|
Texas
and the Threat From Within
“Shall we expect some transatlantic
military giant to step over the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the
armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth
(our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander,
could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue
Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of
danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst
us! It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be
its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time
or die by suicide.”
Abraham Lincoln,
1838
By Michael Bradley
Nations are entities afforded
life by the human beings that inhabit their borders, but it is through the laws,
mores and societal structures of each national population that countries are
imbued with personality. That is how, throughout history, it has been possible
for the informed peoples of the world to make generalized judgments about what
could be expected from other nation states.
Of course, just as well known
friends can sometimes, somehow have a dramatic change of personality and
beliefs, so can nations.
America, still a relatively
young nation, has on its way to maturity made its full share of mistakes on the
world stage, but like the wayward youth who blunders and stumbles yet is known
for a good heart, the nation has been recognized for its deep and generous
spirit. Until very recently, people in every corner of the globe had an innate
understanding that there was one powerful nation where life could be improved by
individual effort, and where newcomers were ultimately absorbed into the
mainstream.
It was never as easy as the
hopes and dreams from afar made it out to be, and as it stumbled toward maturity
America had to struggle against its own contradictions. In a Nineteenth Century
civil war that history has shown was only eclipsed in bloodletting by war in the
Twentieth Century, the nation obliterated slavery, its worst contradiction.
Yet ever since
then the country has been beset with lingering, hydra-headed prejudices.
Nonetheless, as the nation grew and progressed, its very experiences diluted the
force of its prejudices, much like what occurs to individuals with good hearts
and an ability to evaluate new information.
The people of other nations saw
and understood this process. They watched as America became mature, sometimes
awkwardly, but always seeming to uphold the idea and the ideal of individuality,
of allowing personal freedom of thought and action to its citizens, trusting
that their efforts would collectively make the nation stronger. It is not hard
to understand the appeal a nation with such beliefs and ideals would hold out to
people in the thrall of poverty and repression.
This is, was, and always has
been the unique strength of America.
But now, as the country has
reached a vigorous maturity, albeit shaken by greedy folly, it is facing an
internal conflict as deep and unpredictable as the worst individual, mid-life
crisis. A substantial part of America is looking inward, questioning itself and
its long-held values, but the internal debate is one sided. That is the
terrifying element of the crisis. Other Americans – the remaining majority –
have not joined the debate.
Ironically, the ‘Silent
Majority’ this time is not some hypothetical right-wing dream of hidden support
within the nation’s body-politic, it is instead an actual detachment by the
majority, a willingness to observe rather than engage an increasingly activist,
vitriolic and growing minority that calls itself conservative. The ancient axiom
that the silence of good people encourages the growth of evil seems clearly at
work.
Our
nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world.
George Walker Bush, 2000
This remark by G.W. Bush is at
its heart a reflection of the concept of American ‘exceptionalism,’ which is in
some ways an extension of an almost religious belief on the part of many Texans
that their state is the most ‘exceptional’ in an exceptional nation. That belief
evolves from the short period of time when Texas functioned as an independent
republic, but today it meshes smoothly with a reactionary mid-life identity
crisis, which has begun to appear to the world as though America’s core
personality may be about to change.
Such fears undoubtedly were
exacerbated on Friday, May 21st, when the Texas State Board of
Education announced that for the next decade, until 2020, the nearly five
million students in the Lone Star state’s high schools will be taught that the
Founding Fathers really didn’t intend the separation of church and state, that
the slave trade was actually the Atlantic Triangular Trade, and that the
“theory” of evolution and the concept of creationism are counterbalanced issues
that each individual must choose between.
Other changes in
the state’s history and social studies textbooks will be the elevation of
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, to equal status with Abraham
Lincoln, but could anyone reasonably have anticipated that Thomas Jefferson
would be pushed to the back of American history books, perhaps off the pages
entirely and left as a footnote if at all? Mr. Jefferson, a deist as were many
of the founding fathers, including George Washington, often took the lead in
espousing the need for a separation of church and state. He was fully supported,
since the other founders knew well the danger of state supported religion. But
now the religious zealots of the ‘Christian Right’ want to absent him from
history’s stage in their desire to declare America a Christian nation.
What these so-called
‘Christians’ seem to clearly desire, as they revise American history, is not the
establishment of an inclusive, gentle national religion, but a fire and
brimstone codification of a Cotton Mather absolutism. If the Texas revisionists
and their allies across the nation should succeed, they are far more likely to
infect the nation with the spirit of an Elmer Gantry than that of a puritan
zealot, however much they might desire to burn their perceived enemies at the
stake.
That reality is illustrated by
other changes the textbook revisionists have made relating to more recent
American history. The Texas schoolbooks will now inform students that Joseph R.
