Love America

Or else... Republicans have lost it and found a new boogeyman to combat in their unrelenting culture war. Like a true Don Quixote, united they storm the giant called "Critical Race Theory", oblivious to the fact that it's just a harmless windmill...

The GOP has nothing to offer when it comes to policies that meaningfully improve the lives of average American citizens. They've even stopped whining about deficit spending and the national debt. Even that was completely disingenuous; when they are out of power, Republicans rail against deficits, and when they are in power, they cut taxes and increase spending. But I don't believe I've heard one word about government spending lately, not even in relation to Biden's insanely expensive and much needed plans to improve America's crumbling infrastructure. What we hear from Republicans is all about the culture war: they whine about the "banning" of Dr. Seuss's books, when in fact the publisher decided to withdraw some of the books themselves and no "banning" was involved. They complain about Potato Head dropping the "mister" in its name. And now they rail against Critical Race Theory being taught in schools when nothing of the sort is happening; CRT is only taught in Law School and universities, and is founded in Critical Theory. CRT has been in existence at least since the 1980's, but angry Republicans have only heard about it since 2020, when the Trump campaign started using it as a new weapon to scare white suburbans.

"They teach our kids that America is inherently racist!" "They teach our kids to hate America!" It's as if anything less than the teaching of an unconditional love for flag and country is seen as a hostile act. What about simply teaching your children the truth about the history of your country? That truth is as follows: America was founded in racism, genocide and slavery. That's not to say that America is the only country that's committed genocide or used slaves; Europe has a quite troublesome history with imperialism and slavery as well. And most Americans have no trouble with knowing the truth about the country's history, I'm sure. But what we see now coming from the GOP and many loyal Trump supporters is nothing short of frightening. Trump already wanted to create laws against the burning of the American flag, he blasted Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the National Anthem in protest of racial injustice and police brutality and called BLM protesters "domestic terrorists". Freedom of speech and freedom of education are alright, as long as America is always portrayed as the best ever...

Don Quixote's latest lance in his jousting war against the CRT monster is called the "Love America Act". Introduced by Senator Josh Hawley it seeks to promote patriotism in public schools and prohibit funding to those that teach the country's foundational texts are rooted in racism.

The bill would require students to read and recite portions of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Pledge of Allegiance at certain grade levels. Under the legislation, students would be able to recite the pledge by the first grade, and fourth graders would be able to recite the Constitution's preamble. Students in the eighth grade would be able to recite the preamble of the Declaration of Independence and 10th graders would be able to identify the Bill of Rights.
_{source: Fox News}

Oh boy. I'm pretty sure all these things are taught already in every American school. And how could you not teach that these foundational texts are rooted in racism? Black Americans weren't even regarded as full human beings back then.. What was it? Three-fifths human?

Although the Constitution did not refer directly to slaves, it did not ignore them entirely. Article one, section two of the Constitution of the United States declared that any person who was not free would be counted as three-fifths of a free individual for the purposes of determining congressional representation. The "Three-Fifths Clause" thus increased the political power of slaveholding states. It did not, however, make any attempt to ensure that the interests of slaves would be represented in the government.
_{source: Thirteen}

That's the U.S. Constitution, Article 1. Section 2, as ratified in 1788. And it wasn't until 1964 that the Jim Crow laws, state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation, were overruled by the Civil Rights Act, with the Voting Rights Act following one year later. Like Beau of the Fifth Column says in the below linked video, it's almost sad that this bill will probably never pass, with the Democrats controlling House and Senate, because teaching children about the foundational texts implies teaching them that the country was founded in racism, and that it's only to be expected that there are still after effects remaining when only as recently as the 1960s the last racist laws were overruled. Of course this stupid proposal by Josh Hawley is mocked all over the internet: Republican senator widely mocked for proposed ‘Love America Act’. And of course Republicans don't even know what CRT actually is: We asked Republicans to explain Critical Race Theory—they couldn’t. It's sad, but also frightening to see the GOP slide further down the slope towards authoritarianism and fascism...

“In China they call this ‘patriotic education,'” opined @DrLeeJones, one of many to suggest that the bill has fascist leanings.
_{source: Daily Dot}

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