Just as The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh predicted, January 6, 2022, has been one of the most insufferable days in American history, but it is unlikely that Walsh or anybody else thought that show tunes in the name of “equity” would ring out from the nation’s capital on Thursday. For some reason, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) thought it was necessary to have Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda and several of his castmates from the hit show “Hamilton” perform a song via Zoom. As Pelosi put it, artists could just “connect in ways” better than anybody else could and she was thrilled to have them for the somber occasion. The virtual sing-a-long came right before a conversation on how to “preserve the narrative of January 6th.” Manuel’s performance did not really touch upon January 6, but with it came a bit of revisionist history.
“To begin the conversation, we’re privileged to have a contribution from one of the great creative talents of our time — Lin-Manuel Miranda,” Pelosi stated. “May his beautiful words be an inspiration to us. Among the words he said, and the music, ‘We’ll make it right for you. If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you and we’ll give the world to you.’ Lin-Manuel, and his father, and the Hamilton singers who we’ll hear from said they were all honored to participate today.”
It is unclear how such banal language was inspiring. Nonetheless, Miranda brought forth a message that actually altered America’s founding ideals along with an irritating song.
“A new year brings hope for the future and energy to face the tasks ahead of us and a renewed promise to strengthen the foundations of our democracy,” Manuel said in a pre-recorded video. “We are all stewards of the American experiment working to pass down to our children and grandchildren a more perfect union that treats all its citizens with fairness and equity.”
Of course, the United States of America was not founded upon “fairness and equity” rather it was built on the ideal of equality and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Manuel’s belief that our foundation is something other than that indicates the Left’s attempt to shift America towards a country that is not in line with our history.
The difference between and “equity” and “equality” — while sounding similar — makes all the difference in the world.
Here’s how the volunteer group United Way explains that difference between the two, as they also believe equity is the virtue America should aspire to:
Equity recognizes each person has different circumstances and needs, and therefore different groups of people need different resources and opportunities allocated to them in order to thrive.
Equality is giving everyone the exact same resources across the board, regardless of individuals’ or groups of people’s actual needs or opportunities/resources already provided to them.
The United Way even argues that “there is not a one-size-fits-all solution (equality) to the problems we see in the world, but there’s a right-size solution for each individual’s needs (equity).”
In other words, it is no longer enough that everybody is equal under the law or endowed with inalienable rights in America — there must be a concerted effort to redistribute wealth, alter standards, and punish the successful so that everybody can have an equal outcome.
That minor word change reveals the belief of the Democratic party and their allies like Manuel that certain Americans cannot be successful no matter how hard they try because privilege and systemic discrimination hold them back.
The Left now believes it is the government’s job to pass on a world of “fairness and equity” to the next generation so that we can alleviate suffering. This is code for new discrimination against white people, socialist policies, and changing the definition of achievement in academia and elsewhere.
This entire movement goes firmly against what most Americans, even the Democratic Party, has held as the American Dream until fairly recently. Even President Barack Obama used to disagree with that message of equity.
During Obama’s 2012 victory speech, the former president said, “I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or who you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.”
Obama’s speech is in direct opposition to what the Democratic Party believes currently. Manuel’s performance at the capital is simply more evidence that the Left is bastardizing our heritage not only with new terms but with entirely new ideas and presenting them as if they have been commonplace since 1776.
After the performance, Pelosi seemed starstruck, stating, “Somehow the arts have a way of saying things in a way that connects that we cannot do in any other way. And that’s why I thought it was really important to have the arts lead us in this discussion and the further discussion with some of the most outstanding artists, writers of our time.”
Indeed, with charm and musical talent, Miranda shielded the Democrats’ goal of embedding equity — not equality — in American society in a way that Pelosi and her gang never could have dreamed of doing.
A portion Pelosi’s and Miranda’s remarks can be seen here:
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.