Latest news with #Three-FifthsCompromise
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Indiana Lt. Gov. Is Terrified Of Pride Month: 'The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!'
Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith expressed his terror over upcoming Pride Month, a month dedicated to recognizing the LGBTQ+ community, in a frantic social media post Friday. 'PRIDE MONTH ALERT: The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!' the post from Beckwith said. 'WARNING: Corporate America and government institutions are launching their annual siege on childhood innocence—and this year's Pride Month agenda is more aggressive than ever.' Pride Month, which goes from June 1 to June 30, celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and the progress they've made in gaining more rights and combating discrimination. But for the conspiratorial Beckwith, Pride Month is a way to 'reprogram society' into being more compassionate, which is apparently bad. 'This isn't about 'tolerance,'' his post said. 'It's a state-corporate-pagan alliance to reprogram society. They've swapped biology for 'identity constructs,' swapped scripture for Harvey Milk sermons, and swapped parental rights for government-sanctioned grooming.' Beckwith ended his post with a link to a self-described 'Christian Independent Press' website that references the 'rainbow beast' in a post with an anonymous byline. On his biography page, Beckwith said he is a pastor who 'stepped up' after seeing the 'woke agenda threatening our schools.' Beckwith also came under fire last month for comments he made about the Three-Fifths Compromise, calling the 18th century law that counted an enslaved person as 60% of a free person 'a great move.' 'I would like to share with you, the Three-Fifths Compromise is not a pro-discrimination compromise,' he said in a video about the pro-discrimination compromise. 'It was not a pro-discrimination or a slave-driving compromise that the founders made. It was actually just the opposite.' Republican Gov. Mike Braun gave a mealy-mouthed response to Beckwith's slavery comments. 'I'm a believer that you better start thinking about what you're saying before it comes out,' Braun said. 'So, I'll leave it at that.' On Tuesday, demonstrators with Indivisible Central Indiana showed up to Beckwith's town hall to make their displeasure known. The group refers to itself as an 'inclusive, progressive ACTIVIST grassroots organization.' The protest was meant to 'raise public awareness about Beckwith's dangerous ideology and his efforts to dismantle democratic norms under the guise of religious extremism,' the group said in a statement. Braun's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Beckwith's latest comments.
Indianapolis Star
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
In defense of Micah Beckwith's Three-Fifths Compromise remarks
I am responding to the letter published May 11 in IndyStar maintaining Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is lying about the Three-Fifths Compromise. The reason it's called a compromise is the northern anti-slave states wanted no slave counted for representation, while the southern states wanted slaves to count fully, even though they'd have no right to vote. Opinion: Micah Beckwith's 'history of what actually happened' is completely wrong Without a compromise, there may not have been a United States, and slavery would still be around in the South today. Because of the compromise, the anti-slave states eventually outnumbered the slave states and politically gained the upper hand. Of course, the nation still had to fight a bloody Civil War to end slavery completely. It's nonsense to claim the compromise was about protecting slavery.
Indianapolis Star
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Micah Beckwith's record is all about distortion, censorship
Show Caption I've lived in Indiana for 37 years. Like many Hoosiers, I value faith, truth and leadership rooted in integrity. That's why I'm deeply concerned about Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith's recent comments defending the Three-Fifths Compromise as 'a great move toward ending slavery.' The truth is, this compromise increased the power of slaveholding states by counting enslaved people for representation while denying them rights. It prolonged slavery. Historians overwhelmingly agree it preserved injustice — not ended it. Meanwhile, Beckwith supported policies on the Hamilton East Public Library Board that removed over 2,000 books from the teen section, including critically acclaimed, award-winning works about race, identity and history. That's not about protecting children — it's about restricting truth. You cannot accuse others of 'miseducation' while erasing the very materials that help students understand their world. Leadership demands truth. Beckwith's pattern of historical distortion and censorship shows a disregard for the very values he claims to uphold. I respectfully call for his resignation. And I urge fellow Hoosiers to speak out. Censorship and hypocrisy have no place in Indiana leadership.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Braun chides LG for Three-Fifths Compromise comments, defends tax plan at 100 days celebration
Gov. Mike Braun delivers remarks while celebrating his first 100 days in office on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Indiana cabinet members, lawmakers, lobbyists and more gathered Wednesday to celebrate Gov. Mike Braun's first 100 days in office — but the man of the hour had tough words for his second-in-command, critics of his marquee legislative accomplishments and the health care industry. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith enraged civil rights activists and historians alike last Thursday when he dubbed the U.S. Constitution's Three-Fifths Compromise 'a great move' toward ending slavery. Braun didn't publicly weigh in for a nearly a week. 'I definitely wouldn't have used that characterization, and I don't like it,' he told reporters Wednesday. 'I'm a believer that you better start thinking about what you're saying before it comes out,' he continued. '… And I think that you don't want to make headlines the wrong way, because it takes away from the substance of what you're trying to do.' Braun also defended the local property and income tax plan that lawmakers pushed past the finish line this month amid outcry from hard-hit units of local government and dissatisfied homeowners. 