A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> college has continued to erase <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Revolutionary War</a>-era figures from campus to be &#8220;more inclusive,&#8221; including a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Virginia Peninsula Community College <a href="https://www.vpcc.edu/news/2023/08/Griffin,%20Wythe%20Halls%20to%20be%20Ranamed%20Kecoughtan%20Hall.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> this week that it would change the names of two halls, one named for Founding Father George Wythe and the other for Dr. Corbin Griffin, who served as a surgeon for Virginia Patriot soldiers.  
“Virginia Peninsula Community College is renaming Griffin and Wythe halls, which are connected and function as one building, to Kecoughtan Hall. The name is a tribute to the Kecoughtan tribe, the early settlers of the land where VPCC’s Hampton campus is located,” VPCC announced on its website.
According to school official Steven Felker, the process of changing over the signs will be “gradual.” The school had formed a naming task force and gathered feedback from faculty, student government, and others on the proposed changes. 
Wythe, who lived from 1726-1806, had a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Wythe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">storied career</a> in Virginia. As a law professor, he taught luminaries like Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, and John Marshall. In the years leading up to America’s war for independence, he served as a delegate to the Virginia House of Burgess, where he openly opposed the Stamp Act. During the war, he was a member of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He later attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and was influential in pioneering the field of constitutional law. 
Like many Founding Fathers, Wythe had a complicated relationship with slavery. Although he owned slaves, he was <a href="https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/explore/nation-builders/george-wythe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> as an early proponent of abolition and worked throughout his life to free them. As a judge in Virginia, he <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=9604" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled in favor</a> of freeing slaves during an internal family dispute over the will of a Quaker landowner. 
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Less is known about Griffin, but historians know that he was a surgeon for Virginia’s revolutionary soldiers and <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=80985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent time</a> on a British prison ship outside Yorktown. He <a href="https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/3770" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was</a> also a Virginia state senator. 
VPCC was previously named Thomas Nelson Community College. Nelson was another Revolutionary War hero and signer of the Declaration of Independence. His name <a href="https://www.vpcc.edu/renaming/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was removed</a> so the college could be more “welcoming, inclusive, and representative of our unique region,” according to school president Towuanna Porter Brannon. 
Nelson <a href="https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/N000044" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was a member</a> of the first Continental Congress in 1776 and 1779, led Virginian forces against the British from 1777 to 1781, and was governor of Virginia.

John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress. The painting can be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill. The original hangs in the

Virginia College Removes Names Of Revolutionary War-Era Figures To Be ‘More Inclusive’

American History

American Revolution

Declaration of Independence

Education

U.S.

Virginia

What, precisely, is it about America you love?
That’s the question this July 4 as just 29% of Democrats say they’re extremely proud of the country, accompanied by just 33% of independents and 60% of Republicans. In fact, Democratic love of country has always fallen far behind that of Republicans, even during the Obama era, when it hit a temporary high of just over 50% (Republicans at the time said they were extremely proud of the country at a rate of approximately 70%).
Why is it that liberals in the United States are so much less proud of America than conservatives? These days, the answer typically given is America’s inherent sinfulness; there is nothing in the American founding worth conserving. On Independence Day, Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) tweeted, “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human. Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.” Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) similarly tweeted, “This July 4th, we must remember that we stand on stolen land toiled by enslaved Africans and recommit ourselves to the fight for freedom, equality, &amp; justice so that these ideals are accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. We are not free until everyone is truly free.”
America, to these types, is a platform for utopianism rather than a set of ideals worthy of emulation. The Declaration of Independence was a lie; the Constitution was merely a guise for power. And the quest for a perfect world must begin in tearing down such institutions with whatever means are at our disposal. The ends justify the means.
Thus, while Democrats fulminate over supposed threats to democracy, a federal judge this week ruled that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in pressuring social media companies to restrict free speech regarding covid and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, among others; the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden White House had violated its constitutional boundaries in waiving student loan debt. Biden’s response: he pledged to utilize the executive branch to work around the Supreme Court’s ruling. 
Respect for the founding means respect for founding principles. Biden and his ilk have used a misinterpretation of one founding principle — “equality” — to vitiate the natural rights for which the founders originally fought. When the founders said that “all men are created equal,” they meant specifically that human beings had been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They did not mean, as Biden suggests, that all human beings ought to be made equal in result, or that indeed, all human beings are equal in all capacities. Biden’s idea is utopian nonsense; the founders’ idea was grounded in millennia of evidence and Judeo-Christian tradition.
Patriots celebrate the founding for what it was: a breakthrough in the nature of human governance, a ringing statement in favor of liberty from the heavy hand of tyranny. Today, too many celebrate the founding only as a platform for future change — change that would annihilate the ideals of the founding along the road to a “higher good.” This, presumably, is why Republicans are far more patriotic than Democrats even while saying that America is in the midst of a moral crisis; meanwhile, Democrats are far less patriotic while suggesting pride in America’s current moral state. Conservatives are disappointed with man’s sinfulness, but proud of the founders’ ideals; many liberals are disappointed with the founders’ ideals, and proud of man’s sinfulness.

Ben Shapiro 3 (1)

Do You Love America?

4th of July

Ben Shapiro

Constitution

Cori Bush

Joe Biden

Readers Pass

Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cori-bush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cori Bush</a> (D-MO) faced backlash on Independence Day for demanding that the U.S. pay reparations to black people.
&#8220;The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human,&#8221; she claimed. &#8220;Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human.
Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now ✊🏾
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1676246695045218305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The response to her tweet was overwhelmingly negative as most of the responses were hostile.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think more than enough white people paid for it with their blood during the Civil War?&#8221; writer Ian Miles Cheong asked.
Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, tweeted: &#8220;You’re gonna need reparations for this ratio.&#8221;
&#8220;Today is a great day to shut the f*** up,&#8221; another account tweeted.
Chris Loesch responded, &#8220;This is rubbish. Cori has no knowledge of what the framers did or didn’t believe evidently or what their efforts were. She should understand why people like Frederick Douglass honored and revered them.&#8221;
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Political strategist Ryan Girdusky tweeted, &#8220;People like Cori Bush could never build anything as great as what she’s trying to destroy.&#8221;
&#8220;Shut up you buffoonette,&#8221; said attorney and columnist Kurt Schlichter.
Political commentator Varad Mehta added: &#8220;Just an absolute pile of rancid filth.&#8221;
&#8220;Of the 56, 11 signers were guilty of enslaving others,&#8221; Libby Emmons, editor-in-chief of The Post Millennial, tweeted. &#8220;Jefferson&#8217;s clause about the need to abolish slavery was removed from the document in order to appease the colonies that backed the practice. Adams, Franklin and 2 others were abolitionists.&#8221;

Democrat Cori Bush Slammed For July 4th Tweet

Congress

Politics

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
While the most famous passage from the Declaration of Independence stands today as a rallying cry for freedom and the bedrock of American commitment to civil liberties, when a committee first drafted it, the symbolism was not so simple.
“At the time they presented a serious challenge to the founders of our nation,” Robert George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, explained. “Could they create a governing structure that would match the high moral standards they had set for themselves?”
Their initial attempt, the Articles of Confederation, was largely unsuccessful: while it did see America through the Revolutionary War, the government was toothless and had no real power over the states – and since significant changes were not possible unless all the states were on board, nothing got done. At the time, many observers at home and abroad believed the entire system would collapse.
The Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to rectify this – its stronger federal government was checked with a separation of powers between the branches of government and between the federal government and the states to balance the need for central authority against the danger that authority might pose to individual rights.
The First Congress would ratify a Bill of Rights soon after the new Constitution was adopted to further enshrine and defend those individual liberties. But the centrality of freedom to the American project posed a fundamental problem to the burgeoning nation.
“How could America espouse freedom, and also permit slavery?” George asked.
Many of the Founding Fathers, including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, were slaveholders who had inherited sizable plantations themselves, although they were keenly aware that slavery was a gross contradiction of the ideals of liberty they had bled for. 
Both men condemned slavery in their own time and made limited efforts to combat it or halt its spread – Jefferson pushed for an end to the international slave trade, and Washington freed all his slaves in his will and set aside financial support for them.
“I tremble for my country when I think that God is just,” Jefferson said, “That his justice cannot sleep forever.”
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While some have condemned the Constitution and other founding American documents as corrupt because of the moral impurity of their authors, George points out that every known civilization in human history up until that point had practiced slavery and that human beings are flawed and limited creatures. The founders did not perfectly condemn slavery, but they instantiated ideals that were fundamentally opposed to it, at great sacrifice and personal risk, and their ideals and example would be used to ultimately bring the practice to an end.
“We do not celebrate these and the other founders for their personal moral failures,” George said. “We celebrate them for their unique moral achievements….To judge these documents [The Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and The Bill of Rights] as corrupt because imperfect men wrote them is, to say the least, foolish.”
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Constitution: A Moral Challenge" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gz7wsz-Q8YM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;

