Trump rebuts NY Times '1619 Project' with '1776 Report' urging schools to reject 'ideological poison'
By: Thomas Barrabi
The 1619 project along with critical race theory are ideological poison administered by people who hate America, it’s founding and founding fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the constitution as written. They deny our founding by divine Providence and the source of our inalienable rights or that we even have them. Instead they look at every shortcoming, every compromise, and every mistake as if they solely are our history and that America has done no good in the world. That poison must be excised from our culture forever.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Series of essays cited as 'toxic propaganda' that is a 'crusade against American history'
The President Trump -backed 1776 Commission released a report on the state of American education Monday in what the White House described as a "rebuttal" to the New York Times "1619 Project" and other historical accounts that take a critical view of the country’s earliest days.
"The 1776 report," released on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was developed in response to Trump’s call to promote "patriotic education" in schools. In the report, the commission argues that schools "should reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean America’s heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles.
"Neither America nor any other nation has perfectly lived up to the universal truths of equality, liberty, justice and government by consent," the report says. "But no nation before America ever dared state those truths as the formal basis for its politics, and none has strived harder, or done more, to achieve them."
Trump first announced plans to form the commission last September after protestors during nationwide protests against racism toppled statues depicting Founding Fathers who had owned slaves. At the time, the president tweeted that he would "stop the radical indoctrination of our students."
In one passage, the 1776 Commission argued that America's founding fathers should not be seen as hypocrites for espousing freedom despite the existence of slavery in the country.
"The most common charge leveled against the founders, and hence against our country itself, is that they were hypocrites who didn’t believe in their stated principles, and therefore the country they built rests on a lie," the report says. "This charge is untrue, and has done enormous damage, especially in recent years, with a devastating effect on our civic unity and social fabric."
"Many Americans labor under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely American evil," the report adds. "It is essential to insist at the outset that the institution be seen in a much broader perspective."
Much of Trump’s criticism has focused on the "1619 Project," a series of long-form essays by the New York Times Magazine which sought to reexamine American history by analyzing the long-term consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.
"Critical race theory, the 1619 Project and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison, that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together, will destroy our country," Trump said at a press conference last September announcing plans for the commission.
Proponents of the "1619 Project" argue its critical examination of American history is a necessary critique of the country’s failings. However, the project has drawn criticism from a number of historians who have questioned its accuracy .
The 1776 Commission’s report identifies the "1619 Project" as an example of a "radicalized challenge" to past views of American history that sought to "diminish our shared history and disunite the country by setting certain communities against others."
"Such works do not respect their students’ independence as young thinkers trying to grapple with social complexity while forming their empirical judgments about it," the report says. "They disdain today’s students, just as they doubt the humanity, goodness or benevolence in America’s greatest historical figures. They see only weaknesses and failures, teaching students truth is an illusion, that hypocrisy is everywhere, and that power is all that matters."
The report adds that U.S. colleges are "often hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright hatred for this country."
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I read it last night, it's pretty much a common sense 30,000 foot overview of American history and it's teaching. Nothing controversial. Or at least, there wouldn't be in a rational world, where historical projects that literally make up crucial facts about the founding of this country to support a racist obsession are rewarded with honors and used to indoctrinate kids. Unfortunately, in 2021 American education basic facts are rejected and fantasy narratives that play to the fantasies of liberal interest groups are what kids learn.
I do not think that I have ever read anything more ridiculously stupid. Only a brain-dead degenerate could possibly believe something that asinine.
no worries, graduates of thumper colleges have zero relevance in a secular nation.
I see that you don't know that Georgetown law is independent of the Catholic church.
READ:
I doubt you could talk about this topic for two sentences without copying your "thoughts" from another site.
Since it is NOT governed by the church, how so?
You're boring me Tex.
I asked a couple people this question on my own seed about this topic last night. No answer.
The Trump 1776 report makes a big deal out of saying that America was founded on the idea of individualism, not group identity.
