Tag Archive for: patriotism

‘Made in America’: Toby Keith, American Patriotism, and the Decay of the Democratic Party

/in , , , , , , , /by

Country music legend and patriot par excellence Toby Keith has gone on to meet his Maker. The Oklahoma-born singer passed away Monday night last week at the age of 62, after a years-long battle with stomach cancer. Days before he passed away, Keith shared in an interview that his Christian faith sustained him throughout his experience with cancer. “You have to have your faith,” he said. “Thank God that I got it too. You take it for granted on days that things are good, and you lean on it when days are bad. It’s taught me to lean on it a little more every day.”

Especially after his passing, the “Made In America” singer has been praised for his unabashed, unapologetic patriotic spirit. The son of a soldier, Keith devoted much of his music and career to honoring the military veterans who fought so long and so hard to keep America safe. For example, from 2002 to 2013, Keith did 11 tours with the United Service Organizations, performing for U.S. military servicemembers in 15 countries and on three naval ships. The country star also founded the “I Love This Bar and Grill” restaurant chain, which offered free meals and drinks to military vets and often featured surprise visits and performances from Keith and his country music friends, like Gretchen Wilson.

Keith’s discography is also jam-packed with enough patriotism to make even George Washington smile in his grave. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the anthem “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue,” penned in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Originally intended only for live performances, Keith said that U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General James L. Jones told him it was his “duty as an American citizen” to record the song for an album. The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Country list — one of Keith’s 20 number-one singles. Another of those songs, 2011’s “Made in America,” pays tribute to Keith’s family, especially his all-American father. Going beyond support for America’s military, the song laments the nation’s growing reliance on foreign industry and energy, as well as the even-then-burgeoning absence of patriotism among Americans.

The “Beer for My Horses” singer’s life and political evolution is also prognostic not only of the deep political divisions that have rent the U.S. over the past two decades in particular, but most especially of how the Democratic Party has devolved. Keith used to bill himself as “a conservative Democrat who is sometimes embarrassed for his party,” and in April of 2008 he praised then-presidential-candidate Barack Obama as “the best Democratic candidate we’ve had since Bill Clinton.” Just a few months later, he told Country Music Television that he had left the Democratic Party and registered as an Independent. Years later, in 2017, Keith performed a concert in honor of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

In the hours after Keith’s family announced his death, left-wingers began lambasting him as a “hateful,” “bigoted,” “racist” “misogynist” — and a whole host of expletives besides — further exhibiting the animosity and hostility leftists harbor toward conservatives. The most revealing aspect of this vitriol (and, to authentic patriots, perhaps the least surprising) is that the political and ideological faction formerly known as the Democratic Party considers mere patriotism to be a definitive hallmark of “the enemy,” conservatism.

Patriotism was once among the most fundamental prerequisites for that condition known as “being an American.” Certainly the first Americans had patriotism in spades: men and women willing to risk life, limb, and even liberty for a nation that no one recognized except for them. George Washington, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams receive the same vitriol from modern-day leftists, their monuments are torn down — like Toby Keith, they are labeled bigots and racists — like Toby Keith, their ardent patriotism is seen as a threat.

And in all honesty, it is. The leftist ideology is predicated on a hatred for America and the ideals, values, and traditions that form the basis of her founding. Once upon a time, even the Democratic Party recognized the worth of patriotism — Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and his brother Bobby would have all died for their country — but today’s Democrats are hellbent on not only undermining but outright destroying love for one’s nation and the principles upon which that nation was founded. The Democratic Party of old is long dead. There was once a time when Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, agreed on what outcome and end result was good but had different ideas of how to go about achieving that ultimate good.

Now, the brain (and spiritual) cancer called leftism has infected the Democratic Party — and, to a certain extent, even the Republican Party, at least its treacherous old guard — driving out patriots and those loyal to America on the basis of… well, patriotism and loyalty to America. Toby Keith was driven out from the Democratic Party, left politically homeless by the party that once stood up for blue-collar workers and against corporate elitism — the same political party which has since crippled the middle class, blue-collar workers, and veterans, and which now almost exclusively serves the interests of corporate elites, legislating the same radical social agendas pushed by seemingly every major corporate entity from Hollywood to the military-industrial complex to international mega department stores and fast food chains.

As Toby Keith’s example bears out, American patriots, devoted to the nation’s foundational principles, find themselves inexorably drawn to (and indeed pushed towards) conservatism, especially as the onslaught of leftism pervades the Democratic Party and every institution it has captured and dominated over the past three decades.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘Faith in Jesus Christ Alone’: How Americans Agreed Christianity Is Core to Conservatism

/in , , , , , , , /by

In the years leading up to the birth of the nation we know as America, political discourse was exercised in pubs, in the pages of newspapers, in the town square, and on the steps outside courthouses. The patriots who forged America would define and refine together what liberty means and what responsibilities are carried with it, how men are governed and by what authority, and what a nation is and what it means to be an American.

Today, that same patriotic spirit that burns in the hearts of conservatives articulates itself largely on social media. On Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and even on less mainstream sites like Gab or former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social, conservatives carry on the work of their forefathers and clarify ideologies, debate traditions, and ask what it means to be an American conservative. Just as early American patriots made their voices heard in the streets of Boston, Philadelphia, and Annapolis, so American conservatives made their voices heard on Twitter last week, resoundingly declaring that Christianity is core to conservatism.

