to sit around talking about it? But hey, if your interpretation of Christ’s message is that you need to be a used car salesman for God, more power to you. Talking–that’s the key to being a real Christian.

    Joking aside, I think this speaks to the current Conservative mindset. Saying you’re going to do something is just as good as doing it. Obamacare is the worst thing in the U.S. since slavery? Let’s spend the next half decade promising and talking about the need to repeal and replace. That’s as good as actually doing it. And why shouldn’t they? Republican voters continually reward them for saying much, doing little.

  43. Pch101 says:

    Article VI: “(N)o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

    I’d like to see someone explain how the president’s faith or lack thereof could possibly be relevant or serve as a useful litmus test when religious tests are quite clearly unconstitutional.

  44. An Interested Party says:

    Tubman was a God-fearing Christian and a fierce gun owner — two things anathema to today’s Democrats.

    Nice try, but there are plenty of God-fearing Christian blacks who are very loyal Democrats…hell, in many Republican-controlled states, the local governments would be making it harder for someone like Tubman to vote…

    And Jackson’s war against the banks served as a role model for Bernie Sanders and the Occupy movement.

    And Jackson’s attitude towards blacks and Native Americans was similar to many current Republican’s attitude towards blacks and Hispanics…

  45. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Monala: Perhaps I should reconsider. Maybe Obama does believe in his entirely fictional invisible magic man in the sky (to use a popular phrase).

    But it’s remarkable how many people want to defend Obama’s Christianity, a faith for which they hold a tremendous amount of contempt…

  46. JKB says:

    Tubman isn’t a bad choice,

    But to celebrate African-American and women on money, Sarah Breedlove would have been a good choice. As the first self-made American Woman millionaire, she embodies the very reason slavery needed to be abolished and the potential of African-Americans when they are free from Democratic party interference. Breedlove was born in Louisiana just 2 years after the end of the Civil War as the first in her family born free.

    But then, the last thing Democrats want to do is highlight African-Americans who make wealth for themselves through the use of productive capital and hard work.

  47. grumpy realist says:

    @Jenos Idanian: No, you ass. What we are pointing out is that even when President Obama gives evidence of believing in Christianity, you don’t believe him.

  48. Monala says:

    @JKB: you’re wrong. Madame CJ Walker is a celebrated figure in the black community, who I will remind you, are primarily Democrats.

  49. Jenos Idanian says:

    @grumpy realist: Just what do you consider “evidence,” anyway?

    There used to be a truism among journalists: “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.” I kind of miss those days…

  50. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    And once again, Jenos–who has apparently lost second job that he used to explain he was now too busy to visit us very often (“don’t it always seem as though you know what you’ve got til it’s gone”)–kidnaps another innocent thread and the time of many people (who also apparently have way too much free time) along with it.

  51. Liberal Capitalist says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    … believe in his entirely fictional invisible magic man in the sky … ”

    I personally like the term “invisible sky pal“.

    I don’t attribute magic to an imaginary figure.

    .

    My favorite definition, from the film “The Island”:

    Lincoln Six-Echo: What’s “God”?

    McCord: Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you.

  52. J-Dub says:

    Prince is dead, there’s your proof that there is no god.

  53. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker: Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s my day off. And I’m checking in in between errands and chores — it’s spring cleaning time. (About 5 years late, but better late than never.)

    The commentariat here is more entertaining than the dust bunnies, but sometimes it’s a close call…

  54. Neil Hudelson says:

    @JKB:

    But then, the last thing Democrats want to do is highlight African-Americans who make wealth for themselves through the use of productive capital and hard work.

    Funny. Around my neck of the woods, the Madame Walker Theatre is a hot spot for progressive fundraisers. It’s really a bit too large (a theatre after all), parking is a bitch, and during the school year you have to deal with annoying college students whose campus bumps up against the theatre. But man, we love honoring her incredible story so we always come clamoring back.

    But don’t let real world examples dissuade you from the b.s. you’re schlocking.

  55. Liberal Capitalist says:

    Well, HERE’s something I didn’t expect to read from a completely unexpected source…

    If you look at Harriet Tubman and all you see is, “African-American woman,” well then, you’re a historically-ignorant idiot.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/434371/harriet-tubman-great-choice-not-politically-correct-one

    And furthermore…

    Historical accounts say she always carried a gun (and often an ivory-handled sword) and echoing the “Live Free or Die” Revolutionary War slogan:

    “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”

    She was a Civil War spy, carried a sharp-shooter’s rifle, used disguises, worked as a nurse at Fort Monroe in Virginia, and helped lead the Combahee River raid.

  56. steve s says:

    Someone who can’t figure out that the political parties have changed quite a bit since the mid-19th century can’t be very bright.

    it’s even sadder than that. They think it’s a clever argument. That’s what makes it so pathetic.

