“A properly functioning democracy depends upon an informed electorate” – Thomas Edison.
The far-right insurgency within the Republican party is not breaking news at this point. What was once a true “grassroots movement” has since been co-opted by millionaires and billionaires alike, giving the Tea Party their unprecedented political weight. As the political spectrum is being dragged further to the right, the rest of America is being dragged along with it. This is due in part to their powerful propaganda machine consisting of conservative think-tanks; well-funded “experts” who spread all manners of disinformation; and an unified, partisan media force that relays their talking points. It says something about the credibility of a news station when their tag-line of “Fair and Balanced” can be disproven by viewing any of their programs for more than a minute.
(Note: here’s a fun drinking game to play with your friends [or if you fall into Fox News’ largest demographic, your Bridge group]:
Step one: Take a shot every time a Fox News pundit uses the words “liberals”, “Obama”, “progressives”, or “Democrats” in a negative connotation.
Step two: Die of alcohol poisoning within thirty minutes.)
But the New-Right’s propaganda machine is not content with solely preaching to its angry choir, and the billions of dollars in revenue that it brings in. Instead, it has worked its way into our public school systems through legalized bribery.
STATE-APPROVED RE-EDUCATION
In 2011, my home state of North Carolina passed the “Founding Principles Act“. The act requires the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to offer a high school curriculum on the Founding Fathers and their “principles”, which sounds fairly standard. However, the problem with the bill lies in its drafters.
David & Charles Koch
While the act was passed by North Carolina legislators, it was drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC, for short), a joint group of conservative lawmakers and corporations. ALEC functions as so: a Congressman meets with representatives from corporations and think-tanks, the corporations and think-tanks write a bill that they want to be passed, and then the Congressman introduces the bill to be voted into law. Often times the bills are mass-produced for multiple state legislatures, and they are passed without a congressman having written a single word in it. Basically, corporations have the abilities to write our nation’s laws and to chip away at the ones they don’t like. This is what gave rise to the “Founding Principles Act”.
The high-school course that is detailed within the act is comprised largely of material written by the Bill of Rights Institute, a conservative group that not only receives funding from Koch brothers, but includes the senior vice president of Koch Industries on its board of directors. It should come as no surprise, then, that the curriculum, which is being “highly recommended” by the Department of Public Instruction, contains more than its fair share of white-washed history and libertarian talking points.
The “founding principles” that this curriculum teaches include:
- Limited Government:
– The curriculum preaches against and warns of the Federal government having too much power. It cites the Affordable Care Act as an example.
- Personal Responsibility
– While there is nothing inherently wrong with teaching about the merits of personal responsibility, it is inherently wrong to teach the libertarian, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps mentality as “founding principles”.
Furthermore, the curriculum goes to great lengths to dispel any notions that the Founding Fathers were racist, that they only had slaves because it was “an important economic and social institution in the United States”. Oh, good. For a while there I thought maybe they owned slaves because they viewed minorities as lesser people, but it turns out that they just cared more about money than the sanctity of a human life. That’s much better!
Trickle-Down Economics in action!
THIS IS NOT ONLY HAPPENING IN NORTH CAROLINA
With Oklahoma recently making news for banning AP US History because it was “too negative”, we are seeing the spread of conservative indoctrination in our public schools.
“But isn’t taking advantage of a government program to further one’s self-interest exactly what the Tea Party preaches against?” – Any person capable of critical thought.
Yes. And therein lies a perfect example of the blatant hypocrisy of the new far-right. They espouse virtues of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” and condemn government assistance while the Tea Party’s main funders devour giant government subsidies. They decry Common Core as a “federal propaganda tool” and argue that education should be a state, not a federal issue, despite the fact that Common Core is a “state‐led effort that is not part of No Child Left Behind or any other federal initiative.”
These practices are not indicative of all Republicans. There is a plethora of rational, intelligent conservatives. However, they are not the majority of the ones currently running the GOP and drafting our laws.
And this all brings us back to the quote at the start of this article. The Koch brothers and Karl Rove do not want a properly functioning democracy. They want bottom-up wealth distribution that leaves the poor poorer, and the rich richer. They want to be able to violate EPA standards in order to increase their profits. They want to dismantle the government (you can find out more about the Koch’s political beliefs here). But they know that they can accomplish none of this if the American people are well-informed.
So is it any wonder that Fox, their main news outlet, tells the truth only 11% of the time? Is it really that surprising that the leading climate change deniers are all being funneled money by energy companies? Their version of America can only stand if it is built on a foundation of ignorance. With their infiltration into our public schools, they are preparing a new generation of unflinchingly-partisan voters who will unknowingly vote against their own interests.
Yes, America is the greatest country on Earth. We all should be proud of the principles that we were founded upon, but we must always recognize our flaws and work to improve on them. To quote Al Franken:
“[Liberals] love America just as much as [conservatives] do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a four-year old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world.
That’s why we liberals want America to do the right thing. We know America is the hope of the world, and we love it and want it to do well. We also want it to do good…
…It’s called honesty. What do you think is more important to a loving relationship: honesty or lies?”
The purpose of education is to gain knowledge and to seek the truth. America’s public schools should be free of bias and unafraid to expose the harsher parts of our nation’s history. How else could we expect to grow?
politicidal 