Lizzie Marbach, a former Trump 2020 campaign staffer and current Ohio pro-life advocate, tweeted last week, “There’s no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.” The tweet itself garnered a moderate amount of notice and many social media users agreed with Marbach, who was essentially repeating longstanding (and, honestly, pretty basic) Christian doctrine. And then along came Max Miller. The Republican congressman from Ohio and former Trump staffer reposted his fellow former Trump staffer’s tweet with his own derisive commentary, saying, “This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen. Delete it, Lizzie. Religious freedom in the United States applies to every religion. You have gone too far.”

First of all, it is important to note that Marbach is not a sitting legislator, nor even a government employee. Her tweet did not advocate, endorse, or even remotely suggest the suppression or persecution of any religious group or set of religious beliefs. This makes Miller’s comments all the more infuriatingly ironic: while claiming to support “religious freedom,” a sitting U.S. congressman told an American citizen to delete her profession of one of the most fundamental doctrines of her faith — a faith shared, by the way, by an estimated 70% of Americans.

Miller, who describes himself on Twitter as a “proud Jew,” was instantly ridiculed, shamed, and flatly contradicted by conservatives. Political commentator and podcast host Matt Walsh asked, “Do your constituents know that you consider basic Christian teaching to be ‘bigoted’? They do now I guess. Good luck in the next election!” Journalist Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events, posted a meme reading, “[T]he best time to delete this tweet was immediately after sending it, the second best time is now.” Media personality and former GOP congressional candidate Lauren Witzke quipped, “Mask off moment.” Countless others commented simple variations of “Christ is King.”

Miller went further than merely airing his ignorance, though; he complained to Marbach’s employer, Ohio Right to Life, where his wife is a board member, and she was fired from her position as communications director. Ohio Right to Life stressed that Marbach wasn’t fired due to “any single event,” but even the ol’ post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy might be a bit of a stretch in application to this particular scenario.

In 2020, President Trump famously said, “It’s called ‘we do a little trolling.’” Well, trolling works. After the torrent of purely-digital backlash from Americans, Miller was forced to apologize. He said, “I posted something earlier that conveyed a message I did not intend. I will not try to hide my mistake or run from it. I sincerely apologize to Lizzie and to everyone who read my post.” Now, whether the apology was sincere or simply a PR necessity in the wake of denigrating the beliefs of over two thirds of Americans is not yet clear, though it’s worth noting that Miller did not delete his tweet calling expression of Christian thought “bigoted” and ordering an American Christian to “delete” her tweet, nor has he apologized for his role in having Marbach fired.

In fact, Marbach herself showed Miller just how “bigoted” and threatening Christians are by publicly forgiving him. She tweeted, “Max, I accept your apology 100%. However the truth is that it is not me from whom you need forgiveness, but God himself. I genuinely pray you seek him and find salvation!” She also posted the text of Matthew 18:21-35, in which Christ tells the parable of the unforgiving servant and instructs His disciples to forgive others not just seven times but “seventy-seven times.”

Aside from Miller’s appalling behavior and lackluster attempt at an apology, this episode demonstrates the commitment of conservatives to Christian ideals. Those who do not identify as Christian — atheists and agnostics, even some of Miller’s fellow Jews, were among his detractors — but as conservatives recognize the inherent truth that, without Christianity, there is nothing to conserve. The entirety of the conservative movement is founded upon distinctly Christian principles, traditions, and culture: liberty, order, virtue, duty, sacrifice, and all those noble ideals Americans have fought, bled, and died for over the past 250 years. These ideals were practiced, preached, preserved, clarified, and dogmatized by Christianity.

While nations and empires have risen and fallen, while the Roman republic decayed into tyranny, while kingdoms and races warred across medieval Europe, while European powers pioneered new lands, while the dream called America was realized, while bloody revolutions felled and founded new cultures and governments, while world wars raged, and even now into the present age, Christianity has stood strong, lovingly maintaining the doctrines laid out 2,000 years ago by a Carpenter from Nazareth, Who was also told, “Delete it,” in the parlance of the day, and lost far more than just His job.

Just as American patriots once agreed on what liberty is while sitting around their drinks in pubs, just as they once proclaimed what they knew to be true in the pages of their newspapers and gazettes, just as they once shouted their common beliefs in the streets, so too have today’s American patriots, speaking in today’s town square, agreed that conservatives must not condemn or denigrate Christianity but embrace it.

Hopefully, today’s patriots will continue following in the footsteps of their forefathers and will not be content with pub-table conversations, printed words, and marching in the streets, but will speak at the ballot box too and elect representatives who respect and even share their beliefs, the beliefs that this nation was built upon.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

American Patriotism Is on the Rise, But for How Long?

/in , , , , , , , /by

A new survey is revealing an increase in patriotism, especially an appreciation for America’s birthday. A Rasmussen Reports poll published Tuesday found that 55% of Americans consider Independence Day to be on the nations’ “most important” holiday’s — that’s up from 53% just last year. Only 6% of Americans ranked the holiday one of the “least important.” However, only 34% of Americans responded that the Founding Fathers would view America today as a success.

Though marginal, the increase over last year’s patriotism is heartening, and it comes largely from the expected quarters: Republicans (at 69%) and unaffiliated voters (at 55%) are more likely to rank Independence Day as important compared to Democrats (at a paltry 44%). Somewhat ironically, though by no means surprisingly, Democrats (at 42%) are more likely to say the Founding Fathers would see America today as a success than unaffiliated voters (at 31%) and Republicans (at 29%), despite also ranking Independence Day as less important.

These statistics, while interesting, can only be properly understood in light of other cultural trends and, of course, in light of both history and objective moral truth.

First, to other cultural trends — namely, the shift away from religion. A recent Pew Research Center poll reported that religious service attendance is down post-COVID lockdowns, dropping from only one third of Americans in 2019 to a meager 30% in 2022. A more recent report from the Public Religion Research Institute found only 16% of Americans considered religion the most important aspect of their lives. The results of this decline in faith are evident across politics, media, culture, and nearly every stratum of American society: from the inundation of pro-LGBT propaganda to America’s cataclysmic split over abortion to the prevalence of divorce and pornography, and the list goes on.

This leads to the next point to consider: history. The form of government devised by the Founding Fathers was unique up to that point in history, crafting a sort of hybrid from ancient republics like Rome, free democracies like those proposed by French Enlightenment writers, and even from England itself, most notably the Magna Carta, a precursor to America’s Constitution. The Magna Carta came about in circumstances similar to those resulting in the American Revolution. The 13th century King John of England (perhaps best known as the archvillain in the “Robin Hood” stories) pushed the nation’s barons too far in abusing his power as monarch, particularly by levying unfairly high taxes. The baron’s revolted and pressured John to sign the Magna Carta, which established that the king was subject to the law, he could only make new laws with consent of the governed (represented by the barons), and his subjects owed him obedience not absolutely, but only on the condition that he governed justly and in their interest.

Similar ideas can be detected in America’s Constitution. It may surprise many to learn that the Founding Fathers’ chief issue was not solely with monarchy but with Parliament. The grievances listed against King George III in the Declaration of Independence largely center on his inaction — both his failure to protect the American colonies from Parliament’s seemingly Draconian laws and his refusal to consent to the predominantly-English-blooded colonists representing themselves and their interests in Parliament. The British Parliament was the aggressor, in the eyes of the Founding Fathers, interfering with the colonies’ internal self-governance, levying increasingly-disproportionate taxes on the colonists, stationing a standing army in America and forcing the colonists to pay for it, restricting freedom of speech, and more. The king was not the aggressor, and the colonists didn’t outright reject the notion of a constitutional monarchy.

In fact, officers of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War even petitioned George Washington to be king of the United States and do away with the fledgling Continental Congress. Washington famously rejected the offer and, when his troops grew restless after months of no pay issued by Congress, Washington prevented a military rebellion and ensured his men respected whatever new form of government Congress decided to bestow upon the young nation. The authors of the Constitution even considered a constitutional monarchy. When the Constitutional Convention closed in Philadelphia in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was famously asked what form of government had been decided upon, a monarchy or a republic. He responded, “A republic — if you can keep it.” Those words, “if you can keep it,” are crucial.

This leads, then, to moral truth. Under a monarchy, a king accepts tremendous responsibility for his people; while it’s true that not all kings have upheld that responsibility, and some have even neglected it and abused their powers, the responsibility itself has always existed. The form of government the Founding Fathers bestowed upon America is, in some ways, a more grown-up form of government. Every citizen — from the wealthiest to the poorest, from the strongest to the weakest, from the smartest to the dullest — is entrusted with the responsibility of governing himself and his fellow men. In order to live up to that responsibility, a virtuous populace is required, a people noble enough to give of themselves to tend to the souls of others, and wise enough to know how to do so.

The slight rise in patriotism is heartening not least because patriotism is a virtue. Christian thinkers from Thomas Aquinas to C.S. Lewis have long considered patriotism a virtue, falling under the cardinal virtue of justice, which demands giving to each one his due; patriotism is giving to one’s fatherland the respect and, in a sense, filial devotion it is due. But the contrasting decline in the practice of religion bodes ill, as does the steep rise in recent decades of moral relativism, hedonism, and degeneracies the Founding Fathers could likely never have imagined. For nearly 250 years this American republican has stood, but without virtue can we keep it?

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Republicans Gun for Biden’s Pride Flags

/in , , , , , , , , /by

While the White House races to distance itself from the impromptu strip show on its South Lawn last Saturday, the bare-breasted trans display was only one part of the taxpayer-funded circus that Joe Biden brought to the most sacred residence in America. “Add this to the list of ways Biden has degraded the prestige and decorum of the office of president,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) fumed. A list that also includes his decision to make the controversial Progress Flag the balcony focal point during his Pride fest, centered in a place of honor that should be reserved for our nation’s colors.

Most Americans still can’t get over the image of the transgender baby blue and pink draped over one of the most symbolic buildings in America. The president’s brazen endorsement of a movement that’s mutilating children and splitting up families was like a slap in the face to a country already burning with rage over the Democrats’ trans fixation.

“The flag of the United States of America placed in equal stature on the flank of the alphabet cult battle flag,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) seethed. “The Biden administration is a disgrace.” Others pointed out the flagrant violation of the U.S. Flag Code, which White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed off. “Did anybody notice that or fail to notice that,” a reporter asked, “or was it an intentional statement?”

Jean-Pierre was defiant, insisting the president was “proud” to display the Progress Flag, even calling it a “historic” moment for a day “centered around love and family.” “… [W]e’re not going to let anyone distract us from that, what was the meaning of the day. … I’m certainly not going to get into protocols from here. … I’ll leave that to others.”

Those “others” may soon be House Republicans, who’ve wasted no time putting the Biden administration on notice for its anti-American displays. On Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) used Flag Day “to remind everyone that the Stars and Stripes is the ONLY flag that displays our nation’s shared values.”

His Senate colleague, Roger Marshall (R), introduced a bill called the One Flag for All Act Wednesday to make it illegal to “fly, drape, or display any flag other than the American flag on federal buildings or properties, with limited exceptions.” “We have a duty…” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) agreed, “[to stand] up in defense of this country instead of a radical Leftist ideology that results in a pride flag being hung at the same level as the US flag on the front of the White House.”

Together, Republicans refuse to sit by and let the president insult the brave men and women who’ve fought and died under the colors our leaders should be flying. They’ve been especially irate over Secretary of Veteran Affairs Denis McDonough’s directive to fly the rainbow and Progress Flags above, beside, or even in lieu of the stars and stripes at VA facilities. The GOP’s Mississippi delegation fired off an indignant letter over the rainbow colors at Biloxi National Cemetery, which they say shows “deep disrespect” to our nation’s servicemembers.

“Replacing the United States flag with a flag that promotes a particular sexual or gender identity goes against the very mission of our national cemeteries. … Cemeteries should be places for reflection and respect, not public virtue signaling.

“This political stunt is yet another example of this Administration’s willingness to promote its political agenda rather than focus on its mission as the executive branch. Our veterans expect the Department of Veteran Affairs to provide services, not controversial ideologies.”

The controversy is one of several triggered by McDonough’s decision to allow the Pride flag at every VA facility — a move that’s sparked protests in cities like Fresno. One of the demonstrators, John Cline, a combat medic who served in Vietnam, told reporters, “That flag is now being flown in a spot that we hold very sacred, and no organization should be put above any other organization in that area.” Cline explained that he’d “even spoken with some of our gay veterans, and they also believe that the Walk of Honor is not the place where it should be flown.”

If the grassroots fury doesn’t get McDonough’s attention, maybe Congress will. On Tuesday, House Republicans raised the stakes — passing an amendment to the VA spending bill that would not only forbid the agency from flying the Pride flag, but also rolls back the administration’s outrageous taxpayer-funded abortions and gender transition surgeries for veterans.

“This is something that should be handled by Congress, not by the executive branch,” Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) argued about the president’s woke social policies. As of February, reports show the VA has taken 34 unborn lives — all at Americans’ expense and all in violation of the Hyde Amendment.

As for gender transition treatments, the VA has been plotting for two years to add “surgical procedures” and “hormone therapies” to its list of covered services, insisting it would “save lives.” Republicans voted 34-27 to strike the policy, a move that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) called a waste of time. “This committee … should be focused on issues that face the veterans community every day: ending veteran suicide, decreasing the claims backlogs, ensuring the VA can attract and retain clinicians. But we are instead focusing on non-issues to bow down to the demands of the far-right wing of the Republican Party.”

These “non-issues,” as Wasserman Schultz calls them, are at the heart of a raging national debate that Democrats are soundly losing. At a time when backlash to Pride is at a fevered pitch, most Americans would agree it’s not too much to ask that our veterans aren’t exploited in Biden’s political games. Under this latest House amendment, the VA would be barred from flying any flag “other than the flag of the United States, the flag of a state, territory, or District of Columbia, the flag of an Indian tribal government, the flag of the department, the flag of an armed force, or the POW/MIA flag.”

It would guarantee that the “work and the message of the VA is not divisive,” Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) insisted, “is not controversial, and is not promoting a particular gender ideology, but rather is respect[ful] of our veterans.”

As Family Research Council’s executive vice president, Lt. General (Ret.) William Boykin said, “So many Americans have given so much — including their lives — to give all Americans the right to be proud of who we are as a nation and not just a special sub-group. The actions by the Veterans Administration to put the LGBT flag on par with the American flag is an ill-conceived and disgusting action which cannot be justified. It leaves me wondering: Is anyone in charge of the VA?”

As Boykin emphasized to The Washington Stand, “It is important for us as a nation to continually remind ourselves of the sacrifices that have been made by these men and women in uniform in helping to preserve our liberties.”

In the meantime, he insisted, “Someone needs to be held accountable for this disgusting display of anti-American and anti-veteran behavior.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Teaching American Students to Be Americans

/in , , , , , , , /by

The Florida legislature is now considering a measure that calls for American students to be taught about America.

