[Curriculum on race is a] “toxic propaganda, an ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds.”
—Donald Trump, in announcing his 1776 Commission to promote “patriotic education” by downplaying America’ legacy of slavery. [Stephen Miller couldn’t have written it better.]
“These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that.”
—Adolf Hitler, 1938. [The Hitler Youth organization was founded in 1926 to train young boys for membership in the Sturmabteilung (SA; literally Storm Detachment), the Party’s main paramilitary organization at the time. In 1933, leaders of the Hitler Youth decided to integrate boys into the Nazi national community and prepare them for service as soldiers in the SS. From the 1920s onwards, the Nazi Party targeted German youth as a special audience for its propaganda messages. These messages emphasized that the Party was a movement of youth: dynamic, resilient, forward-looking, and hopeful. Millions of German young people were won over to Nazism in the classroom and through extracurricular activities. In January 1933, the Hitler Youth had approximately 100,000 members, but by the end of the year this figure had increased to more than 2 million. By 1937 membership in the Hitler Youth increased to 5.4 million before it became mandatory in 1939. The German authorities then prohibited or dissolved competing youth organizations.]
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/indoctrinating-youth
“The efforts by the president of the United States to use his powers to censor a work of American journalism by dictating what schools can and cannot teach and what American children should and should not learn should be deeply alarming to all Americans who value free speech.”
—Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of “The 1619 Project,” a story that cast a spotlight on the 400th anniversary of slavery in America published in The New York Times last year which won a Pulitzer Prize, commenting on Donald Trump’s announced plan for the “1776 Commission,” a program to teach “patriotic” American history to students that would downplay the history of slavery, genocide and land theft.
“If the Democrats win, … that’s the end of democracy. It’s the end of the two-party system. We’re gonna have a one-party government that is going to devote itself to eliminating all opposition. That’s what’s at stake. If they win, I think the Republican Party essentially ceases to exist. One of the first things they will do is grant statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, and that will give them four Democrat senators. They will never lose control of the Senate.”
—Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show, Sept. 18. [Rush, you are consistent with your hysterical rants. Remember what Trump said about not wanting to panic the American people?]
Louisiana Voice 
Bloviator and propagandist supreme (and paid $80+ million per year to do it) Rush Limbaugh’s rant reminds me that our country, as founded, had 3 branches of government to provide separation, checks and balances on power. We now have one. Anybody see a little problem with that?
Tom, thanks for this forum. I must dispute your current topic, but wish to state up front my appreciation to you for providing it.
Tom, re: the first quote,I can’t understand the objection. Any CRT (Critical Race Theory) forcibly taught in public schools, or forcibly imposed on public employees, is an ideological imposition of intentionally-destructive Marxist thought that undermines the very public purpose for which those institutions exist.
Tom, you imply that you agree with Hannah-Jones’ objection. In what way is journalism being censored? The abhorrent 1619 Project currriculum is being distributed and sold to public schools as HISTORY curriculum, not journalism. Hannah-Jones’ Pulitzer was for “opinion journalism”. Again, what is being censored? Opinion journalism masquerading as history is unconscionable, though certainly free speech. How about checking with an historian next time? Feel free to email me.
While I object to the (election-year) government sponsorship of any curriculum (including the utterly-objectionable 1619 Project, now in use as curriculum in some Democrat-dominated strongholds), the President in this case is correct about the toxic effect of mandated Marxist curriculum in any subject matter. Civics education ought to reinforce our republican and democractic ideals and institutions, while not obscuring the failures of those same ideals and institutions past and present. Marxists only know how to destroy, not build better.
The time for public schools to be the state-mandated thought control mechanism is past over. There’s time to save public schools, but only if liberal (in the real sense) parents and taxpayers stand-up to those who choose to use the public education system to undermine our common principles in any subject matter. What is needed is robust debate and honest disagreement, not misleading partisan opposition. Don’t we have enough of that already?
And, Tom, leave the Nazis out of it. Frankly, both political parties are far closer to Nazi (and other Fascist, not to mention Communist) conceptions than any of us is likely to admit. For example, both parties want to use the power of the state to control education (as you just illustrated). I would hope that you and I would oppose that completely.
When Trump calls the press “the enemy of the people,” that is a form of censorship. When he constantly and consistently refers to any negative story about him or his administration as “fake news,” that is censorship – if not in the strictest sense, then at least implied. Both are wrong.
As for CRT, would also advocate that the genocide of Native Americans also not be taught in schools? That is, after, part of this country’s history as is the Trail of Tears and the relegating of Native Americans to some of the poorest land in America and the repeated breaking of treaties with them. History has a lot of warts and to hide them is doing an injustice to all. And while I agree that the 1619 Project probably should not be sold as a free-standing curriculum, I also firmly believe that it should not be ignored.
I am horrified at the idea of any one person attempting to design a course to be taught in our schools as some sort of propaganda tool – whether it’s Trump’s design, Betsy DeVos’s, yours or mine. That’s precisely what Hitler did and that’s Nazism so, I suggest my reference to the Nazis was valid.
I suppose we’ll just have to agree to disagree on these points. But I do appreciate the calm, rational manner in which you present your case. That’s the way ideas should be exchanged – on on the basis of who can scream the loudest.
Thanks.
Jim this is a pseudo-intellectual rant full of non sequiturs and false equivalencies and reflects a truly bizarre obsession with Marxism. Just sayin’.
Agree, Can’t say. What does this have to do with Marxism?
“If the Republicans win, … that’s the end of democracy. It’s the end of the two-party system. We’re gonna have a one-party government that is going to devote itself to eliminating all opposition. That’s what’s at stake.”
There, Rush, fixed it for you. In fact, we’re almost there now – democracy is on life support.
Perfect.:)
Agreed, and we already, for practical purposes, have one branch of government – certainly the opposite of what our founders intended.
thanks Mr. Winham! Tom, I had a facebook from North La. saying that God chooses men who aren’t perfect to carry out his plan and that our founding fathers had to kill the Indians because they had strayed from God after we taught them..To quote CB, you can’t make this shit up.. And in a later quote he denounced the KKK after learning his Father was a card carrying member.. thanks ron thompson