The Trump White House released the presidential “1776 Commission” report on Monday, a comprehensive attack on liberal thinking and activism that calls for “patriotic education”, defends the foundation of America on the basis of slavery and compares the progressivism to fascism.
President Trump formed the commission in September, saying that the American heritage was under attack by revolutionary fanatics and that schools in the country required a new “pro-American” curriculum.
His report, released on the day of Martin Luther King’s birthday, denounces the charge that American founders were hypocrites who preached equality while codifying it in the Constitution and owned slaves. “This accusation is false and has caused enormous damage, especially in recent years, with a devastating effect on our civic unity and social fabric,” says the document.
The report argues that “distorted histories” of the United States “work under the illusion that slavery was somehow an exclusively American evil” and that the institution should “be seen in a much broader perspective”, including “the unfortunate fact “that slavery” has been more of a rule than an exception throughout human history. “
“Historical revisionism that tramples on honest scholarship and historical truth, shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors and teaches allegations of systemic racism that can only be eliminated by more discrimination, is an ideology designed to manipulate more opinions than educate minds ”the report says.
The report is the product of the 18-member committee, which is chaired by Larry Arnn, a Trump ally and president of conservative Hillsdale College. Other members include Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist, and Trump’s former domestic policy advisor, Brooke Rollins.
The document states that the civil rights movement has evolved into an “identity policy”, which said “it teaches that America itself is to blame for oppression”.
He also said that progressives created a “fourth branch of government” or “parallel government” that operates without checks or balances, and compared American liberals to Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who said “seeking to centralize power under the management of so-called experts. . ”
The commission and its report are partly a rebuke to Project 1619 of The New York Times Magazine, which reshapes American history around the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans. The report denounces the project, as does Trump in his September speech in announcing the commission.