The bill, in the typically cumbersome language of most proposed laws, is titled “Public Postsecondary Educational Institutions.” Formally introduced as H.B. 999, the bill would give greater power to boards that oversee Florida’s public colleges and eliminate funding for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs at public universities. But these are not the aspects of the bill that most caught my eye.

H.B. 999 urges higher educational institutions to “(promote) citizenship in a constitutional republic.” It states that when appropriate, Florida college students should be taught “the historical background and philosophical foundation of Western civilization and this nation’s founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments thereto, and the Federalist Papers.”

I am a little tempted to stop there. As an historian and advocate of teaching our youth the facts and philosophies of America’s founding, I’m delighted that tens of thousands of young men and women will actually have to read the texts that contain the ideas and beliefs that began our country. By doing so, the contempt for the United States being taught so aggressively in far too many bastions of liberalism, by which I mean most colleges and universities, might lessen. Appreciation for our remarkable country might increase. Patriotism might mean more than watching almost nude “entertainers” at Super Bowl halftimes.

History should be taught accurately. This means thorough and honest appraisals of our country’s heritage, good and bad. The tentacles of slavery and its appalling effects on African-Americans and all of us should be examined with integrity. Labor exploitation during the Industrial Revolution and the treatment of ethnic minorities are among the other unpleasant themes that should be covered.

But our heritage is not one of relentless ugliness. The darkness in our past is pierced through with bold streams of light. Although we have failed to apply the principles of the Declaration — human equality and God-given rights — with the rigor or justice for which those principles call, we have done so much better than other nations. And our commitment to self-correction is unsurpassed in the world.

At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to the promise of American life eloquently. Acknowledging the grim implications of racism, he pointed to a shared future grounded in certain “self-evident” truths. “One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God” — black men and women denied the right simply to have coffee at a downtown café — “sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

We should share a common indignation at wrongs done, whether political, social, racial, or economic. Yet should our disappointment over failure surmount thankfulness and even wonder regarding all that is good and right about the United States? When the pursuit of justice becomes a pretext for rage and when problems are so magnified that they obscure the great things we enjoy and presume upon each day — degrees of religious liberty, economic opportunity, and political freedom unknown in all but a handful of other countries — we prove ourselves not only unworthy of self-governance but of those who have sacrificed so much on our behalf.

Learning about our Providential history cannot help but inspire appreciation for those who have fought and built and hoped and dreamed in past generations. Imperfection is not the same as ignobility. Elements of our past have been painfully, ashamedly hurtful. Yet the broad course of America’s heritage cannot but inspire a deep sense that despite the many evidences of human fallenness woven into the fabric of our national story, the tapestry itself is nothing less than remarkable.

In 1957, then-Senator John F. Kennedy received a patriotism award from the University of Notre Dame. In his acceptance speech, he challenged the faculty with these words: “the duty of the scholar — particularly in a republic such as ours — is to contribute his objective views and his sense of liberty to the affairs of his state and nation.”

We can hope that Florida’s public universities have such scholars. Governor Ron DeSantis (R) seems to be working to that end, for which all of us can be grateful.

AUTHOR

Rob Schwarzwalder

Rob Schwarzwalder is Senior Lecturer in Regent University’s Honors College.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Florida Enacts ‘Heartbeat Protection Act,’ Reaffirming Life Issue’s Popular Appeal

Missouri AG Moves against ‘Progressive Woke Ideology’ with Emergency Trans Treatment Rule

Gender Confused Teacher Allowed to Continue Teaching after ‘Shooting Students’ Comment

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

American Pride Burning

/in , , , , , , , , , /by

They called it a “night of rage.” But outside the charred walls of Buffalo’s CompassCare, pro-lifers could barely get the national media to call it anything. Like the string of domestic firebombings across Wisconsin, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, and Washington, the blown out windows, graffiti, and trashed offices were barely a blip on network news. It’s been quite a contrast to the extensive coverage a single burned flag in New York is getting. But then, that’s the power of the Pride.

The incident that’s grabbing headlines happened in the wee hours of Monday morning. According to security footage, a woman parked her SUV, walked over to a rainbow flag hanging outside SoHo’s Little Prince restaurant, pulled out a lighter, and set the flag on fire. An employee working late inside saw the flames and called 911. Although the residents on higher floors had to be evacuated, no one was injured. There were, however, cracked windows and “external damage,” especially to the outside landscaping.

“It’s disgusting,” restaurant owner Cobi Levy said. His staff, he told the press, is shaken and scared. “These kinds of acts are desperate acts committed by people who are consumed with hate and filled with hate,” thundered Eric Bottcher, a local councilmember. The New York Times and other major newspapers descended on the scene, interviewing sympathetic neighbors and calling for the suspect to face the harshest penalties.

Within 24 hours, an investigation had been launched by NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force and a replacement flag — larger than the one that proclaimed “Make America Gay Again” — had already been hung.

The all-hands-on-deck response was quite a contradiction to what more than 100 churches and pro-life groups have experienced over the last seven months from the FBI, which waited six of those months just to list the attackers on its Most Wanted website. Not a single arrest has been made in CompassCare’s case. In fact, the federal government has been so indifferent to the crimes that several pro-life groups have resorted to launching their own private investigation.