If that is true, why were blacks and other people of color, treated as inferiors, by law , for the 100 years between the end of the civil war and the civil rights laws of the mid 1960's? 100 years was more than half of the nation's life span in the 1960's.
If America was FOUNDED on the principle of individualism, why were these Americans treated (negatively) as a group?
Because, when this nation was founded it was founded by a people with a certain mindset and a general sense of shared cultural norms. They wrote a document called the Constitution, but because of their mindset, applied it narrowly. Although it was a brilliant document, their cultural shortsightedness prevented them from seeing the full implications of it.
Over time, however, more and more people noticed we weren't quite living up to the principles the document contained and began advocating for change. Thus begins years of activism on various issues and we find ourselves here today. Still not quite there yet, but still working on it.
The major point I'm trying to address here is that you can't change a society in just a moment. Changes to norms takes years. Decades. Societies that tried to do it immediately usually ended up killing a lot of their own citizens or enslaving them to the state or both.
Is American history perfect? No, I don't think it was. Was it as the 1619 project tries to portray it? Not even close. The project tries to center American history as revolving around black people and that America's evolution was due mostly to them. Sorry, don't see it. They certainly played a major part, but so did the Irish, Italians, Chinese and others.
And as wart covered as our history may be, it has greatness as well. We are only able to be here where we are now because of the Constitution and those who came up with it and those who fought for what it stood for over the years, and that includes a lot of people. It does us no good to rewrite history to serve the political agenda of a single cause. Better to live with the truth.
And, once again, changing the course of a society takes time. Lots of time.
I don't think the Founding Fathers should be revered. The Constitution should, but we should not whitewash the Founding Fathers just because of what they were in terms of starting the nation.
240 years have passed since the founding of the United States. We need to focus our attention to what the people need now, and not based on the personal beliefs of hundreds of years ago.
The 1776 Report needs to maintain the good image of the founders because it is a conservative document that wants to try and keep the country the same as it was 250 years ago. That is just not possible nor desirable.
It isn't necessary to whitewash them. Nor is it necessary to demonize them, either. They were simply men of their times. Some of what they did were great things. Some, not so great. Pretty much like every person who ever lived, don't you think? Instead, they're being made out to be some of the most evil people who ever lived.
Which I could get on board with if that what was happening. It's not. The past is being dragged forward as if it were the present and goes on from there. In fact, you listen to that critical race theory crap, you'd think people actually have it worse today than their ancestors.
I don't think anyone is attempting to do what you claim here but it's hard to say since you don't give specifics. Unless you're thinking of something specific. Like originalism? That isn't setting the country back, it's a commitment to meaning. To my mind, anyone who is not for originalism is for dumping the Constitution altogether, since without originalism, the Constitution says whatever you want it to say. It becomes meaningless.
Why on earth would we want to base what we do in 2021 on what the parameters were for beliefs in 1780? We need the constitution for a solid framework. We dont need to make decisions in 2021 based on what Benjamin Franklin thought about a particular topic.
And anyway, EVERY Supreme Court decision is an interpretation of the constitution because much of it was written with the idea that future generations would use their own experiences and understandings to explain it.
Why not? If, for instance, it was wrong to steal in his day, why would it or should it be different in ours? If what they put into the Constitution isn't true, or is missing something, change it, as we have done already, but if a principle was true in their day why wouldn't it be true in ours?
Yes, but some try for what the framers have in mind. The rest just make it up as they go along and claim it's constitutional.
The Constitution is a framework. We have to adapt and work with that framework as centuries pass. To do otherwise would be foolish.
Why would it be foolish? Perhaps if you gave an example of what you're talking about.
We (The US) were not founded by Divine Providence. We were founded by people. That is why "We the People" starts the constitution. It is also why the Constitution can be changed. Because people are not perfect. As long as you hold the CotUS to be of divine origins you will not and cannot see it for the fullness of what it is: A document written by men who were attempting to bring forth a stable country and national govt.