In December 2020, former President Donald Trump appointed a commission aimed at putting patriotic American education back in the classroom. Former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant was among those appointed to the President’s 1776 Commission.
The 1776 Commission, appointed for two years, was to have produced a report on the founding principles of the nation while providing guidance on how the federal government could prioritize advancing those founding principles through grants and other educational activities within schools. It was viewed as a counter to the 1619 Project that was being used in classrooms where America was portrayed as systemically racist.
Now, in one of his first acts as President, Joe Biden will revoke and dissolve the 1776 Commission as he and his administration rush to advance “racial equity.” The Biden Administration said in a release Wednesday that the 1776 Commission “has sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice.”
”I am certainly disappointed with the dissolution of the commission whose hope was to share the history of this great nation with the next generation in order to make a more perfect Union,” former Governor Bryant told Y’all Politics.
The 1776 Commission did release a report earlier this week. You can read it below in its entirety.
The report states, in part, at the outset:
Today, however, Americans are deeply divided about the meaning of their country, its history, and how it should be governed. This division is severe enough to call to mind the disagreements between the colonists and King George, and those between the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War. They amount to a dispute over not only the history of our country but also its present purpose and future direction.
The facts of our founding are not partisan. They are a matter of history. Controversies about the meaning of the founding can begin to be resolved by looking at the facts of our nation’s founding. Properly understood, these facts address the concerns and aspirations of Americans of all social classes, income levels, races and religions, regions and walks of life. As well, these facts provide necessary—and wise—cautions against unrealistic hopes and checks against pressing partisan claims or utopian agendas too hard or too far.
The report goes on to outline the challenges to America’s principles, listing progressivism, fascism, communism, and racism and identity politics. Further, the 1776 Commission report states that national renewal can be achieved through the family, education and “a scholarship of freedom,” and reverence to laws.
The report goes on to state:
In order to build up a healthy, united citizenry, scholars, students, and all Americans must reject false and fashionable ideologies that obscure facts, ignore historical context, and tell America’s story solely as one of oppression and victimhood rather than one of imperfection but also unprecedented achievement toward freedom, happiness, and fairness for all.
Historical revisionism that tramples honest scholarship and historical truth, shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors, and teaches claims of systemic racism that can only be eliminated by more discrimination, is an ideology intended to manipulate opinions more than educate minds.
The 1776 Commission concludes by calling for resolve in teaching future generations of Americans an accurate history of the country so that all learn and cherish the founding
principles once again.
“We must renew the pride and gratitude we have for this incredible nation that we are
blessed to call home,” the report states.
Members of the 1776 Commission as appointed by former President Trump are listed below:
Larry P. Arnn, Chair
Carol Swain, Vice Chair
Matthew Spalding, Executive Director
Phil Bryant
Jerry Davis
Michael Farris
Gay Hart Gaines
John Gibbs
Mike Gonzalez
Victor Davis Hanson
Charles Kesler
Peter Kirsanow
Thomas Lindsay
Bob McEwen
Ned Ryun
Julie Strauss
Ex-officio Members:
Michael Pompeo, Secretary of State
Christopher C. Miller, Acting Secretary of Defense
David L. Bernhardt, Secretary of the Interior
Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Mitchell M. Zais, Acting Secretary of Education
Brooke Rollins, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy
Doug Hoelscher, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs
The Presidents Advisory 1776 Commission Final Report by yallpolitics on Scribd