Meanwhile, in the Big Apple, Bottcher celebrated the LGBT movement’s resilience. “Our resolve is only strengthened when acts like this happen,” Bottcher told the community at a special ceremony to replace the colors on Tuesday. “We are standing up in the face of this hate and reasserting our pride in ourselves and our community. That’s why we hung the flag again.” Little Prince posted a photo of the new flag with one word: “Defiant.”

I want to be clear right off the bat: While there’s an obvious discrepancy in how the two sides have been treated by the media and law enforcement, no one is defending this woman’s actions. Respect for other people’s property — whether it’s a ministry or a drag bar — ought to be a reasonable expectation of every American. There’s no excuse for lawlessness in any form or against any person. That said, the hysteria over what happened in SoHo is a powerful illustration of where we are as a nation, and ignoring it only primes the pump for more hypocrisy.

There are plenty of double standards at play here, not the least of which is the excessive significance the legacy media assigns to victims of their pet political causes, while more than 100 pro-life ministries, churches, and pregnancy care centers sit smoldering in the ashes of a similar hatred, virtually ignored. Imagine if this woman had set fire to an America flag. Would the press race to the scene and mourn the lack of national pride across their platforms? Of course not, because in this age of identity politics, we’ve gotten to the point where setting fire to a rainbow flag is a “hate crime” and burning Old Glory is self-expression.

Frankly, the fact that a single act of arson can make national news is astonishing in an age when mobs can burn down entire cities with the ruling class’s blessing. During the George Floyd riots of 2020, torching federal buildings, courts, city property, and private businesses wasn’t violence, the Left said. It was “justice” — the kind that major Democratic figures publicly embraced.

It wasn’t even two years ago that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), told the masses that if there wasn’t a guilty verdict in the Floyd murder case, then “… we got to not only stay in the street, but we have got to fight for justice.” Party leaders, like then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), defended Waters’s call to arms, saying she should not have to apologize for inciting violence. Rep. Alyssa Pressley (Mass.) flat-out called for “unrest,” while liberal city leaders from Portland to Chicago linked arms with anarchists, even going so far as to sue federal officials who tried to restore law and order.

The soon-to-be vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, also endorsed the mobs, telling Stephen Colbert, “They’re not going to stop. … This is a movement. … And everyone, beware. …They’re not going to let up. And they should not, and we should not.”

Protestors, emboldened by Democrats, went on an anti-American rampage, toppling statues, defacing monuments, spraypainted historic buildings, and destroying private property, racking up more than $1 billion dollars in damage across the country — the most expensive riot spree in U.S. history. And yet this, the burning of a single LGBT flag, is “war in America.”

The irony is hard to miss. At a time when liberal ideologues argue against prosecuting anyone for anything, a woman destroying a rainbow flag faces double the punishment under New York’s hate crimes statute, which not only penalizes crimes but motives too. But what about the motives of the arsons in Buffalo? Where was the demand for “hate crimes” in cities where “ABORT THE CHURCH” and “DEATH TO CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM” were spraypainted across houses of worship?

If you’re starting to believe double standards are America’s only standards, you’re not alone. When burning our flag is “protected speech,” and a banner of sexual fanaticism is untouchable, we’ve passed the point of absurdity as a nation. And yet, these are the lessons our children have been taught: you can kneel for the national anthem but not refuse to wear a rainbow.

Now the bitter fruits of that indoctrination are everywhere. Today, more of Generation Z identifies as LGBT (20%) than feels proud to call America home (16%). Is it any wonder that society treats the Pride flag with a reverence it used to reserve for the country that gave activists the right to fly it in the first place?

In 1989, when the Supreme Court struck down the criminal penalties for burning a U.S. flag, Justice John Paul Stevens lamented in his dissent, “[The American flag] is more than a proud symbol of the courage, the determination, and the gifts of nature that transformed 13 fledgling Colonies into a world power. It is a symbol of freedom, of equal opportunity, of religious tolerance, and of goodwill for other peoples who share our aspirations.” It does not “represent the views of any particular party, and it does not represent any political philosophy,” Chief Justice William Rehnquist insisted. “The flag is not simply another idea or point of view competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas.” The value of its unifying power, the four dissenting justices argued, cannot be measured.

Thirty-four years later, that unity is being tested as never before. We’ve become a people determined to wave our own flags, so comfortable in our factions that we’re trampling our country’s ideals — the same ideals that laid the foundations of self-expression the Left worships today. But if America has any hope of healing these deep divides, of ending these uncivil wars, the solution is returning — not to what divides us, but to what connects us. A national identity found, not in a spectrum of colors, but in three: red, white, and blue.

AUTHOR

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Abortion and Miscarriage: The Emptiness of Lies and the Fullness of Life

Tuberville Challenges DOD Abortion Subsidies, Holds Military Promotions

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Recovering a more perfect union: A rebuke of the 1619 Project

/in , , , , , , /by

A new book describes the importance of memory, history, and national identity in saving America from desolation.