PragerU Constitution

The Constitution: A Moral Challenge

Founding Fathers

Media

PragerU

Slavery

WASHINGTON – The National Archives Museum, home of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, now puts woke ideologies like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/critical-race-theory">Critical Race Theory</a> and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/1619-project">1619 Project</a> alongside the nation&#8217;s founding principles.
The museum made a hard Left turn under the leadership of former Archivist David Ferriero, a 2009 appointee of then-President Obama who also <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/15/from-bureaucrat-hack-to-grand-jury-witch-hunt-the-dojs-trump-raid-smells-like-spygate/">had a hand</a> in the Department of Justice&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-to-unseal-more-documents-related-to-trump-raid-refuses-to-unseal-key-document">ongoing investigation</a> of former President Trump. Ferriero, who called January 6, 2021, “the worst day of [his] life,” as The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/11/archives-retires-jan-6-ferriero-mob/">reported</a>, resigned in April 2022 to ensure that a Democrat selected his replacement.
“It’s important to me, that this administration replace me,” said Ferriero, whose accusations about Trump taking items from the White House <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-archives-official-notified-doj-trump-probe-declined-clinton-emails">reportedly</a> led to the Washington grand jury that approved a search of Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago home. “I’m concerned about what’s going to happen in 2024.&#8221;
Even though he&#8217;s gone, Ferriero&#8217;s mark on the National Archives is obvious to visitors. The official cathedral of our nation’s history, the Archives’ museum on Constitution Avenue, reflects a decidedly negative and partisan slant.
Visitors to the museum first enter the <a href="http://recordsofrights.org/">David M. Rubenstein Gallery</a>, sponsored by a hedge fund magnate who bought the Magna Carta and at whose Nantucket home Joe Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/biden-vacation-democratic-donor-20-million-kiawah-island-estate">stayed</a> last year. Rubenstein formerly chaired the Duke University Board of Trustees, and Ferriero was a vice provost at the school. The exhibit focuses almost entirely on America’s failure to live up to its founding ideals.
“Americans of African descent were barred from exercising the rights guaranteed to all citizens,” says a sign near the front, with additional text explaining that slaves built the White House. Next is a section titled “Reproductive Rights,” which says that Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist founder of abortion provider Planned Parenthood, was a nurse who “dedicated herself to the women’s rights struggle.”
The exhibit highlights topics like the persecution of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, with headers like “Separate &amp; Unequal,” “Denied the Right to Vote,” &#8220;We the (Straight) People,&#8221; and “Murder on Christmas Day.” It paints restrictions on immigration as racist, with signs saying, “Klan women press for quotas” and “No idiots, criminals, or paupers.”
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The gift shop sells the 1619 Project book — which, despite historians’ overwhelming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/historians-shred-nyt-1619-project-claiming-slavery-defines-america">rejection</a> of its premise, claims that colonists fought for independence from Britain to preserve slavery — in not just one, but multiple locations. One bookshelf in the gift store consists of titles like &#8220;Who Was Harvey Milk?&#8221;, &#8220;What Is Juneteenth?&#8221;, &#8220;Who Is Michelle Obama&#8221;, and &#8220;I Am Sonya Sotomayor.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_424799" style="width: 545px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424799" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-424799 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/16-535x576.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-535x576.jpg 535w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-279x300.jpg 279w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-768x827.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16.jpg 1427w" sizes="(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px" />The Daily Wire</div>
An apparent sports section consists of a cookbook from Shaquille O’Neal and books about Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Venus and Serena Williams. The gift shop even has mousepads featuring Ketanji Jackson, the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite the heavy focus on paraphernalia about black Americans who often had little to do with American history, one black man who did was conspicuously absent. When asked whether anything about Clarence Thomas was available, a clerk looked confused.
“We’ve got a kids&#8217; book about the Supreme Court that has Clarence Thomas in it, but we don’t have anything about Clarence Thomas,” she said.
<h1>&#8220;We don’t have anything about Clarence Thomas,” an employee said.</h1>
Critical Race Theory advocate Ibram X. Kendi&#8217;s book, &#8220;Stamped,&#8221; is for sale, as is a book simply titled &#8220;U.S. Presidents,&#8221; whose cover features Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George Washington, but not Donald Trump.
<div id="attachment_424805" style="width: 626px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424805" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-424805" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/7-616x576.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-616x576.jpg 616w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-300x281.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-768x718.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7.jpg 1451w" sizes="(max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px" />The Daily Wire</div>
The <a href="https://www.archivesfoundation.org/board-of-directors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">board</a> of the National Archives Foundation, a nonprofit which raises money for the government entity, is advised by leftist filmmaker <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/features/ken-burns-documentaries-benjamin-franklin-donald-trump-pbs-1235182021/">Ken Burns</a> and identity politics-obsessed former CNN journalist <a href="https://www.matteroffact.tv/watch-soledad-obrien-hosts-to-be-an-american-identity-race-and-justice-3/">Soledad O’Brien</a>. The store is a <a href="https://www.nationalarchivesstore.org/collections/the-kamala-collection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veritable shrine</a> to Kamala Harris, featuring busts, bobbleheads, socks, and purported inspiring quotes from a woman best known for being an embarrassingly bad public speaker.
<div id="attachment_424821" style="width: 561px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424821" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-424821" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/harris.png" alt="" width="551" height="287" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/harris.png 551w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/harris-300x156.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px" />The National Archives Store</div>
On the second floor, museum visitors are treated to what comes across as a plea to abolish the filibuster, with headlines blaring, “The Majority Loses?&#8221; and “When having the most votes isn’t enough.” Only the Rotunda, which houses the nation’s founding documents, remains relatively untouched by partisanship.
The moment visitors exit the museum, they are confronted with a different reality. Directly outside the door, a sidewalk vendor was doing brisk business on a recent day selling paraphernalia mocking President Joe Biden.
“Let’s go Brandon!” an African immigrant shouted approvingly at the vendor as he walked past.
<div id="attachment_424827" style="width: 590px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424827" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-424827 size-full" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/1.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="413" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/1.jpg 580w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/1-300x214.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" />The Daily Wire</div>
&nbsp;

National Archives

National Archives Museum Now A Shrine To Hard Left, Thanks To Bureaucrat Behind FBI’s Trump Raid

The National Archives Has Gone Woke, Peddling The 1619 Project And Ibram Kendi In The Constitution's Shrine

