{"id":212421,"date":"2021-01-25T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/?p=212421"},"modified":"2021-01-26T11:06:39","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T16:06:39","slug":"the-1776-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/blog\/the-1776-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1776 Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before reading any further and concluding things aren\u2019t going to get better in 2021, please know that President Biden disbanded Trump\u2019s \u201cAdvisory 1776 Commission\u201d on his first day in office\u2014the only question being why he waited as long as he did!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump established the commission last fall after the nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations, blaming the country\u2019s school curriculum for the violence and claiming the \u201crioting and mayhem are the direct results of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools.\u201d It didn\u2019t occur to him, of course, that the protestors had legitimate grievances based on the country\u2019s history of systemic racism and his own failed leadership, which only led to increased racial and economic inequality.  No, let\u2019s use taxpayer\u2019s money to establish a commission to write a bunch of bullshit, and I do mean bullshit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the now defunct \u201ccommission\u201d was made up entirely of conservative educators, not surprisingly, the resulting report asserts that America\u2019s universities are \u201chotbeds 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 of this country.\u201d In fact, most of the report reads like a collection of right-wing talking points, including equating progressivism with slavery, communism, and fascism, and attacking \u201cidentity politics\u201d and \u201ccancel culture\u201d as if they are the root of all evil.  It\u2019s hard to pick the worst section of the document, but \u201cthe Historical Precedent for Identity Politics\u201d is a good candidate, including the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn portraying America as racist and white supremacist, identity politics advocates follow Lincoln\u2019s great rival Stephen A. Douglass, who wrongly claimed that American government \u2018was made on the white basis by white men, for the benefit of white men.\u2019 Indeed, there are uncanny similarities between 21st<\/sup> century activists of identity politics and 19th<\/sup> century apologists for slavery.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

How dumb is that?!  That\u2019s one of the stupidest things this humble spirt and veteran of almost two centuries hovering over the planet earth has ever heard!  \u201cAdvocates for identity politics\u201d (assuming there really is such a thing) don\u2019t \u201cfollow\u201d Stephen A Douglas; rather, Douglas\u2019s words testify to the reality of the history this country is still fighting to overcome.  Douglas was rationalizing the continued existence of slavery;<\/strong> 21st<\/sup> century activists are fighting to overcome slavery\u2019s ugly legacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Report Reads Like a Collection of Right-Wing Talking Points<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As if the apologists analogy wasn\u2019t bad enough, the authors go on to cite John C. Calhoun\u2019s pro-slavery arguments and claim that \u201cIn the context of American history, the original form of identity politics was used to defend slavery.\u201d Clearly on a roll, the authors then top themselves by claiming that \u201cwhen activists are discussing seemingly innocuous campaigns to promote \u2018diversity,\u2019 they are often aiming for fundamental structural change.\u201d  Yeah!  They sure are!  They are aiming to overcome \u201cstructural\u201d racism and change a flawed political and economic system\u2014as they should, and as do I!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, the report calls for a \u201cpatriotic education\u201d with a \u201cpro-American curriculum.\u201d  Needless to say, given the right-wing\u2019s recent definition of \u201cpatriotism\u201d (remember, the mob that attacked the Capitol claimed to be patriots!) and the fact that lately some interpret \u201cpro-American\u201d to mean \u201cpro-Trump,\u201d it\u2019s definitely reason for concern.  Coming from the 19th<\/sup> century and observing slavery and the Civil War firsthand as I did, there\u2019s nothing I feel more strongly about than people understanding the truth about America\u2019s past.  We need to be teaching the truth, not indoctrinating another generation in the same old lies and fantasies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The report from Trump\u2019s \u201cAdvisory 1776 Commission\u201d claims that America\u2019s universities are \u201chotbeds 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 of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212437,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212421\/revisions\/212437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegallantpelham.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}