One of the worst sins of the present — not just ours but any present — is its tendency to condescend toward the past, which is much easier to do when one doesn’t trouble to know the full context of that past or try to grasp the nature of its challenges as they presented themselves at the time.
— Wilfred M. McClay, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story

Jay Leno used to do a regular schtick, Jaywalking, in which he would interview random persons on the street, often young ones, and ask them questions about American history, such as: “Who did America fight in the Revolutionary War?” “How many branches of the U.S. government are there?” “What year was the War of 1812?” Invariably, they could not answer the question, standing mute with Leno’s impertinent microphone pointed at their gaping mouths, or they gave a ridiculous answer.

As deflating as these performances were, it turns out that the state of American education is even worse than Leno documented. Not only does ignorance characterise so much of the citizenry, but Americans are now also imbibing, i.e., being taught, pernicious lies or partial truths about the founding and history of the United States from a tendentious, ideological, and solidly left-wing perspective.

Twisted narrative

This sorry state of affairs is documented in excruciating detail in Timothy S. Goeglein’s enlightening, depressing, and, ultimately, hopeful new book, Toward a More Perfect Union: The Moral and Cultural Case for Teaching the Great American Story.

The distortion of history now routinely fed to elementary and high school students, as well as those attending hopelessly “woke” universities and colleges, has produced many young people who are “cynical, entitled, and aggrieved.” Continues Goeglein:

Rather than being thankful, they are indignant. Rather than proud, they feel ashamed. Rather than feeling free, they feel oppressed. Rather than wanting to fix America’s faults, they want to burn America down. Rather than asking what they can do for their country, they demand to know what their country can do for them — and the answer is increasingly to “cease to exist.”

We have created “a citizenry divorced both intellectually and emotionally from its heritage.” Further, “[w]hen we disassociate history — and memory — from facts, we are lost,” writes Goeglein, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, a former Senate staffer, and, presently, vice-president of external and government relations for Focus on the Family.

Our predicament is exemplified by the absurd, anti-historical 1619 Project of the New York Times, an initiative repudiated by many respected, liberal historians. It is being taught in roughly 4,500 schools nationwide.

In a feat of historical and moral inversion, it maintains that the American Revolution was designed primarily to protect the institution of slavery from being destroyed by the British Empire.

Such a one-sided view of history will alienate Americans from one another, given the dissolution of a common identity and love of country, and disregards those who struggled to make the Declaration of Independence a reality in spite of its obvious flaws, such as slavery.

On the matter of slavery, always a leading complaint against America’s founding, the Washington Post’s George Will has rightly observed that the founders’ Constitution “gave slavery no national validation. It left slavery solely a creature of state laws and therefore susceptible to the process that, in fact, occurred — the process of being regionally confined and put on a path to ultimate extinction. Secession was the South’s desperate response when it recognized this impending outcome that the Constitution had facilitated.”

So, it comes as no surprise that, as “a 2020 Pew Research study found a month before the presidential election, roughly eight in ten registered voters in both camps said their political disagreements with others were about core American values, with roughly nine in ten — liberal and conservative — worried [that] a victory by the other would lead to ‘lasting harm’ to the United States” [emphasis added]. We are now in a situation in which tribe is pitted against tribe, race against race, rich against poor, red against blue states.

We have succumbed to the “termites of self-loathing,” to use a term coined by Ben Stein. There is hardly a historic personage — Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Columbus, St Junípero Serra — who is not vilified, “cancelled,” and banished into outer darkness by woke activists and educators. One should be grateful that at least Frederick Douglass and Dr Martin Luther King Jr are spared such treatment, given their devotion to American ideals in the Declaration of Independence, classical literature, and Scripture. They are just ignored.

Dearth of patriotism

Recently, a friend whose daughter attended one of the tonier prep schools in Washington, DC, related that his conversations with her on US and Western history were disappointing. She, and her friends, showed no “piety” toward her country or heritage.

It was an interesting word choice and recalled my own school days studying Virgil’s Aeneid, an epic poem written between 29 and 19 BC. It tells the story of the Trojan Aeneas, who fled the destruction of his city, travelled to Italy, and would later become the ancestor of the Romans.

I remember my Jesuit instructor lauding “pius Aeneas,” “pious” being the most used adjective throughout the poem. In following the will of the gods — he even left the captivating Dido in Carthage — Aeneas demonstrated pietas, a virtue in the eyes of Virgil and my teacher, in his devotion to family, country, and mission. Such piety is no longer encouraged in our educational institutions, or so it would seem.

Major culprit

What brought America to this sorry state? In the beginning there was the “Original Zinn” — Howard Zinn, that is, a Boston University professor of political science and “the godfather of the radical attack on America’s history”, as Goeglein outlines in a pivotal chapter of Toward a More Perfect Union.

Zinn’s “epic screed,” A People’s History of the United States (1980), and his supplemental book for high schoolers, A Young People’s History of the United States (2007), have had an unparalleled impact on social studies teachers. The historian “refram[ed]” and “reimagin[ed]” facts to fit a Marxist critique of the US and a Western civilisation marred, claimed Zinn, “by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money.” For Zinn, “standards of historical analysis are merely ‘technical problems’ to be dismissed.”

“You wanna read a real history book?” Matt Damon’s titular character, Will, asks Robin Williams’ Dr Sean Maguire in the movie Good Will Hunting (1997). “Read Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. That book’ll f***ing knock you on your ass.” Indeed, it does. It also boggles the mind.