1619 Project

Donald Trump

Ibram X. Kendi

Post-liberalism has suddenly become all the rage these days, a cause célèbre in a burgeoning number of conservative journalistic circles. Conservatives should be exceedingly careful of giving a fatal sanction to damning critiques of The Enlightenment and classical liberalism. Here’s why.
When did it become fashionable for conservatives to bash the European Enlightenment? 
Or, to phrase the question another way, when did conservatives start celebrating intellectual eviscerations of the philosophical tradition undergirding the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the “Gettysburg Address”, and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”?
Of course, American universities have long promulgated a steady potpourri of Anti-Enlightenment Leftist sentiment since the 1960s, disseminating a bevy of illiberal and postmodern notions—sometimes Marxist bromides about “false consciousness,” sometimes banal citations of Foucault about “power/knowledge” or how reality is a “social construct” that desperately needs to be “deconstructed” for reasons that seem to change every few years.
However, Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Hume, Voltaire, and Baron de Montesquieu, to cite a few, are our philosophers. Their origins might be English, Scottish, or French, but many of their ideas are imbedded in the foundational documents of this nation. Jefferson thought Locke was one of the greatest men to have ever lived. Madison harnessed the ideas of Smith in the most famous of The Federalist Papers’ eighty-five essays, The Federalist No. 10. Montesquieu was quoted more than any other philosopher during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Hamilton was powerfully influenced by Hume’s reflections on commercial republicanism. 
“Inalienable rights,” “separation of powers,” the First Amendment freedoms, and a robust commitment to free enterprise and private property rights are all inextricably tied to what is unique and, yes, exceptional about the American Experiment. This bundle of practices and beliefs are typically associated with what is known as classical liberalism. 
Our Founding Fathers were classical liberals. When they wanted to hurl insults at one another, they would paint someone as an illiberal “monarchist” (Adams and Hamilton) or “anarchist” (Jefferson and Paine). Webster, Calhoun, and Clay were classical liberals. Abraham Lincoln was a classical liberal who labeled the Declaration of Independence “the apple of gold” and the Constitution a “picture of silver.” TR, FDR, LBJ, and Ronald Reagan were classical liberals—maybe not iterations modern Republicans would necessarily embrace, but still ardent believers in the classical liberal tradition underlying the American creed itself.
The formation of America, among other things, was a philosophical experiment in democratic self-government—an attempt to organize society from the bottom up, centering the locus of power not on the divine right of monarchs or the ecclesiastic diktats of established churches, but on the backs of ordinary human beings in possession of “natural” or “inalienable” rights who were rational and capable of exercising moral agency.
Until quite recently, American conservatives were almost universally committed to conserving the principles of the American founding—what Lincoln describes in his First Inaugural Address as “the mystic chords of memory.” Progressive college students might obnoxiously wear Che Guevara t-shirts on campus, but conservatives wax poetic when talking about Washington crossing the Delaware or reading the lyrical words of Jefferson in the apotheosis of classical liberal philosophy, the Declaration of Independence. Americans pulse with shame and pang with regret when reading Frederick Douglass’s, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July,” because we cannot deny the chasm between our liberal ideals and the presence of human bondage in our national history.
This tradition now seems suspicious to some. Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute,<a href="https://mises.org/wire/new-postliberalism"> succinctly describes this phenomenon</a>: “Postliberalism is having its moment on the political Right in America.”
Let’s hope the moment is brief. 
The argument of the post-liberals is now familiar.
A regime that champions individual liberty as its paramount virtue will eventually alienate itself from religious traditions, family connections, or any hint of community obligation. Liberalism, with its heavy emphasis on individual autonomy and sovereignty of the self, has encouraged its adherents to aggressively nurture every craving under the banner of choice and identity. The results have been a disaster. Civil society has become morally bankrupt, endlessly sexualized, and politically nihilistic while gorging on electronic titillation without end, effectively ruining our brains and corrupting our souls in the process.
A broader and more damning critique is that liberalism is an ideology without a meaningful telos or guiding purpose and is, thus, inherently chaotic. There is no aspirational truth, no grand project, no transcendent meaning. Liberalism is a political project that intensely relegates meaning to the personal realm. Fulfillment is not reached through politics or other locales of the public square. We are not collectively serving a divine monarch or supporting the ecclesiastic writ of an established church.
Thus, liberalism is built on the lower but firmer ground of universal rationalism and rights-based individualism.
I am actually quite sympathetic to these critiques; in fact, I wrote an entire <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hollowed-Out-Warning-Americas-Generation/dp/1684513804/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZJJP007J97JN&amp;keywords=hollowed+out+adams+paperback&amp;qid=1654164206&amp;s=audible&amp;sprefix=hollowed+out+adams+paperback%2Caudible%2C182&amp;sr=1-1">book</a> chronicling how a cult of radicalized individualism has ensnared the souls of young people, hollowing them out by imperiling the quest for deeper meaning and purpose as young Americans today find themselves increasingly alienated from faith, patriotism, marriage, family, and friendship.
But John Locke isn’t our enemy. As Hoover Institute senior fellow Peter Berkowitz has <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/redefining-conservatism-to-remake-america/">noted</a>, “Lockean ideas are inextricably woven into the fabric of America’s national political culture.”  
Citizens in a liberal society don’t need to fight religious crusades or take part in utopian political projects to find some measure of happiness and fulfillment. We might be “men without chests,” satisfied with simple pleasures and localized ambitions, but this is actually a good and desirable outcome. We might just want to play tennis two nights a week. We might just want to read romance novels and save for a time share on the coast. We might want to move to Tennessee and lose thirty pounds by hiking on mountain trails. 
Many of the scholars who write these books and critiques are men and women of great genius and soaring erudition. Their books and articles are read by the high priests of modern American political culture. Their words echo. Their voices were magnified and given the sanction of prestige by famous<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/21/rediscovering-conservatism/"> right-leaning newspapers</a> and magazines. Their scholarship is impeccable, and their credentials are second-to-none.  
And yet, there is something this high school teacher knows that they don’t: If post-liberalism becomes the orthodoxy on the American Right, this nation is in real trouble. Who will be left to teach and defend the guiding principles of the American republic? Who will tell the story of why the nation is worth defending and renewing for another generation?
What will it mean to be an American if we don’t believe in the “Laws of Nature?” What if we don’t believe in “inalienable rights” and “equal protection of the laws?” What if the universal chalice from which all Americans drink—“that all men are created are created equal”—runs dry and Martin Luther King’s “Dream” is deemed hopelessly naive? This is what is ultimately at stake. 
We live in a time Edmund Burke feared most, when tradition is airily abandoned and liberty descends into licentiousness. If cars are crashing too often in our society, the solution is to teach people how to become better drivers, not to decry the development of the car, itself. Classical liberalism isn’t perfect, and it is certainly vulnerable to excess.
However, as Winston Churchill <a href="https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/">famously remarked</a> about democracy, ‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
Jeremy S. Adams is the author of the recently-released Amazon best-selling book Hollowed Out: A Warning About America&#8217;s Next Generation. He has taught American civics for 24 years in Bakersfield, California and was the 2014 California Teacher of the Year (DAR). You can follow him on Twitter @JeremyAdams6.
The opinions expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Adams – When Did John Locke Become The Enemy_

When Did John Locke Become The Enemy? 

When did it become fashionable for conservatives to bash the European Enlightenment?