'By far the biggest thing I heard about: we went from one version to a different version, and then the meat grinder of legislation took over,' he told attendees. 'And look at the product that we turned out. … You're pissing off people on each end of the spectrum and most in between say that it was a solid package.' In comments to reporters, Braun envisioned further cuts to homestead property tax bills, done gradually 'to where other sources of income can be used.' But he warned school districts and local governments that he wouldn't allow their revenues to grow faster than the economy. Former President Joe Biden got a knock as Braun said a grim revenue forecast forced lawmakers to cut $2 billion in spending out of the state's next two-year, now-$44 billion budget in the space of a week. 'When it comes to what we really cut, nothing got hammered, and the most important stuff stayed intact,' he declared. Most state agencies, along with public colleges and universities, were dealt 5% funding cuts. Lawmakers also squeezed eligibility requirements for the state's pre-kindergarten program and subsidized child care. But a two-year-old program to supplement local public health departments took a 60% cut, with funding falling from $100 million each year to $40 million. Legislative leaders argued that nearly half the funds disbursed last year hadn't yet been spent. 'Don't ever mistake that you got to have more money to do things better with. That's called anti-productivity,' Braun replied, when asked about the public health funding cut. 'When you come up with better ideas, you may need more money to invest, and there's nothing wrong with that, but in most cases, when it comes to government, you've got plenty of money. You've just got to learn how to spend it better.' But he didn't rule out funding boosts in the future. 'Don't mistake the short-run — where you get whipsawed — with what you want to do in the mid-term and the long-term,' Braun said. 'So that means we may be pouring more resources into it, if we can get a good (return on investment).' He had big hopes for the interim and legislative sessions to come, repeatedly noting how taking office days after the session's start hampered his efforts to shape proposals. His first 100 days overlapped entirely with the breakneck budget-writing session, ending just over a day before both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly adjourned sine die. Braun reiterated his desire to tackle high health care costs as his top priority now that session is over. In both his speech and comments to reporters, he asked players in the health care industry for solutions while threatening punishment for stasis. 'That and more will be brought to bear if, in fact, they're not lowering their prices and giving us better outcomes,' Braun said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Indianapolis Star
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
'I don't like it': Gov. Mike Braun rebukes Beckwith for Three-Fifths Compromise comments
Gov. Mike Braun rebuked his lieutenant governor's remark that the Three-Fifths Compromise was "a great move" but stopped short of calling for an apology as others have done. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith aired his perspective in a social media video last week, arguing that the agreement made during the 1787 Constitutional Convention to count an enslaved person as three-fifths of an individual for representation purposes actually cut against the southern states' goals of enshrining slavery. The video prompted outcry from Democrats in the legislature, history professors and religious clergy, among others, who demanded that Braun publicly denounce Beckwith's comments. On April 30, Braun held an event at Fort Harrison State Park to celebrate his first 100 days in office. Afterward, he gave limited comments to reporters about the controversy. "I definitely wouldn't have used that characterization, and I don't like it," he said. He went on to chastise Beckwith. "I'm a believer that you better start thinking about what you're saying before it comes out," he said. "And I think that you don't want to make headlines the wrong way, because it takes away from the substance of what you're trying to do in general." It's not the first rift between the governor and his No. 2. Their paired ticket was the work of state delegates at the Republican convention, not Braun's choice. Braun has always preferred to steer clear of the controversial culture-war topics that are Beckwith's bread and butter. In one previous instance, Braun expressed disdain over Beckwith's comments that he would identify state employees to fire based on who includes pronouns in their emails. For Beckwith's most recent remarks, the Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis also demanded that he issue a retraction and an apology. A petition circulating makes the same ask. Rather than doing so, Beckwith doubled down in an April 29 interview with WIBC's Rob Kendall and Casey Daniels. "I would have done it a hundred times over exactly the same way I did it," he said. "I said exactly what needed to be said." Beckwith made the initial video immediately following a Senate floor debate over Senate Bill 289, the main anti-DEI bill of the legislative session. Democratic Sen. La Keisha Jackson of Indianapolis mentioned the Three-Fifths Compromise as an example of historical policies in the U.S. that have dehumanized or disenfranchised Black people. "They're using revisionist history to bludgeon the character of this amazing constitutional republic that we have," Beckwith said of Senate Democrats in the Tuesday interview. The Senate Democratic caucus said in a statement Monday that Beckwith's comments were not only inaccurate, but "morally bankrupt." "No compromise that counted human beings as fractions can ever be anything but a stain on our nation's conscience," they wrote. State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus chair, on Tuesday called Beckwith's video "rage bait." "To argue that the 3/5 Compromise was the North's attempt at playing 'the long game' to undermine the South is not just a gross misunderstanding of history, it's a purposeful whitewashing of it for political gain and media attention," he said.
