The Federal Gub'ment did Not Free the Slaves, In Case You Thought They Did. Hmm.

Jim DeMint's rightfully getting some shit for spouting this nonsense:

Well the reason that the slaves were eventually freed was the Constitution, it was like the conscience of the American people. Unfortunately there were some court decisions like Dred Scott and others that defined some people as property, but the Constitution kept calling us back to ‘all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights’ in the minds of God. But a lot of the move to free the slaves came from the people, it did not come from the federal government. It came from a growing movement among the people, particularly people of faith, that this was wrong. People like Wilberforce who persisted for years because of his faith and because of his love for people. So no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves. In fact, it was Abraham Lincoln, the very first Republican, who took this on as a cause and a lot of it was based on a love in his heart that comes from God.

There's a lot of stupid in there.  What took the people so long, hundreds of years, to have such goodness in their hearts? And where was all this love from God when black people were enslaved for all those years? Did God and Americans just suck until this epiphany that juuuuuuuust happened to happen the moment an army conscripted by the federal government won a war against a pro-slavery - whoops, sorry: "pro state's rights" - army?

Thinking the government should have a smaller role is a valid argument to make. And you can sit around all day bitching that there's not a single thing Obama should be able to do "to you." But to offer up such an alternate version of actual history is moronic. Moreover, is there ANYthing the federal government has done - can DeMint say with a straight face that the federal government didn't win World War II, the "goodness in people's hearts" did?