  57. KM says:

    @Jenos:

    Meaning, they say the right things, but don’t actually do any Christian-type actions. They don’t evangelize, they don’t talk about how important their faith is to them, they don’t talk about how their faith has helped them throughout life, they don’t believe that their faith is the best faith.

    For the vast majority of the faithful, it’s like the air. Ever present and surrounding, so fundamental to their lives it’s unnoticed. It simply is and thus gives life without conscious effort on your part. The only time you talk about air is when something is wrong with it’s quality. Nobody goes around bragging about how good a breather they are on a regular basis. Anyone talking about how important oxygen is to them personally is going to get strange looks. Of course your air is the best air; why would you breathe in crap willingly?

    The behaviors you are talking about are attention-seeking, not faith-promoting. Emphasizing how it’s a personal and intimate relationship and yet acts so loud in public. This is not a competition where you get a better seat in Heaven by screaming “I Love Jesus” the loudest. What’s more, your list is a heavily Evangelical list of How to Be Christian- not all denominations place such a high emphasis on “witnessing” as a mark of faith.

  58. anjin-san says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    I think I could personally benefit from that bill. It is just so awesome, I would be reluctant to spend them, and would probably hoard them.

    Or perhaps you might think about what an inspiring, courageous life Tubman led, and suddenly think “I want to do more with my life that be an annoying twit on the internet.”

    It could happen.

  59. anjin-san says:

    @JKB:

    But then, the last thing Democrats want to do is highlight African-Americans who make wealth for themselves through the use of productive capital and hard work.

    That’s probably why we never allowed that Obama fellow – a self made millionaire – to amount to anything…

  60. Andre Kenji says:

    I hate to agree with Jenos Idanian, but that bank note would be really awesome.

  61. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Andre Kenji: I know it’s painful, but it gets easier over time.

  62. Jenos Idanian says:

    Speaking of political parties “evolving,” comrades, has Woodrow Wilson been properly repudiated yet? You remember him — lied the US into a war, blatant racist who re-segregated the federal service, praised the Ku Klux Klan…

  63. Dave D says:

    @KM: Every ash Wednesday has the Gospel reading of the hypocrites praying publicly in the streets, which is followed by ashes rubbed onto your forehead which most parishioners don’t remove to publicly show their faith. I didn’t gain a lot from my Catholic upbringing but I grew to understand the boisterous hypocrites who think that what they publicly profess makes up for how they act. So if you aren’t constantly professing how Christian you are while trying to deny the poor and downtrodden access to a better life you don’t know Jesus. Chief among his best known saying is “I help those who help themselves.” So as long as you constantly talk about Jesus you can disregard all of his teachings because faith.

  64. An Interested Party says:

    Meaning, they say the right things, but don’t actually do any Christian-type actions. They don’t evangelize, they don’t talk about how important their faith is to them, they don’t talk about how their faith has helped them throughout life, they don’t believe that their faith is the best faith.

    Hmm…

    When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

  65. Kylopod says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Please. Obama’s an atheist — he just knows that he can’t admit that publicly. Hell, he once said that his idea of prayer is to ask himself questions.

    I had to look this one up. The quote in question came from a 2004 interview in the Chicago Sun-Times. Here is the relevant excerpt:

    FALSANI:
    Do you pray often?
    OBAMA:
    Uh, yeah, I guess I do. It’s not formal, me getting on my knees. I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. I think throughout the day, I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why am I doing it.

    Here Obama described his own prayer as an “ongoing conversation with God,” and he went on to comment that he uses this process to ask himself questions about what he’s doing. You isolated that second point as if it was the only thing he said, you interpreted it to mean “his idea of prayer is to ask himself questions,” and you implied he was suggesting it was purely a psychological exercise with no recognition of a spiritual reality–despite the fact that his first sentence which you conveniently omitted totally undermines that interpretation.

    I’m not saying you deliberately distorted his remarks. Frankly, I doubt you even read the original interview up to now. Just like the other day when you linked to a Breitbart piece without bothering to check that it misrepresented a Politico article it cited, your problem is that you have a habit of uncritically believing stuff you read on right-wing sites.

  66. Liberal Capitalist says:

    @Jenos Idanian:

    Speaking of political parties “evolving,” comrades, has Woodrow Wilson been properly repudiated yet? You remember him — lied the US into a war, blatant racist who re-segregated the federal service, praised the Ku Klux Klan…

    I know, right !!?!

    Born in Virginia and raised in Georgia and South Carolina, Wilson was a loyal son of the old South who regretted the outcome of the Civil War. He used his high office to reverse some of its consequences.

    http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/2013/03/04/the-long-forgotten-racial-attitudes-and-policies-of-woodrow-wilson/

    I doubt that is something that will change quickly, but being aware of and teaching the true history of the USA (and not the myth and tall-tales) may one day have an effect.