Conservatives

Liberalism

Thomas Jefferson

Last week, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas arrived at the University of Notre Dame to speak about the Declaration of Independence.
Speaking invitations like this that Thomas accepts are few and far between.
Anyone who cares about our country and listens to this address will wish that he would agree to speak more.
His presentation was a brilliant and profound articulation of what America is about at its core.
It is what every American needs to hear in these troublesome and divisive times.
Thomas tells his own story and how his life&#8217;s journey led him to understand what America is about.
He grew up poor near Savannah, Georgia, raised by his grandparents, under the tutelage of his grandfather, a devout Catholic and American patriot.
Thomas&#8217; grandfather understood that the injustices of the country were not about flaws in the country but about flaws in human beings in living up to ideals handed down to them. What needed to be fixed were the people — not the nation.
This insight strikes at the heart of the divisions going on today that are so bitterly dividing us.
But Thomas left his grandfather&#8217;s house and went to college in the midst of the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and Thomas became filled with bitterness and the sense that America is an irredeemably flawed, racist nation, which is so much in the spirit of the times today.
In his own words, &#8220;What had given my life meaning and sense of belonging, that this country was my home, was jettisoned as old-fashioned and antiquated. &#8230; It was easy and convenient to fill that void with victimhood. &#8230; So much of my time focused intently on our racial differences and grievances, much like today.&#8221;
&#8220;As I matured,&#8221; Thomas continued, &#8220;I began to see that the theories of my young adulthood were destructive and self-defeating&#8230;..I had rejected my country, my birthright as a citizen, and I had nothing to show for it.&#8221;
&#8220;The wholesomeness of my childhood had been replaced with an emptiness, cynicism, and despair. I was faced with the simple fact that there was no greater truth than what my Nuns and grandparents had taught me. We are all children of God and rightful heirs to our nation&#8217;s legacy of equality. We had to live up to the obligations of the equal citizenship to which we were entitled by birth.&#8221;
As he continued work in the federal government, Thomas became &#8220;deeply interested in the Declaration of Independence.&#8221;
&#8220;The Declaration captured what I had been taught to venerate as a child but had cynically rejected as a young man. All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.&#8221;
&#8220;As I had rediscovered the God-given principles of the Declaration and our founding, I eventually returned to the church, which had been teaching the same truths for millennia.&#8221;
Despite the strident voices dividing us today, Thomas observes &#8220;there are many more of us, I think, who feel America is not so broken, as it is adrift at sea.&#8221;
&#8220;For whatever it is worth, the Declaration of Independence has weathered every storm for 245 years. It birthed a great nation. It abolished the sin of slavery. &#8230; While we have failed the ideals of the Declaration time and again, I know of no time when the ideals have failed us.&#8221;
The Declaration of Independence &#8220;establishes a moral ideal that we as citizens are duty-bound to uphold and sustain. We may fall short, but our imperfection does not relieve us of our obligation.&#8221;
Thomas&#8217; message about the Declaration may be summarized: There are eternal truths; they are true for all of humanity; and it is the personal responsibility of each individual to live up to them.
Thomas&#8217; detractors are those who reject these premises. This defines the culture war that so deeply and dangerously divides America today.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show &#8220;Cure America with Star Parker.&#8221; To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Clarence Thomas

PARKER: Clarence Thomas And The Declaration Of Independence

Digital copies of America&#8217;s founding documents &#8212; as well as other historical documents in the National Archives&#8217; online catalog &#8212; now feature &#8220;trigger warnings&#8221; alerting readers that they may contain &#8220;harmful language,&#8221; and the change appears to follow the release of a &#8220;little-noticed&#8221; report from a National Archives racism task force that suggested the agency provide &#8220;context&#8221; for its historical materials.
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1419123">Digital copies of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence</a>, most notably, now feature a &#8220;Harmful Language Alert,&#8221; which appears at the top of the page, and directs users to a National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) statement on &#8220;potentially harmful content.&#8221;
The NARA does not specify why the Constitution, Declaration, or Bill of Rights received the warning, but the NARA statement indicates that documents and historical materials are marked as having &#8220;harmful language&#8221; when they:
<ul>
<li>
<blockquote>reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes;</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more;</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more;</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<blockquote>demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
Trigger warnings are listed as just one of a number of solutions to the problem of providing historical documents to an increasingly &#8220;diverse community,&#8221; the NARA notes, and are part of an &#8220;institutional commitment&#8221; to &#8220;diversity, equity, and inclusion.&#8221;
&#8220;The Catalog and web pages contain some content that may be harmful or difficult to view,&#8221; NARA said in a statement released at the end of July. &#8220;NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.&#8221;
When a commentator on social media suggested that it was outrageous that America&#8217;s founding documents would require a trigger warning, the National Archives was quick to respond by noting that the alert is &#8220;not connected to any specific record, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog.&#8221;
Indeed, the warning appears at the top of other documents, including the &#8220;miscellaneous&#8221; papers of the Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation, and an institutional <a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10534787">description of the Continental Congress</a>.
A search of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210318002401/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1419123">archived images of the Declaration of Independence&#8217;s digital page</a> shows that the warning was not present earlier this year.
Although the NARA does not give a specific rationale for the change in approach to historical documents, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-archives-task-force-says-americas-founding-documents-show-systemic-racism-suggests-trigger-warnings-dance-performances">The Daily Wire reported earlier this summer,</a> a &#8220;little-noticed&#8221; report from a National Archives task force on racism suggested major changes to the Archives, including changes to its landmark rotunda.
<blockquote>In an exclusive report out Sunday, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-archives-rotunda-structural-racism">Fox News noted that a “little noticed</a>” report from a National Archives task force on racism suggested the building, where America’s founding documents are displayed, was an example of “structural racism” and suggested major changes to how the Constitution and other notable records are presented in order to provide “context.”
The group also reportedly suggested that the National Archive’s portrayal of individual founding fathers was too positive.</blockquote>
The report suggested that documents displayed in the rotunda &#8212; the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights &#8212; be marked with “trigger warnings” for individuals who might suffer “physiological and psychological symptoms” as a result of coming into contact with the information.
<blockquote>&#8220;Providing an advisory notice to users gives us an opportunity to mitigate harm and contextualize the records..It creates a space to share with the public our ultimate goals for reparative description, demonstrate our commitment to the process, and address any barriers that we may face in achieving these goals (i.e., the size and scope of the Catalog and the ever-evolving knowledge we gain regarding what is harmful).&#8221;</blockquote>
The task force also said that the National Archives should &#8220;engage in activities that could provide &#8216;context&#8217; to the rotunda and documents through &#8216;dance or performance art in the space that invites [a] dialogue about the ways that the United States has mythologized the founding era.’”

