Trump Creates 1776 Commission to Promote ‘Patriotic Education’
Nicole Gaudiano, Politico, November 2, 2020
President Donald Trump on Monday created a “1776 Commission” to promote “patriotic education” and counter lessons that he says divide Americans on race and slavery and teach students to “hate their own country.”
On the eve of Election Day, Trump directed the commission’s creation, via executive order, to “better enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.”
The order follows Trump’s recent attacks on critical race theory and the 1619 Project, directed by The New York Times Magazine, which revisits the country’s history with a focus on slavery and Black Americans’ contributions.
{snip}
His order blasts historical accounts that he says have “vilified” the nation’s founders.
“This radicalized view of American history lacks perspective, obscures virtues, twists motives, ignores or distorts facts, and magnifies flaws, resulting in the truth being concealed and history disfigured,” the order states. “Failing to identify, challenge, and correct this distorted perspective could fray and ultimately erase the bonds that knit our country and culture together.”
{snip}
The commission is tasked with writing a report on the “core principles of the American founding and how these principles may be understood to further enjoyment of ‘the blessings of liberty’ and to promote our striving ‘to form a more perfect Union.’”
{snip}