McCarthy was justified in the blacklisting and red baiting actions he took in
the early 1950’s, the dark era that commonly bears his surname and which
generally is understood to have been antithetical to a democracy. Students will
be taught that because, after the collapse of Russia, documents indicated there
were Russian spies in America, Sen. McCarthy should be exonerated and his
fascistic approach forgiven.
American history of the 1950’s
and 1960’s will also be revised to diminish the importance of the civil rights
and the anti-war movements. Martin Luther King will share space on the new pages
with the Black Panthers, and the word capitalism will be replaced with the term
‘free enterprise system.’
Moving forward to even more
recent history, the 5 million revised textbooks will emphasize the presidency of
Ronald Reagan as the herald of a positive, conservative revolution, and in the
same vein the books will canonize such figures as Jerry Falwell, the radio and
TV evangelist who founded the ‘Moral Majority’ crusade and who is credited with
the ascension of the New Christian Right as a political force.
Along with former
Pres. Reagan, the textbooks will make Phyllis Schlafly – the conservative
political activist and columnist known for opposing feminism and the Equal
Rights Amendment – a figure of historic significance, together with
organizations such as the National Rifle Association and the ultra-conservative
Heritage Foundation.
Also elevated to
historical significance is Newt Gingrich and his so-called ‘Contract With
America,’ which brought about the GOP’s control of Congress in 1995. It was also
Gingrich who introduced the GOP to the politics of vitriol and hate that
continue today, but now Texan students and any other American students who are
given the same textbooks will see him, Falwell, McCarthy and Phyllis Schlafly as
heroes.
And that is the
key problem. Historically Texas buys so many textbooks that publishers have been
prone to making deals with other states to provide the same books, often at
discounted rates. In today’s world of digital publishing, however, and in the
face of increasing resistance from some states, the threat to democracy may not
be a great as it would have been in the past, yet the danger of twisted,
distorted history in the hands of millions of America’s young still cannot be
underestimated.
It is worth considering that the
Texas State Board of Education’s revised textbooks will require that the U.S.
government be referred to as a ‘constitutional republic’ rather than a
‘democratic republic.’
“America does not presume to know what is best for
everyone."
Barack Obama, 2010
Pres. Obama made that remark
during a speech in Egypt where he was seeking to reassure people throughout the
Middle East and all other parts of the world that the policies of G.W. Bush were
over.
But that remark, perhaps more
than any other, has resulted in a river of hatred directed at Pres. Obama on the
internet and in the conservative media world. At first it might seem hard to
imagine why such a simple, common sense statement would cause such deep,
emotional resentment among conservatives, but when its considered that Obama’s
remark strikes at the heart of American exceptionalism, it is suddenly easier to
comprehend, though all the more fearful.
America is “not
only unique but superior,” declared textbook reviewer Bill Ames of Dallas. In
written statements he further stated that Americans are “a chosen people,
divinely ordained to lead the world to betterment.” He also suggests that the
United States will not “rise and fall; Americans will escape ‘the laws of
history’ which eventually cause the downfall of all great nations and empires.”
If there was ever
a more emphatic statement of American exceptionalism, it is hard to imagine what
it might be.
The 9-5
ultra-conservative vote of the Texas State Board of Education was of course a
singular, dramatic victory for the Republican hard-right and its adherence to
exceptionalism. That it is so over the top as to seem ridiculous to the majority
of Americans is a potential problem.
It can only be hoped that
informed people in the other 49 states will make it clear to their educational
authorities that using any form of the current Texas textbooks will be
considered abhorrent and reason for a political firestorm.
But perhaps even more
importantly, Americans need to understand how the current vitriolic, hard-ball
politics of mainstream Republicans are now being outdistanced by an even more
rigid and doctrinaire conservative movement. The success of the Texas State
Board of Education is, if anything, reflective of the same extreme politics that
are so visible in the Tea Party movement. This reality has not escaped the
attention of the nations and peoples of the world, even if the ‘Silent Majority’
of common sense, rationally motivated Americans remains content to silently
watch what may seem like a political comedy or parody.
America is indeed in a mid-life
crisis, and it is high time for all of America’s citizens to pay attention and
speak up. Today, in America’s media heavy society, those who grab the podium and
shout get the coverage, while the media meekly waits to see who may offer a
counterpoint. The world is waiting for the rest of America to be heard above the
chest pounding din of the hard-right.
It is safe to say
the nations of the world are also holding their collective breath, remembering
the taste of a right-wing America that the Bush administration provided and
hoping that the face of the nation that emerges from this inner struggle is not
that of a selfish bully or right-wing brute, but instead that of an open,
generous friend who is maturely confident in the traditional democratic values
of the Founders.
As Abraham Lincoln said 172
years ago, “as a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by
suicide."
It will be a death
knell to deny the nation’s true history and forget that its strength has always
come from openness and diversity, representing within its ranks people from
every corner of the globe.
The majority of
Americans need to speak up.
-30-
|
