On Memorial Day, we set aside a moment to honor the fallen soldiers who've sacrificed all for American liberty's preservation at home and advancement abroad. From our Revolution to the World Wars to those of our modern era, we must remember their last full measure given for each and every one of us...
ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
The teaching of identity politics in American higher education is a criminal abdication of our pedagogic responsibilities, says this Ivy League prof. pic.twitter.com/Zi65wfQXeh
This topic keeps popping up everywhere I look, so thought I'd provide some informative resources and conversations worth checking out on this 'theory' as well as ways to combat such malignant thinking...
In explaining critical race theory, it helps to begin with a brief history of Marxism. Originally, the Marxist Left built its political program on the theory of class conflict. ... During the 20th century, a number of regimes underwent Marxist-style revolutions, and each ended in disaster. ... By the mid-1960s, Marxist intellectuals in the West had begun to acknowledge these failures. ... But rather than abandon their Leftist political project, Marxist scholars in the West simply adapted their revolutionary theory to the social and racial unrest of the 1960s. ... Fortunately, the early proponents of this revolutionary coalition in the U.S. lost out in the 1960s to the civil rights movement, which sought instead the fulfillment of the American promise of freedom and equality under the law. ... But the radical Left has proved resilient and enduring—which is where critical race theory comes in.
Critical race theory is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism. Relegated for many years to universities and obscure academic journals, over the past decade it has increasingly become the default ideology in our public institutions. It has been injected into government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs, and corporate human resources departments in the form of diversity training programs, human resources modules, public policy frameworks, and school curricula.
There are a series of euphemisms deployed by its supporters to describe critical race theory, including “equity,” “social justice,” “diversity and inclusion,” and “culturally responsive teaching.” Critical race theorists, masters of language construction, realize that “neo-Marxism” would be a hard sell. Equity, on the other hand, sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the American principle of equality. ... In contrast to equality, equity as defined and promoted by critical race theorists is little more than reformulated Marxism.
An equity-based form of government would mean the end not only of private property, but also of individual rights, equality under the law, federalism, and freedom of speech. These would be replaced by race-based redistribution of wealth, group-based rights, active discrimination, and omnipotent bureaucratic authority. Historically, the accusation of “anti-Americanism” has been overused. But in this case, it’s not a matter of interpretation—critical race theory prescribes a revolutionary program that would overturn the principles of the Declaration and destroy the remaining structure of the Constitution. ...
There are three parts to a successful strategy to defeat the forces of critical race theory: governmental action, grassroots mobilization, and an appeal to principle.
We already see examples of governmental action. Last year, one of my reports led President Trump to issue an executive order banning critical race theory-based training programs in the federal government. President Biden rescinded this order on his first day in office, but it provides a model for governors and municipal leaders to follow. This year, several state legislatures have introduced bills to achieve the same goal: preventing public institutions from conducting programs that stereotype, scapegoat, or demean people on the basis of race. And I have organized a coalition of attorneys to file lawsuits against schools and government agencies that impose critical race theory-based programs on grounds of the First Amendment (which protects citizens from compelled speech), the Fourteenth Amendment (which provides equal protection under the law), and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits public institutions from discriminating on the basis of race).
On the grassroots level, a multiracial and bipartisan coalition is emerging to do battle against critical race theory. Parents are mobilizing against racially divisive curricula in public schools and employees are increasingly speaking out against Orwellian reeducation in the workplace. When they see what is happening, Americans are naturally outraged that critical race theory promotes three ideas—race essentialism, collective guilt, and neo-segregation—which violate the basic principles of equality and justice. Anecdotally, many Chinese-Americans have told me that having survived the Cultural Revolution in their former country, they refuse to let the same thing happen here.
In terms of principles, we need to employ our own moral language rather than allow ourselves to be confined by the categories of critical race theory. For example, we often find ourselves debating “diversity.” Diversity as most of us understand it is generally good, all things being equal, but it is of secondary value. We should be talking about and aiming at excellence, a common standard that challenges people of all backgrounds to achieve their potential. On the scale of desirable ends, excellence beats diversity every time.
Similarly, in addition to pointing out the dishonesty of the historical narrative on which critical race theory is predicated, we must promote the true story of America—a story that is honest about injustices in American history, but that places them in the context of our nation’s high ideals and the progress we have made towards realizing them. Genuine American history is rich with stories of achievements and sacrifices that will move the hearts of Americans—in stark contrast to the grim and pessimistic narrative pressed by critical race theorists.
Above all, we must have courage—the fundamental virtue required in our time. Courage to stand and speak the truth. Courage to withstand epithets. Courage to face the mob. Courage to shrug off the scorn of the elites. When enough of us overcome the fear that currently prevents so many from speaking out, the hold of critical race theory will begin to slip. And courage begets courage. It’s easy to stop a lone dissenter; it’s much harder to stop 10, 20, 100, 1,000, 1,000,000, or more who stand up together for the principles of America.
Truth and justice are on our side. If we can muster the courage, we will win.
How rights are viewed—individual or collective—explains today’s sharp disagreement over the rules for running elections, both in Congress and in states considering election integrity bills.
Democrats—specifically the dominant extremist variety—view rights through the collective lens of race. Critical race theory (CRT), based in Marxism, is essential to understanding their objectives. CRT holds that personage is irrelevant and the immutable trait of race is paramount.
Thus, by definition, all politics are “identity politics,” as declared by University of California at Berkeley School of Law professors Ian Haney-Lopez and Cheryl I. Harris, the co-founders of critical race studies at UCLA School of Law, during a roundtable last October on CRT and the 2020 election. ...
To the Left, some voters are more equal than others ... voting as a group right, not an individual right ... destroying the secret ballot ...
What Is at Stake?
At the federal level, H.R. 1 passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 220 to 210 on March 3. It awaits an uncertain fate in the U.S. Senate. The bill would impose California standards on all federal elections nationwide.
“California standards” in this context essentially mean no standards: no verification of voter eligibility, no effective voter identification, no proper maintenance of voter lists, and a significant expansion of voting by mail—the form of voting most vulnerable to fraud, manipulation, and voter intimidation.
H.R. 1 is likely unconstitutional federal overreach, despite the bill’s pious invocation of “authority pursuant to Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to protect the right to vote.” That said, it may crush the filibuster (now said to be a racist relic in the face of a 232-year history to the contrary) on its way to President Joe Biden’s desk.
If H.R. 1 does become law, some states plan on bifurcating their elections, federal and all others, to avoid this federal bulldozing of any semblance of election integrity. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott remarked during a Fox News interview that “the federal government can… (constitutionally) …regulate elections as it concerns federal officials. However, they cannot regulate elections concerning state officials. And so states like Texas and other states, we will just pull out of having elections at the same time that the federal elections take place, so we’ll be able to ensure the integrity of the election process in Texas, regardless of what H.R. 1 does.”
The U.S. Senate’s version of the bill, S.B. 1, is headed for committee markup on May 11.
The battle to mend election safeguards weakened by the left’s well-funded lawfare in the lead-up to the 2020 election is not about expanding the opportunity to vote or voter suppression. It’s about closing off avenues to election fraud in service of a leftwing cadre motivated by critical race theory—a vanguard that sees America and its Constitution as irredeemably deserving destruction.
So at the end of the day, it's once again about the maintenance of power at the expense of Americans hating one another, themselves and their country... such power can never be worth such destruction.
