Posted on 08/19/2020 8:21:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
If we’re going to make America great again, we have to know what made it great in the first place. That’s why the Left went into a frenzy of vandalism in tearing down statues earlier this summer, not just of Confederates but of those notable slaveowners Lincoln, Grant, and Frederick Douglass. To repudiate American history is to repudiate America itself.
In response, lovers of freedom have deplored the destruction and denounce the barbarians, but few are mounting a robust and informed response to their hatred of American history itself. Yet if there is anything that this orgy of destruction should have taught us, it is that we must know, know familiarly, and cherish the history of our republic. Doing this will go a long way toward saving our free society. It was with this in mind that I wrote Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster.
The reason for this is clear: now is the time for all of us to study and become deeply familiar with American history, because if we do not know what made America great, we will not be able to make it great again. Yet it is safe to say that many, if not most, Americans who deplore what the leftist savages are doing to our monuments only have the most glancing knowledge of how the United States became a beacon of freedom for the world, such that people from all over try to get here despite the Left’s relentless defamation of our country as a bastion of racial hatred and injustice.
Ahistorical myopia and ignorance of history is a significant cause of the current outpouring of hatred for America. To take just one of innumerable examples,
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
bump
I must not be reading this right. Grant was a slaveowner at one time, but to my knowledge Lincoln was not.
BFL
I hope DJT gives America a history lesson about the Democrats next week starting with Margaret Sanger and her award winners.
OK enough already...
I’m sick of american thinker and their whiny pop up trying to get me to turn off my ad blocker. It does suck, they have some very good articles.
I already sent them a notice explaining WHY I would not turn it off. They chose to ignore it, without even the courtesy of a response. I choose to not read this or any other american thinker article ever again.
Websites in general have relied on annoying pop up and pop under ads for too long, if they were not a nuisance, ad blockets would not exist.
I may comment on whatever I can see of an article in the excerpt, if enough is there, but I refuse to deal with their annoying website again.
Why post this? Others need to realize their callous attitude toward a legitimate complaint. If they don’t care about my input enough to even send a canned response, do they care about your opinion? Nope...you need to know that. (it’s been over a month, almost 2, I don’t expect a response any more)
Nor, we can be certain, was Frederick Douglass. Perhaps the author was speaking in jest.
bump
Go ahead, tear down all remembrances of our past. We may then begin to wonder why we put up with your nonsense and do something about it. I for one, am over all the black bull dished out over the decades. Pull up your pants and get with the program. Nobody owes you a damn thing.
“Perhaps the author was speaking in jest.”
I hadn’t considered that; maybe he was.
But if that is the case, the author was in error to include Grant in the jest.
bump
Have to appreciate the competing narratives pertaining to the Civil War and Confederate statues we’re offered nowadays.
On popular line is that the Confederacy were all bad guy Democrats who’re entirely to blame for the institution of slavery and the oppression of black people throughout American history. The Republicans, under Lincoln, are the good guys who fought bravely to free the slaves and restore the Republic; thus black Americans should in theory be eternally grateful to Republicans and naturally align themselves with the Republican party.
This obviously conflicts with the “Lost Cause” narrative which chooses to depict the Confederacy as the good guys, true upholders of states rights fighting their righteous fight against an overreaching Federal government and the evil Northern (read: Republican) states. The “Lost Cause” narrative characterizes Lincoln not as a savior but rather as the chief architect of what’s termed the “War of Northern Aggression”. Though the “Lost Cause” narrative was originally conceived and spread by Southern Democrats, today it’s typically found presented by those who self identify as conservatives/Republicans.
Then comes the matter of the thousands of Confederate statues those Southern Democrats erected some years ago. The popular sentiment among the right today appears to be that they’re all an important part of our history and heritage, which need to be valued and protected instead of torn down. That obviously works better if one chooses to overlook or downplay their original origin and intent: “bad” Democrats displaying their dissatisfaction over losing a war to “good” Republicans. To put it another way, consider how many statues of Lincoln the Southern Democrats chose to put up during their “Lost Cause” statue-erecting boom.
One could take the position that Democrats today want to tear down all the Confederate statues mainly because they’re embarrassed and ashamed of their own history, and Republicans want to keep them up as “rub it in your face” objectionable but necessary public reminders to Democrats of their having been on the wrong side of that history. Thus far though that argument has not been widely made by any serious pundits. Instead we have a situation where Republicans, for better or worse, find themselves aligned with the Democrat-spawned “Lost Cause” movement and agenda that their history strongly suggests they should not be.
And it's not just about jobs and economic opportunity. It's about freedom, exercise of "Creator-endowed rights and liberties," and opportunity for each citizen, not just self-appointed elitists who fancy themselves as entitled to make decisions for all.
See this web site, at which Richard Frothingham's outstanding 1872 "History of the Rise of the Republic of the United States" may be read on line.
This 600+-page history traces the ideas which gave birth to the American founding. Throughout, Richard Frothingham, the historian, develops the idea that it is "the Christian idea of man" which allowed the philosophy underlying the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to become a reality--an idea which recognizes the individual and the Source of his/her "Creator"-endowed life, liberty and law.
Is there any wonder that the enemies of freedom, the so-called "progressives," do not promote such authentic histories of America? Their philosophy puts something called "the state," or "global interests" as being superior to individuals and requires a political elitist group to decide what role individuals are to play.
In other words, they must turn the Founders' ideas upside-down in order to achieve a common mediocrity for individuals and power for themselves.
Thomas Jefferson wrote to Roger Weightman on June 24, 1826:
" I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. may it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."
.
After the CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMATION these institutions will need a thorough cleaning out of the poison of leftism rooted in them.
.
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.