Gary Palmer urges college students to read history

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Gary Palmer at hearing
Photo courtesy of Rep. Gary Palmer

On Monday evening Congressman Gary Palmer spoke to the University of Alabama College Republicans. In the meeting, Palmer advised the students to read books, particularly history.

“I don’t think that history is required anymore,” Palmer said. “History is about telling stories.”

Republicans won a small majority in the House of Representatives and failed to take control of the U.S. Senate in recent congressional midterm elections on November 8.

“We did not do as well as would like,” Palmer said of the GOP House Caucus.

Palmer said that his Republican colleagues did not win as many races as they should have because they did not do a good job at telling stories.

“History is about telling stories,” Palmer continued. “The pages of history will reflect the decisions that you make. You are creating a life story. The decisions that you make will set the back story for the story that you are writing. Most of the time, when you think about history, you are thinking about battles and big events, but history is more than that.”

“Smart people learn from their mistakes, but brilliant people learn from other people’s mistakes,” Palmer said. “When you are reading history, you are reading the story of people who made decisions.”

Palmer said that inflation and the high cost of living are impacting Americans’ lives.

“Inflation is basically driven by three things: monetary policy, energy policy, and regulatory cost,” Palmer explained. “Congress can address all three of these.”

“We didn’t connect to people’s story,” Palmer continued. “We just said Joe Biden is a bad President, and Nancy Pelosi is a bad Speaker, and that is a bad message for Republicans.”

“There is one indisputable fact that we have to accept,” Palmer said. “That we are going to occupy the same piece of dirt.”

While the University of Alabama and many other schools no longer require that students take history (American or otherwise) for graduates to get a degree, Palmer said, “The number of students taking history as an elective has gone up.”

While interest in history may be growing, Palmer questioned some of its accuracies.

“Are you getting history that is honest?” Palmer said. “This punitive view of history that is directed at Europeans that Europeans came over here to dominate indigenous peoples. I am not going to argue that that was right. I am part Native American – Cherokee. When Andrew Jackson signed a treaty that the Cherokee would vacate the Eastern United States, part of that treaty is that they would have an at-large member of Congress. Not a voting member, but like we have with Puerto Rico, where they can’t vote, but they can in Committee. That has never been fulfilled.”

“We have made some really bad mistakes,” Palmer said. “I keep pushing for you to read history. An enormous sacrifice was paid for your right to vote. You never had a country like this country until we came into being (with the ratification of the Constitution) in 1789. We were the only democracy of its type in the world. Now there is over a hundred.”

Palmer said that he is not sure what Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will bring to the floor in the lame-duck remaining weeks in the current Congress.

Palmer was asked if he thought they would vote on extending daylight savings time, which passed the Senate months ago.

“Probably not,” Palmer answered. “I know we have got to fund the government the week after next. It is appropriately scheduled for 8 days before Christmas.”

Beginning in January, the new Congress will have the first Republican House majority in four years.

“I am going to be addressing a lot more bills than I have had in the past that will be difficult for the Democrats to oppose, particularly on our fiscal issues,” Palmer said.

The College Republicans of Alabama will meet on Tuesday to hold officer elections.

Palmer represents Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District.

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