Tea party unfairly slammed for knowing their history

As Jonathon noted, Christine O'Donnell was unfairly berated during a recent debate for questioning her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, about the so-called "separation of church and state" being in the First Amendment. Indeed, O'Donnell is correct in pointing out that this language is not specifically mentioned in the First Amendment.

In pointing out this fact, however, O'Donnell was openly laughed at and ridiculed by the audience. Yet when "separation of church and state" was the only one of five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment Chris Coons could name off the top of his head, the audience didn't seem to mind. In other words, Coons' understanding of the First Amendment comes not from the historical document's actual language, but from what others have written and observed about it.

More troubling, the voters in attendance didn't seem to mind the fact that their potential representative in Congress doesn't even know their rights -- you know, those rights to which "Congress shall make no law" infringing upon...?

In a separate case, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is being blasted around the liberal blogosphere today for telling a tea party rally in Reno that the fight's not over yet and that they shouldn't "party like it's 1773" quite yet.

Supposed intellectual superiors like Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsasassumed she misspoke and berated Palin via Twitter, sarcastically saying "she's so smart." Huffington Post blogger Matt Ortega chuckled at Palin's remarks, saying, "There's so much packed into that, I wouldn't know where to start." PBS' Gwen Ifill sneeringly tweeted, "ummmm." Another witty blogger let his ignorance show in remarking, "WTF happened in 1773?!"

Hm, what did happen in 1773? Oh, yeah... this: