Beck's war against Woodrow Wilson continues to defy history

Just about a month ago, Glenn Beck aimed one of his twisted history attacks on Woodrow Wilson's supposed role in enacting the 17th amendment. The history on this - that is, what actually happened is that 99% of the work involved in passing the 17th amendment (which provided for the direct election of senators) occurred before Wilson took office. With his now-legendary grasp of history Beck claimed that “Woodrow Wilson changed it, changes the way our system works.” So he blamed Wilson for legislation he had nothing to do with.

Fast forward to today for another of Beck's uninformative “Founder's Friday” shows. On his show today, Beck discussed women's suffrage but not Wilson's role in it. What did that have to do with Woodrow Wilson? Well, Wilson - who was president when suffrage became law - supported it.

From an October 1, 1918 article in The New York Times:

In an effort to break down the opposition to the Woman's Suffrage resolution in the Senate, President Wilson went before that body today and urged that it be adopted as a war measure.

Despite his support, that measure failed, but subsequent votes in Congress and the states led to the right to vote for women in the election of 1920. The National Archives portrays Wilson's support as crucial to its passage, stating that “the political balance began to shift” when Wilson changed his position to support suffrage.

Beck had an extensive discussion about the intermittent rights to voting some women had in pre-suffrage America, but on a show supposedly dedicated to giving people the full story about history, Beck omitted the key role Wilson had in that struggle. He later took time to accuse Wilson of practicing historical revisionism. Imagine.