Massachusetts Historical Society Librarian Peter Drummey: A Day’s Work

Constitution, Declaration Of Independence Now Have ‘Trigger Warnings’ On National Archives Site

Racism

Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Cori Bush (D-MO) spent the Fourth of July complaining about the United States and the Declaration of Independence.
&#8220;July 4th&#8230; &amp; so, the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. Equal to what? What men? Only white men? Isn&#8217;t it something that they wrote this in 1776 when African Americans were enslaved? They weren&#8217;t thinking about us then, but we&#8217;re thinking about us now!&#8221; Waters tweeted.
&#8216;Further, the Dec. of Ind. says we hold these truths to be &#8220;self-evident&#8221;&#8230; yet: &#8211; 17 states have enacted voter suppression laws &#8211; Supreme Court gutted Sec. 5 of the Voting Rights Act &#8211; George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice Need I say more? #July4&#8243; she added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Further, the Dec. of Ind. says we hold these truths to be &quot;self-evident&quot;&#8230; yet: &#8211; 17 states have enacted voter suppression laws &#8211; Supreme Court gutted Sec. 5 of the Voting Rights Act &#8211; George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice
Need I say more? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/July4?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#July4</a>
&mdash; Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMaxineWaters/status/1411693932275187714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people,&#8221; Bush tweeted. &#8220;This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people.
This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1411713466608635909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Waters and Bush echoed National Public Radio (NPR), who also condemned the nation&#8217;s founding document on Independence Day for the language the Founding Fathers used to describe American Indians. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-trashes-declaration-of-independence-on-fourth-of-july-adds-editors-note-to-warn-of-racist-slur" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>National Public Radio (NPR) denounced the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July because of terms it deemed offensive.
“245 years ago today, leaders representing 13 British colonies signed a document to declare independence,” NPR tweeted, linking to an article about its annual reading of the founding document. “It says ‘that all men are created equal’ — but women, enslaved people, Indigenous people and many others were not held as equal at the time.”
“The document also includes a racist slur against Indigenous Americans. Author David Treuer, who is Ojibwe, says there is a lot of diversity of opinion and thought among Native Americans — a community of more than 5 million people — about the document’s words,” NPR continued, adding a quote from Treuer: “We remain committed to forcing this country to live up to its own stated ideals.”</blockquote>
NPR continued to tweet the entire text of the Declaration, but also inserted an &#8220;editor’s note&#8221; to warn readers that the Founding Fathers used a “racist slur” when they accused King George III of endeavoring “to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
The Declaration of Independence and the nation’s other founding documents were recently found to demonstrate “structural racism,” according to a task force on racism at the National Archives, where the original documents are housed in Washington, D.C.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-archives-task-force-says-americas-founding-documents-show-systemic-racism-suggests-trigger-warnings-dance-performances" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>In an exclusive report out Sunday, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-archives-rotunda-structural-racism">Fox News noted that a “little noticed</a>” report from a National Archives task force on racism suggested the building, where America’s founding documents are displayed, was an example of “structural racism” and suggested major changes to how the Constitution and other notable records are presented in order to provide “context.”
The group also reportedly suggested that the National Archive’s portrayal of individual founding fathers was too positive.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/npr-trashes-declaration-of-independence-on-fourth-of-july-adds-editors-note-to-warn-of-racist-slur" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NPR Trashes Declaration Of Independence On Fourth Of July, Adds ‘Editor’s Note’ To Warn Of ‘Racist Slur’</a>

Reps. Maxine Waters and Cori Bush

‘Stolen Land’: Reps. Maxine Waters, Cori Bush Complain About America, Declaration Of Independence On Fourth Of July

