Some observations on “The-Presidents-Advisory-1776-Commission-Final-Report.”

Human progress didn’t end in 1776 as the authors of this report would have us believe.

The facts of our founding are not partisan. They are a matter of history. Controversies about the meaning of the founding can begin to be resolved by looking at the facts of our nation’s founding. Properly understood, these facts address the concerns and aspirations of Americans of all social classes, income levels, races and religions, regions and walks of life.

The growing gap between rich and poor, racial discrimination, antisemitism, white supremacy, and religious bigotry are ignored.

Yet, while Fascism died in 1945 with the
collapse of the Axis powers, it was quickly replaced by a
new threat, …

Fascism didn’t die; it is alive and well in America today.

Finally, the right to keep and bear arms is required by
the fundamental natural right to life: no man may justly
be denied the means of his own defense. The political
significance of this right is hardly less important. An
armed people is a people capable of defending their
liberty no less than their lives and is the last, desperate
check against the worst tyranny.

That’s what right-wing militias would have us believe. After the events of Jan. 6, 2021, we should reject that notion.

The Civil Rights Movement was almost immediately
turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals
of the founders. The ideas that drove this change had
been growing in America for decades, and they
distorted many areas of policy in the half century that
followed. Among the distortions was the abandonment
of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity in favor of
“group rights” not unlike those advanced by Calhoun
and his followers. The justification for reversing the
promise of color-blind civil rights was that past
discrimination requires present effort, or affirmative
action in the form of preferential treatment, to
overcome long-accrued inequalities. Those forms of
preferential treatment built up in our system over time,
first in administrative rulings, then executive orders,
later in congressionally passed law, and finally were
sanctified by the Supreme Court.

Color blind laws generally leave people of color at an unending disadvantage.

States and school districts should reject any curriculum
that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist
propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean
America’s heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our
principles.

The report is contradictory–it says education should be up to local communities, then recommends standard as quoted above.

Universities in the United States are often today
hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that
combine to generate in students and in the broader
culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright
hatred for this country.

At my first full time job, my supervisor told me that the engineering professors at my university were all communists. I knew better. The above is similar nonsense.

Americans yearn for timeless stories and noble heroes
that inspire them to be good, brave, diligent, daring,
generous, honest, and compassionate.

If only it were so.

The final report goes on to discuss and promote religion, disparage “identity politics,” and promote “proper education.” There is much there to accept or reject.