As devoted students of American cultural lore, we often hear of wisdom one bit at a time. One Charles Dudley Warner quote (often misattributed to Mark Twain) is, “Everyone talks
about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”
Perhaps Warner -- and Twain -- would be heartened by the left’s contemporary push to not only do something about purported global warming and its more recognized cousin “climate change” -- liberals are planning on cooperating with other “science” entities to take over the world economy and eradicate the “existential threat” of endangered polar bears and melting glaciers. That subject has already been worn thin and the ultimate resolution of the dilemma will likely depend on which party controls Congress and the presidency for the longest length of time in the next decade or so. One way or another, the earth is in charge.
The topic at hand is Critical Race Theory (CRT), the left’s not-so-veiled movement to turn America into a vast “woke” dystopia of mind-controlled zombies whose every thought and action is dictated by surface skin characteristics and ethnic national origin. Should you be born of European ancestry -- and hence, “white” -- you’re automatically deemed a racist and should go about your life apologizing for your ancestors and parents for even bringing you into the world. If you’re a person of color, you should conduct your existence as though you’re a victim and demand contrition from every pale face you see.
Or something like that. The news has been full of stories about “woke” corporations like Coca Cola demanding that its employees take sensitivity seminars in order to act “less white.” It’s all nonsense, of course, and the backlash against CRT is hardly surprising. Expect the groundswell of anti-CRT opinion to eventually overwhelm the race-baiters. Or at least we can hope it will.
But despite all the hubbub over CRT and its slow creep into the minds of Black Lives Matter protesters, not many of America’s leaders have done much about it. Like the weather, there’s been lots of complaining but not enough action. Former president Donald J. Trump isn’t about to remain inert when it comes to saving America from the left.
Trump took to the op-ed page last week to express his thoughts on the subject of keeping the racial gobbledygook out of our schools. Trump wrote at Real Clear Politics:
“The Department of Education rule stems from an executive order Biden signed on his first day in office. Biden’s order abolished the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission I created to honor America’s founding principles, and reversed an executive action I took to stop these depraved theories from being imposed upon federal employees in workforce training sessions.
“Thankfully, most Americans oppose this insanity. The left has only gotten away with it until this point because not enough parents have been paying attention and speaking up. But that is quickly changing. From Loudoun County, Va., to Cupertino, Calif., parents are beginning to make their voices heard against the left-wing cultural revolution. What they need now is a plan to actually stop it.
“Here are the reforms that every concerned parent in America should be demanding.”
Trump’s proposals are impressive -- and detailed -- and once again refute the notion that his candidacy and presidency were all bluster and self-promotion and no substance. Democrats, the media and #NeverTrumpers constantly accused the 45th president of only caring about himself, his family, his hair and his fortune, all the while steering the executive branch towards increasing his legend. To them, the “little guy” suffered while racist Trump trod on the heads of the brown and non-Christian underclasses.
The accusations were all false, but Trump didn’t call it the “fake news” media for nothing.
It’s curious how Trump took the time to pen an op-ed, but as everyone knows, his social media access has been suspended or eliminated by the censoring tech barons. One imagines that as president, Trump would’ve sent out a lengthy series of tweets containing his proposals. When coupled with his characteristic descriptive terminology, the media would’ve taken the ideas and ripped them to shreds. Or at least tried to. But there’s no denying Trump’s sincerity when it comes to a topic like critical race theory.
The whole op-ed is worth reading, but in essence, here are Trump’s propositions: First, every state legislature should pass a ban on taxpayer dollars going to any school district or workplace that teaches critical race theory. Second, each state should create its own 1776 Commission to examine the public school curriculum. Third, parents have a right to know exactly what is being taught to their children. Fourth, parents need to organize locally — in every school district in America — to eliminate ‘Action Civics’ and other versions of the effort to contort traditional civics education into a vehicle for political indoctrination.
Fifth, any parent who objects to the material being taught to their child in public school should get an automatic voucher, empowering them to pick another school of their choice. Sixth, states need to take back control of their schools of education and credentialing bodies to ensure they are not churning out radicalized teachers. Finally, states need to break the tenure monopoly in public K-12 schools.
If Trump’s concepts passed into law in their entirety, America would instantly become a better place. Using CRT as a rallying point, these ideas are basically a restatement of the Trump education agenda with a heavy emphasis on local autonomy, school choice and teaching the founding principles (through the 1776 Commission) rather than repackaging leftist mumbo jumbo developed in “woke” college faculty lounges and presented in textbooks that no one wants to read.
Trump did present his thoughts with one new twist. The former president suggested parents, perhaps for the first time, got a closer look at what their children were being taught when kids were forced to sit through zoom presentations and various other “virtual” learning experiences because of school lockdowns and COVID-19. Though the mandatory online school presentations weren’t ideal, a few positive things resulted from them.
I’ve personally witnessed a steady decline over the past couple decades in the teaching of American history and civics, with a decided leftward lean towards “activism” and so-called community involvement. It’s been shocking when schooltime was dedicated to political causes, particularly to those with a decided ideological bent. Subjects like “climate change” have been presented to the students as though they were fact and not simply a theory concocted with government grant money at liberal research institutions.
I have no problem with the kids learning about “climate change” -- or even to-the-point race discussions -- as long as all sides are distributed equally and the ugly side of the ideology is exposed to the learners. Marxist theories in particular should contain warnings and admonitions, such as the truthful fact that hundreds of millions of people were murdered by communist regimes trying to impose these very ideas.
Another great Trump suggestion was having parents who complete a complaint process being given the option of pulling their kids out of a failing institution, armed with a voucher to send them to a sane school of their choosing. Many, many parents would benefit from being able to shop for a school that shares their value system, and the public schools would be forced to shape up in order to compete for dollars.
Want a way to weaken the teacher’s unions? Follow the money, baby.
Thankfully, some of what Trump talked about is already being done. Many states are passing anti-CRT laws to the delight of their constituents and more are considering them with popular support. And entities like the Tea Party Patriots are sponsoring things like “National Attend a School Board Meeting Month” in July, where everyone, not just parents, can get directly involved.
Want to make a difference instantly? Sign up to attend your local school board’s July public meeting. There’s strength in numbers and the floor shouldn’t be left only to those who think gender specific bathrooms are discriminatory.
This is the future of the country we’re talking about. The left has always been good at brainwashing the weak and compelling them to turn out in numbers to yell about some “cause” or mission, no matter how stupid. These days, everyone talks about how awful the left is -- it’s about time that someone/everyone who disagrees with them did something about it.
Donald Trump education agenda
MAGA agenda
Critical Race Theory
Systemic Racism
School Board Meetings
grassroots involvement
Climate change
Joe Biden agenda
Joe Biden administration
Hunter Biden art