[Published in Newsmax]
Terrible things are happening to America.
The fundamental underpinnings of what makes America America are being directly assaulted.
President Ronald Reagan warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
We are in the extinction generation.
Democrats winning the U.S. House of Representatives ignited a firestorm of proposals to remake America into a centralized state. The Green New Deal is a full-scale assault on America’s economic future and a Washington power grab of epic proportions. The payment of Reparations is a vapid applause line based on pure lunacy.
Other proposals are from the Democrat playbook for achieving perpetual power – instant voter registration, blurring the lines regarding citizenship, amnesty for illegals, and letting felons vote.
Overreaching on policy is predictable after a major electoral win. Extremes, from either end of the political spectrum, are destined to disintergrate on the rocks and shoals that our Founders embedded in our foundational documents to perpetually preserve and protect our nation.
More troubling are the proposals gaining traction from the increasingly radical pronouncements of Democrats running for President in 2020. These proposals seek to eviscerate our foundational documents, eliminating structures that assured our nation’s survival since 1789.
Under the banner of “fairness”, proposals for eliminating the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court, basing Senate seats on population, and lowering the voter age to 16 , are gaining currency.
Leftists have repeatedly tried to erase America’s foundations. FDR’s future “Brain Trust” met with Lenin in 1921, and Stalin in 1927, to develop a strategic approach to dismantling the U.S. economy and establish a socialist America. Rexford Tugwell, one of FDR’s top economists and architect of his agriculture policy, developed a “Constitution for the Newstates of America”. The Tugwell Constitution, and its elimination of federalism, remained at the periphery of leftist discourse until recently. Tugwell’s vision of an all-powerful central government mirror the current proposals taking center stage among Democrat candidates.
The latest Pew Research Center survey shows that 55 percent of Americans support eliminating the Electoral College. A Harris poll shows that nearly half of Millennials and “Generation Z” want to live in a socialist country.
Under the banner of “political correctness”, the defining touch stones of the people, places, and events that shaped America are being erased. Recently, George Washington University students pushed to eliminate their George Washington “colonial” mascot as being racist.
Statues of non-confederate soldiers, and even monuments to people named “Lee”, who are not related to Robert E. Lee, have been vandalized.
How is this possible?
Ignorance and Indoctrination.
Since the late 1960’s liberals have made controlling educational content a strategic goal. This movement accelerated in the 1970s and has been on a steady march ever since. Conservatives have occasionally sounded warning bells, but they have never effectively mounted a sustained counter campaign.
Losing this asymmetrical struggle fosters growing public support for scrapping the world’s greatest democratic republic.
This happens when civics is relegated to just one half of a year for the entire Kindergarten through High School curriculum. The Annenberg Public Policy Center documented that only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government.
History is being shrunk to cover only events that occurred after 1200 AD. Large swarths of historical events and figures have been eliminated. Last November, the Texas State Board of Education voted to remove 450 historical figures. This includes significant individuals like John Hancock. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 18 percent of High School graduates are proficient in American history.
The result is younger Americans having no idea how their government works and why it was established that way. Not learning about what happened before 1200 removes all the great religions of the world. Not knowing about Greece and Rome cripple any understanding of the roots of democracy, civic institutions, and public discourse. Deprived of knowledge and understanding, loyalty to our system of government vanishes.
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that only 27 percent of Americans under 45 would pass the citizenship exam. A Scott Rasmussen poll discovered that 50 percent of Americans think our constitutional rights are given by the government and are subject to change. America is sailing into the danger zone.
In 1837, Horace Mann established the concept that public education was not about learning a trade, but about learning to be a citizen. We must re-establish that goal or America’s civic culture will cease to exist.
