Michelle Bachmann: Fiction Made Her a Republican

Some people change parties due to ideological differences. Others change parties to further their political ambitions. This poor wingnut became a Republican because a work of fiction tripped her fragile little mind.

And that, Your Honor, is when my brain exploded.

Michelle Bachmann is now claiming that she was a liberal until she read Gore Vidal's "Burr", a piece of historical fiction that was written as a memoir by Aaron Burr.  Just as with many of Vidal's historical memoirs, "Burr" contains meticulous research by the author, consisting of reading hundreds of documents and basing the story upon the character's actual deeds and words.  Many of the historical incidents in the book are verifiable and several parallels exist between Vidal's "Burr" and Aaron Burr's actual memoir, written by Matthew L. Davis.

Still, a well-researched work of fiction is enough to cause Michelle Bachmann to break with her alleged liberal views:

"Until I was reading this snotty novel called 'Burr,' by Gore Vidal, and read how he mocked our Founding Fathers. And as a reasonable, decent, fair-minded person who happened to be a Democrat, I thought, 'You know what? What he's writing about, this mocking of people that I revere, and the country that I love, and that I would lay my life down to defend -- just like every one of you in this room would, and as many of you in this room have when you wore the uniform of this great country -- I knew that that was not representative of my country.

And at that point I put the book down and I laughed. I was riding a train. I looked out the window and I said, 'You know what? I think I must be a Republican. I don't think I'm a Democrat.'"

If you're still reading this, you're a good person - and probably have read more words than Bachmann ever did of the book she is trashing.  It's hard to imagine someone taking issue with a fictional work that is largely based on an actual memoir and verifiable events by a complex character in American history.

It's possible she simply didn't understand what she was reading.

It's probable that she invented this story to appeal to her radical Republican followers, who need to hear a story about the redemption of a liberal who became conservative after reading a novel by a gay liberal author.

For the rest of us, it seems absurd that political beliefs could be shaped by historical fiction.