Fourth of July

Maxine Waters

National Public Radio (NPR) denounced the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July because of terms it deemed offensive.
&#8220;245 years ago today, leaders representing 13 British colonies signed a document to declare independence,&#8221; NPR tweeted, linking to an article about its annual reading of the founding document. &#8220;It says &#8216;that all men are created equal&#8217; — but women, enslaved people, Indigenous people and many others were not held as equal at the time.&#8221;
&#8220;The document also includes a racist slur against Indigenous Americans. Author David Treuer, who is Ojibwe, says there is a lot of diversity of opinion and thought among Native Americans — a community of more than 5 million people — about the document’s words,&#8221; NPR continued, adding a quote from Treuer: &#8220;We remain committed to forcing this country to live up to its own stated ideals.&#8221;
Trueur, NPR explained, focuses &#8220;on the the role of Indigenous Americans and the push for equality and equity.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The document also includes a racist slur against Indigenous Americans.
Author David Treuer, who is Ojibwe, says there is a lot of diversity of opinion and thought among Native Americans — a community of more than 5 million people — about the document’s words. <a href="https://t.co/K64UXhMKDA">pic.twitter.com/K64UXhMKDA</a>
&mdash; NPR (@NPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1411702312830128131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;In this thread of the Declaration of Independence, you can see a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies. It also laid the foundation for this country’s collective aspirations — the hopes for what America could be,&#8221; NPR went on.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In this thread of the Declaration of Independence, you can see a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies. 
It also laid the foundation for this country’s collective aspirations — the hopes for what America could be. <a href="https://t.co/znLSGKWLaj">pic.twitter.com/znLSGKWLaj</a>
&mdash; NPR (@NPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1411702317011943435?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
NPR continued to tweet the entire text of the Declaration, but felt the need to insert an editor&#8217;s note to warn readers that the Founding Fathers used a &#8220;racist slur&#8221; when they accused King George III of endeavoring &#8220;to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
(Editor’s note: Contains a racist slur against Indigenous people)
and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
&mdash; NPR (@NPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1411706686163898370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Declaration of Independence and the nation&#8217;s other founding documents were recently found to demonstrate &#8220;structural racism,&#8221; according to a task force on racism at the National Archives, where the original documents are housed in Washington, D.C.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-archives-task-force-says-americas-founding-documents-show-systemic-racism-suggests-trigger-warnings-dance-performances" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>:
<blockquote>In an exclusive report out Sunday, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-archives-rotunda-structural-racism">Fox News noted that a “little noticed</a>” report from a National Archives task force on racism suggested the building, where America’s founding documents are displayed, was an example of “structural racism” and suggested major changes to how the Constitution and other notable records are presented in order to provide “context.”
The group also reportedly suggested that the National Archive’s portrayal of individual founding fathers was too positive.
The group, Fox News said Sunday, “claimed in a little-noticed report to the U.S.’s top librarian that the Archives’ own Rotunda – which houses the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights – is an example of ‘structural racism’ and that the Founding Fathers and other White, historically impactful Americans are portrayed too positively.”
The task force, which completed its work in April, noted that “structural racism” included “legacy descriptions that use racial slurs and harmful language to describe BIPOC communities,” like racial slurs but also terms like “elderly,” “handicapped” and “illegal alien.”
The National Archives rotunda fell under serious scrutiny because its frescoes and displays laud the achievements of “wealthy White men in the nation’s founding while marginalizing BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and other People of Color], women, and other communities.”
[&#8230;]
As for the documents and displays, the committee suggested “trigger warnings” for individuals who might suffer “physiological and psychological symptoms” as a result of coming into contact with the information and artwork in the rotunda.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-archives-task-force-says-americas-founding-documents-show-systemic-racism-suggests-trigger-warnings-dance-performances" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Archives Task Force Says America’s Founding Documents Show ‘Systemic Racism,’ Suggests Trigger Warnings, Dance Performances</a>

John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.

NPR Trashes Declaration Of Independence On Fourth Of July, Adds ‘Editor’s Note’ To Warn Of ‘Racist Slur’

National Public Radio (NPR)

Tomorrow morning, conservatives will be waking up to the first full day of Joe Biden’s presidency. After four long years of turbulent and partisan ideological warfare, we find ourselves on the losing side.
It doesn’t feel good. After all, nobody enjoys losing, and certainly not when the stakes are so immeasurably high. Not only did we lose, we lost to Joe Biden — a geriatric career politician whose one defining success is a crime bill he abandoned in order to pander to the radical left — and Kamala Harris — a disingenuous power-hungry liar who is demonstrative of everything wrong with our identity politics obsessed culture.
In addition to the sour taste of defeat left in our mouths, we must also grapple with the fact that many of President Trump&#8217;s accomplishments will soon be eradicated by the incoming wave of Democrats. Under Trump’s foreign policy, for example, we came agonizingly close to peace in the Middle East. Prior to COVID-19, the American economy was a barnstorming powerhouse. With Trump at the helm, the veil of objectivity has been irreversibly ripped from the grinning faces of the legacy media. With Biden ushering in hoards of Obama officials, each scrambling for roles in his administration, how long will such unprecedented changes last?
It is natural that — out of understandable frustration — conservatives will be looking for an explanation as to why Trump is not beginning his second term. Some will blame the legacy media. Some will blame election fraud. Some will blame the Democrats. Some will blame the American electorate. To some degree, each of these are valid. Some, of course, will blame Trump. Again, to some degree, such criticism is valid.
Regardless of why Trump lost, rather than spending four years complaining, conservatives must focus on the bigger picture. 
To quote Hank Williams Jr., “America can survive, America is going to survive.” In this case, these are wise words. After all, America has faced far greater challenges before.
With that in mind, despite the worries of what may come, I remain hopeful, determined, and grounded in our mission.
I remain hopeful because I know that the fundamental foundation of the United States of America cannot be broken or erased. The incomparable words of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are a recognition of a reality which cannot be changed by a gaggle of whining progressives: a reality given to us by God, not government,
I remain determined because I know that these fundamental principles are objectively superior ideals, promoting a form of freedom unimaginable across all of human history and — in its purest and true form — blind to irrelevant and shallow characteristics like race, gender, or sexual orientation.
Finally, I remain grounded because I know that such principles — while given to us by God — are far from guaranteed in our flawed human environment. They are principles which must be protected, vocally defended on a daily basis in the arena of ideas. There are those who seek to replace the ideology which provided the foundation for the greatest civilization in the history of humanity in favor of an implausible utopia which will result in nothing other than misery. For that reason alone, it is imperative that we use our voices to speak the truth in defense of American principles, which are now entirely conservative principles.
America will survive, but only if we work to protect it. Today, we can mourn our loss. Tomorrow, the work begins.
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth">@ighaworth</a>.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Trump flag