Zinn claims that the nation “has been taken over by men [the founders] who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties.” Again, in service to ideology, Zinn does not believe in objective history as documented by Mary Grabar, PhD, a refugee of communist Yugoslavia, on whom Goeglein draws heavily.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the main author of the 1619 Project, backtracked after respected historians critiqued her work. She claimed that the project was not about history but about “memory.” This is not historically grounded memory, but memory saturated with ideology and politics. This is pure Zinn in methodology. Hence, noted historians such as Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Eugene Genovese, and Michael Kammen — hardly a crowd of right-wingers — criticised Zinn as a “polemicist, not a historian.”

“His ultimate goal is not a historical one but a political one,” writes Goeglein. “[H]e wanted to depict the United States as an illegitimate enterprise, one demanding a revolution.”

Pushback

According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, today, only 18 percent of colleges require that students take a US history or government class to graduate. Maybe that is a blessing, given what passes for “history” in today’s woke environment. Ultimately, however, this is devastating to national unity.

Goeglein describes survey after survey that all indicate Americans’ ignorance of their rights under law and history. When the Constitution is taught, it is derided as being not radical enough in terms of the outcomes desired by left-of-centre teachers and advocates.

Toward A More Perfect Union does not specify a political agenda for reform, although it does note efforts made by some governors to reign in educational bureaucracies on, say, critical race theory. It does make a plea for parents to make a concerted effort to teach and counsel their children on the history of the nation and to pay close attention to what their schools are teaching.

It points to excellent resources available with which parents can educate themselves and their children on the complete story of American exceptionalism, not excluding the darker chapters. Parents who can afford the cost should look for alternatives to public schools that sacrifice true learning for the sake of ideology. “Classical” schools, home schooling, and parochial schools — all of which boomed during the COVID lockdowns — are possible options.

Parents who cannot afford private schools or who have special-needs children “must be extra vigilant and expect to receive the full wrath of Leftist activists if they stand up and demand that civics be taught while also standing against the indoctrination their children are receiving.” Specifically, they need to insist on the rights to inspect curricula, to opt out of the teaching of certain subjects, and to insist that controversial issues be discussed impartially. No easy tasks these.

Goeglein concludes:

[W]e must rededicate ourselves to the teaching of history — true, verifiable, factual history, with all its glories and tragedies. We need not fear to teach the ugly truths about America alongside the beautiful ones, because America’s founding vision is pure and her ideals are noble. Our failures do not change that.

Toward a More Perfect Union makes a compelling case that the country’s future, as one nation, demands a reclamation of our educational system and a recovery of the authentic teaching of history and constitutional government rightly understood.

This article has been republished from The American Spectator with permission.

AUTHOR

G. Tracy Mehan III

G. Tracy Mehan, III, was Assistant Administrator for Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Administration of President George W. Bush. He is an adjunct professor at Scalia Law School,… More by G. Tracy Mehan III

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Young Alchemists Make a Patriotic Invitation to All Presidential Candidates

/in , , , , /by

HOUSTON, TX /PRNewswire/ — The Young Alchemists Foundation, a patriotic nonprofit organization for planetary healing, has written a letter to the President and to all presidential candidates inviting them to join their global movement to plant the seed of patriotism in the hearts and minds of our youth. The American children are losing their culture and no one is doing anything to prevent it.

This patriotic campaign has been initiated by the Young Alchemists, a group of extraordinary teenagers that in a fun way will educate, protect, inspire and entertain the youth of America!

young alchemists logoTo the President and all Presidential Candidates
United States of America

Dear Mr. President and Presidential Candidates,

The Young Alchemists Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization for planetary healing-guardians of our youth, protectors of the planet and defenders of World Peace, has initiated a global movement to educate, inspire and entertain the youth of planet earth in a fun way. This movement was born in the United States and it is for this reason the first mission of the Young Alchemists Foundation is to help revive the American spirit and restore the Spirit of God and Patriotism in the hearts of all American children without distinction of race, culture or religious affiliation.

The young Alchemists are here to remind Americans and immigrants from all over the world that they live in this land of freedom.  As parents and citizens of this nation, their duty and responsibility is to teach their children to love and respect God and the ideals, culture and traditions that made the United States of America the greatest nation in the world. The Young Alchemists Foundation has created this patriotic movement because the American children are losing their culture and we must educate and protect them from negative influences determined to win their hearts and persuade them to betray their country, themselves, their families and all humanity.

As president and presidential candidates of the United States of America and role models for the American children, with much love and respect, we ask you to join our cause and become Alchemist Knights and American patriots; support our movement and help the Young Alchemists Foundation to teach our American children respect for their country, its culture and for the American heroes and martyrs that have contributed to make our nation the greatest nation in the world. 

If you agree with our movement, help us to remind the world that the American Spirit is alive in our hearts and in the hearts of our children our future leaders and our only hope for a better world.

Remember, it’s great to help children around the world; however it will be a great disgrace for the future of this nation if we neglect our own.

Sincerely,

Norma Pastor
Founder, Young Alchemists Foundation
WWW.TYAF.CO

The Young Alchemists Foundation
2135 Hill Canyon CT
Sugar Land Texas 77479
Tel: 281 781 4385