The virtue of America’s heroes
Trump’s disgusting bilge about the need to force children to be fanatically PatriOtic and believe that everything we’ve ever done as a country has been perfect and heroicalistic:
Our mission is to defend the legacy of America’s founding, the virtue of America’s heroes, and the nobility of the American character. We must clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and classrooms, and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country. We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world. (Applause.)
We’re not. There is much that’s interesting about our history, and even much that’s impressive. The Bill of Rights has been an inspiration and a model for many countries shaking off tyrannical rulers or ruthless colonialists or both at once. But that doesn’t mean we’re perfect, to put it mildly, and yes the bad stuff does have to be taught. Slavery was real; the repeal of Reconstruction was real; a century of Jim Crow was real. Yes, citizens do need to understand that, because the consequences are all around us. Trump’s mindless Wee Da Best is worthy of a childish clown like him and no one else.
To grow up in America is to live in a land where anything is possible, where anyone can rise, and where any dream can come true — all because of the immortal principles our nation’s founders inscribed nearly two and a half centuries ago.
Bullshit.
On this very day in 1787, our Founding Fathers signed the Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was the fulfillment of a thousand years of Western civilization. Our Constitution was the product of centuries of tradition, wisdom, and experience.
It would be interesting if someone asked him to expand on that point. He wouldn’t have the faintest idea. He doesn’t know what tradition, what kind of wisdom, experience of what – he knows literally nothing about it.
Yet, as we gather this afternoon, a radical movement is attempting to demolish this treasured and precious inheritance. We can’t let that happen. (Applause.) Left-wing mobs have torn down statues of our founders, desecrated our memorials, and carried out a campaign of violence and anarchy.
Founders? Not so much. Confederate generals? They’re not our “founders.” Slaveholders and slave traders? Why shouldn’t statues of them be taken down? They were put up to intimidate that class of people who had been enslaved, so why shouldn’t they be moved to museums instead of sitting in the middle of town?
The radicals burning American flags want to burn down the principles enshrined in our founding documents, including the bedrock principle of equal justice under law. In order to radically transform America, they must first cause Americans to lose confidence in who we are, where we came from, and what we believe. As I said at Mount Rushmore — which they would love to rip down and it rip it down fast, and that’s never going to happen — two months ago, the left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.
Comical to see so clearly where he interjected his own genius, isn’t it.
Critical race theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together. It will destroy our country. That is why I recently banned trainings in this prejudiced ideology from the federal government and banned it in the strongest manner possible.
How do you ban something in a particularly strong manner? Ban is ban. Does he mean he shouted at everyone while he signed the paper? Pounded the desk? Grabbed everyone by the crotch?
Under our leadership, the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant to support the development of a pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history.
That’s unfortunate.
Today, I am also pleased to announce that I will soon sign an Executive Order establishing a national commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the “1776 Commission.” (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. It will encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding. Think of that — 250 years.
What about it? Too short? Too long? Half of 500? What’s his point?
Recently, I also signed an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans who have ever lived.
Somebody should tell him about the National Portrait Gallery.
I’m a bit confused. I thought the US didn’t have a national curriculum? Isn’t that why people have had to fight to get evolution taught in every damn state and why nutters started running around like the sky was falling in over Common Core?
No you’re not confused, you’re right, it doesn’t. Trump doesn’t actually have any power to do this.
Well, correcting myself, he has the power to do what he said he’s going to do – “promote patriotic education.” Basically he’s just flapping his jaws – but the content is disgusting and infuriating, so I’m incapable of ignoring it.
We can tell the tell the ‘nobility’ of America’s character by looking at who was elected president – and we see a shameful, festering pig.
Ah yes, our great history, a history of losing/barely contributing to almost every war (or at least not winning) we ever participated in. Track record:
American War of Independence – won, largely because of the power of the French navy
War of 1812 – lost, DC got burned to the ground by Canadians
American Civil War – won, against traitorous American citizens
Spanish-American War – won, against a severely weakened Spanish Empire
The Great War – won, but the British, French, and Russians did 99% of the fighting and dying
World War II – won, but only really against the Japanese, again Britain/Russia did most of the work in Europe
Korean War – a draw and technically still ongoing
Vietnam War – lost abysmally
Gulf War I – won, but it was a pointless exercise that achieved nothing much
Afghanistan – ongoing more or less
Gulf War II – won temporarily, the new Iraqi government voted to boot the Americans out so not much of a win
For a country that spends so much money on military hardware and has such a large standing army we’re really, really bad at achieving long term policy goals.
Right-wing politicians everywhere appear to have no idea at all about what history as an academic discipline is. Gove in the UK, plus the rest of Boris’s pals, to say nothing of the LDP in Japan, which is most of the time neither liberal nor democratic. They think of it as propaganda.
And of course assume that any history that addresses difficult issues, such as slavery, is propaganda, too.
Such projection. Has he looked in a mirror lately? He’d see the locus of the forces “attempting to demolish this treasured and precious inheritance.” And the phrase “equal justice under the law” coming out of his mouth? Please. Miller’s really kinda piling it on pretty thick isn’t he?
Putin’s agent has certainly done an excellent job of “caus[ing] Americans to lose confidence in who we are, where we came from, and what we believe…”
I’ll bet he’s already getting a stiffy, imagining himself being so immortalized.
One of my personal pet peeves is people describing the United States as a ‘young country’, generally as an excuse/explanation for it ‘behaving like a teenager’ in world affairs–naive, boorish and aggressive–compared to the ‘older’ and ‘more civilised’ countries of Europe. But the United States has, arguably, the oldest form of government currently functioning (for some meanings of ‘functioning’) in the world. When was the last meaningful change in the American form of government? Aside from extending the franchise, I guess maybe the New Deal, it could be argued, but a lot of these changes were scaled back or eliminated. Most European countries had significant changes in the form of government in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Russia, India and China changed their forms of government in the twentieth century; and most other countries went from colonies to self-government during this period. So of all the countries in the world the USA is the only one attempting to govern itself by rigidly conforming to an ossified eighteenth century organisational structure that is currently not withstanding the test of time. The USA isn’t a ‘young country’, it’s a creaky old grandpa with dementia. And access to weapons.
That reminds me of something I’ve wondered about. If you watch television in France you get reminded every few weeks (or maybe more often) that France is le pays des droits de l’homme. Does anyone outside France think that?
His rhetoric is not about what it looks like it’s about. This is the next step. He is addressing the country as though it were one of his rallies and invoking a coast to coast unity of his followers. Smart move really. The stampede will not be local. It will come from everywhere at once and likely on or around November 3. Wouldn’t be surprised if there are skirmishes beforehand to make it look local and controllable.