America Will Survive

Bill of Rights

Conservatism

On Tuesday, the Falls Church school board in Virginia voted unanimously to change the names of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School and George Mason High School, achieving one of the great feats of bureaucratic cowardice by knocking out the father of the Bill of Rights and the author of the Declaration of Independence all at once. 
School Board Chair Greg Anderson, in <a href="https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2020/12/falls-church-school-board-votes-unanimously-to-change-names-of-2-schools/">announcing</a> the change, said, “The Board took seriously the viewpoints and concerns raised by many students, parents, staff, and community members. We thank everyone who shared their perspectives with us and will be mindful of your comments as we now begin selecting names that reflect the diversity of opinions in our community. Our schools must be places where all students, staff, and community members feel safe, supported, and inspired.”
Contrary to Mr. Anderson’s blatherings, the viewpoints of anyone who claims to feel “unsafe” because an elementary school is named after Thomas Jefferson should not be taken seriously. A person who raises such concerns should be summarily dismissed as insincere, stupid, mentally ill, or some combination of the above. Their opinions on the issue are not important, their feelings do not matter, and their desire to dethrone our greatest national heroes should not be treated with even a modicum of respect.
But that is how it should be, and we know that how it should be and how it is are two different things, especially these days.
A report from the local Falls Church News Press says that the board was making the move out of respect for the “strongly-felt sentiments of students, teachers and citizens.” Although it is also noted that a majority of that group actually did not want to change the names. The board members ultimately caved to the demands of the unreasonable minority. As it often goes. 
It takes a special sort of coward to make this sort of decision under these circumstances, and footage from a school board “work session” in June, when they first began talking about this issue, shows that board is indeed occupied by those sorts of coward. The members <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYWDrFmUKQw&amp;feature=emb_logo">can be seen</a> babbling semi-coherently about “equity” and “inclusion,” none of them seeming too terribly excited about the name change, but none possessing the minimal courage required to speak up decisively against it.
This is how bureaucracies, from the local school board all the way up to the federal government, often wind up making mind-numbingly terrible decisions. Not everyone involved has to be a radical ideologue. There are usually only a few. The rest just have to be so spineless that you wonder how they manage to sit up straight in their chairs.
All of the wimpish waffling and platitude-spewing eventually gave way to a decision — the wrong one, as expected. One of the school board members, Philip Reitinger, in <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1336685289922768897?s=20">explaining</a> his vote during the meeting on Tuesday night, inadvertently provided a master class in Orwellian rationalization. Reading prepared remarks, Reitinger said that he’d decided to vote for changing the name partly because Donald Trump “put kids in cages.” It’s not clear why Thomas Jefferson should be blamed for the immigrant detention policies instituted by Obama, or even why Donald Trump should be blamed for them. All Reitinger could say was that Trump’s alleged bigotry had led him to conclude that the board had to “do more for diversity.” He also implied that having a school named after Jefferson and Mason “makes a statement” that people are not created equal. Finally, he claimed that the best way to “live up to” the words of Thomas Jefferson is to “no longer have a school named after him.”
The cowardly coup de grâce came later that night when the school formally known as Thomas Jefferson Elementary (perhaps we can take the Washington Football Team approach and rename the school simply The Elementary School) tweeted out the news of the name change, and then deleted it as soon as people started criticizing it. The schools have made their decision, and now they’ll hide under their beds until the mean people stop yelling at them about it.
As it happens, the board members are able to hide under their beds, or in their beds, because schools in the Falls Church system have been shut down since spring of last year. They recently voted to extend the “remote learning” farce until 2021. So, while students remain abandoned, in limbo, having not received a real education in nine months, the board has spent its time conducting a moral assessment of a Founding Father who died 200 years ago. 
Needless to say, their moral assessment was wrong. Yes, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. So did George Mason. These were flawed men, but their flaws were nearly ubiquitous in their time. Not everyone owned slaves, of course, but I doubt whether any single person on Earth in the year 1776, or any year before it, or even in the century after it, could have passed as racially enlightened by our standards today. Most of the world still cannot pass that test. In Jefferson’s time, his perspective was about as enlightened as it got, and that’s how he and George Mason and their compatriots managed to lay the groundwork for what would soon become the greatest — not to mention most diverse and racially tolerant — country on Earth.
We honor the Founding Fathers for that great achievement. We don’t honor them because they were perfect. We honor them because we are Americans, this is America, and they are the men who built it. That should be reason enough.
If it is not reason enough, then no historical figure is safe. Great people often committed great sins. Martin Luther King Jr. was allegedly a serial philanderer who watched and, <a href="https://www.insider.com/mlk-jr-rape-allegations-fbi-2019-5">according to FBI docs</a>, laughed as a woman was raped. If we cannot put Thomas Jefferson’s bad choices into context, then why should we lend that grace to MLK? If we are looking for a perfect hero among mere mortal men anywhere on Earth, anywhere in history, we will not find him. Even if we are searching simply for someone who would not be called “racist” and “bigoted” by people today, we still will not find him. Either we can choose to see historical figures in the context of their time, judge them accordingly, and celebrate them for the great things they achieved while choosing not to emulate whatever evil they committed, or we can systematically go back through time and condemn every person who ever lived, and all of our ancestors who established, fought for, and passed down to us, every good thing we have in our lives. The Left has chosen its path. And its one that leads nowhere but to insanity. 
More from Matt Walsh: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walsh-school-district-reportedly-gives-white-privilege-training-to-teachers-this-is-anti-white-racism">School District Reportedly Gives White Privilege Training To Teachers. This Is Anti-White Racism.</a>
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

WALSH: School Board Votes To Take Thomas Jefferson’s Name Off Of School, Gives Truly Insane Reasons To Justify It

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