    However: I know one thing that I am ready to take on locally here in Colorado…

    In the public lands next to me, there is a road called “Stapleton Road“, named after the former Governor of Colorado.

    Now, in the early days of Colorado, the KKK was a very stong influence, and political power was tied to the Klan.

    https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/when-kkk-ruled-colorado-not-so-long-ago

    I can’t do anythig about Wilson, I can’t have the new Denver neighborhood of Stapleton (site of the former Denver airport) renamed… but I am pretty sure that I can rouse enough rabble and signatures on a petition to change the name of one street.

    If I can do that, it would be worth it.

  67. Liberal Capitalist says:

    Correction: Stapleton was Denver’s Mayor, not Colorado’s Governor.

    My appologies.

  68. Pch101 says:

    In the wacky world of the far right, Obama is a Muslim and an atheist at the same time.

  69. gVOR08 says:

    @Pch101: Is that like Catch 22, the bit where Yossarian and Lt. Scheisskopf’s wife are in bed arguing about whether the God they don’t believe in is kind and generous or mean and vindictive.

  70. Lenoxus says:

    The current plan is to keep Jackson on the twenty along with Tubman, hence defying the precedent of one person per bill. Smells to me like conservative political correctness. God forbid we don’t include a white man somewhere.

    Ah, but I’m sure it’s just pandering to Democrats like me — we love our party’s founder so very much, after all.

    Interestingly, a variation of Jenos’s “gun-toting Republican” line was also made by the liberal blog post I first learned this from. In both cases there’s an intention to play up irony, but only one actually maps to the irony as it exists in real life. I’d love to be proven wrong, though. If conservatives did unite behind the change, I’d be thrilled, even if it was purely out of point-scoring spite.

  71. MikeSJ says:

    I still think Tubman is a minor historical character, not warranting inclusion on our currency.

    Personally I’d like to see Jackson and Grant replaced by Adams and Madison. With the exception of Lincoln keep the people to those involved in the founding of the nation.

    Or say screw it and go with Yosemite, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the American Eagle. No more people. It’s just too aggravating.

  72. gVOR08 says:

    I was curious, so I looked at Canadian banknotes. The 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 in the current “Frontier” series depict the Queen and four past Canadian leaders, three of whom died within the last hundred years. I’m failing to see why we should feel locked into Founding Fathers.

  73. Pch101 says:

    In this day and age, it isn’t possible to change anything without having some right-wingers whine about it.

    They should be mocked or ignored, not taken seriously. In their minds, minorities only belong at the back of the bus or in jail; there is no reasonable way to deal with them.

  74. Tyrell says:

    @Liberal Capitalist: This thing of knocking and denigrating past leaders seems to be a trend now. Streets and buildings being renamed, monuments moved, and now money changing.* Where will this end ? Is Washington next ? the Roosevelts , Generals Grant and Sherman (yes, he came down through here tearing everything up, so maybe they need to pick on him), Truman, Carter ? How about Patton and Douglas McArthur ? Our future history books will be two chapters long and will detail the lives of some entertainer or tv news broadcaster .
    This could be part of some behind the scenes effort to change the currency base to some other kind, or move to a world currency. Do not accept it.
    If you have twenties, keep them and stock up on them. Their collection value will soar. Hang on to your ones also, Washington is next.
    They are putting chips on credit cards. Will currency be next ?

  75. steve s says:

    Somebody tell the nurses to up Tyrell’s Haldol dosage.

  76. al-Ameda says:

    @Tyrell:

    This could be part of some behind the scenes effort to change the currency base to some other kind, or move to a world currency. Do not accept it.

    LOL!
    Also, sorry but … I only accept credit (or debit) cards, cash is a pain in the a**.

  77. Liberal Capitalist says:

    @Tyrell:

    This thing of knocking and denigrating past leaders seems to be a trend now. Streets and buildings being renamed, monuments moved, and now money changing.* Where will this end ?

    Well… I’m thinking that once we stop honoring the undeserved, and focus on what really happened in the USA, and honor those who truly raise our spirits and work to better the human condition… it will end.

  78. Tyrell says:

    Well, those are good points. These are people who have certainly raised spirits and helped this country: Washington, Madison*, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes (pioneer of the modern jetliner and satellite communication), and the incomparable Teddy Roosevelt – hero of San Juan Hill. Also Generals Grant and Sherman : if they were around today, ISIS would be finished.
    James and Dolly Madison: they and a band of determined Americans saved this country from total defeat by the British in 1812.

  79. Matt says:

    @Tyrell:

    if they were around today, ISIS would be finished.

    Yeah totally those people would like do something that hundreds of tons of bombs haven’t done…. You’re hopeless…