Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so it was only fitting that the most Nazi-adjacent presidential regime in our history would use the occasion to defend the honor of our founding slave owners.
Trump's so-called "1776 Commission" released their report on American culture and education yesterday and it concludes that the reason liberals like you and I exist in the first place is because we were indoctrinated by liberalized history classes that taught us... history.
Mainly, the sham commission objects to history curriculum that accurately portrays our founding fathers as slave owners (they were) and that the Civil War was fought over slavery (it was).
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday released the report of the presidential 1776 Commission, a sweeping attack on liberal thought and activism that calls for a “patriotic education,” defends America’s founding against charges that it was tainted by slavery and likens progressivism to fascism. [...]
The commission’s report depicts a nation where liberals are seething with hatred for their own country, and whose divisions over its history and meaning recall those leading to the American Revolution and the Civil War.
It portrays an America whose institutions have been infiltrated by leftist radicals whose views echo those of recent totalitarian movements and argues that progressives have created, in the so-called administrative state, an unchecked “fourth branch” or “shadow government.”
I realize I'm getting old now and it's been a while since I sat in a history class, but I'd like to share my personal experience with American education and history curriculum.
History is one of the few classes I always paid attention in, but I hardly learned a damn thing at all about the topics covered by Trump's commission. I was taught that the Civil War was fought over slavery and nothing else, but I honestly did not learn that our founding fathers owned slaves until my mid 20s. I learned virtually nothing about a wide range of events in our history because they were never covered in class. Many topics weren't even in the text books. We spent about one week on the Vietnam War when I was in high school and I'm slightly embarrassed to say that I did not fully understand the entire war until I watched Ken Burns' comprehensive documentary when I was 34 years old.
Another thing I did not understand until I was older is that "controversial" topics were deliberately not covered in our history classes to give us a false impression of ourselves and our country.
The truth is if it was left up to just the education I received in Central Kentucky, it's more likely that I would have become a conservative. But I did not grow up in a conservative or racist household and I became the liberal that I am today because of Republican dogma ranging from the Blowjob Impeachment to the Bush administration's war on the world. Republicans ultimately made me liberal by being so bad at virtually everything and they only got worse over time. Modern conservativism looks more and more like fascism.
Trump's 1776 Commission is not decrying what's taught in history classes as much as it's trying to prevent things from being taught now that more people understand what I just outlined above. But there's nothing patriotic about burying your own history. Patriots recognize their own flaws and to strive to form a more perfect union.
There's no doubt in my mind that if Trump had been reelected, his Education Department would have tried to force "patriotic education" on every school system.