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Trump Announces Executive Order To “Promote Patriotic Education” – Just One Problem, It’s Unconstitutional

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Published on: September 18, 2020

President Trump’s words were stirring on Thursday as he announced that he would soon be signing an Executive Order to establish a national commission to promote patriotic education in opposition to the 1619 Project.  The only problem with the president’s soon to be released executive order is that there is zero authority for Congress or the president to engage in education at all.

First, here’s the text of the relevant part of President Trump’s speech at the White House Conference on American History on Thursday.

Our mission is to defend the legacy of America’s founding, the virtue of America’s heroes, and the nobility of the American character. We must clear away the twisted web of lies in our schools and classrooms, and teach our children the magnificent truth about our country. We want our sons and daughters to know that they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world. (Applause.)

To grow up in America is to live in a land where anything is possible, where anyone can rise, and where any dream can come true — all because of the immortal principles our nation’s founders inscribed nearly two and a half centuries ago.

That’s why we have come to the National Archives, the sacred home of our national memory. In this great chamber, we preserve our glorious inheritance: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

On this very day in 1787, our Founding Fathers signed the Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was the fulfillment of a thousand years of Western civilization. Our Constitution was the product of centuries of tradition, wisdom, and experience. No political document has done more to advance the human condition or propel the engine of progress.

Yet, as we gather this afternoon, a radical movement is attempting to demolish this treasured and precious inheritance. We can’t let that happen. (Applause.) Left-wing mobs have torn down statues of our founders, desecrated our memorials, and carried out a campaign of violence and anarchy. Far-left demonstrators have chanted the words “America was never great.” The left has launched a vicious and violent assault on law enforcement — the universal symbol of the rule of law in America. These radicals have been aided and abetted by liberal politicians, establishment media, and even large corporations.

Whether it is the mob on the street, or the cancel culture in the boardroom, the goal is the same: to silence dissent, to scare you out of speaking the truth, and to bully Americans into abandoning their values, their heritage, and their very way of life.

We are here today to declare that we will never submit to tyranny. We will reclaim our history and our country for citizens of every race, color, religion, and creed.

The radicals burning American flags want to burn down the principles enshrined in our founding documents, including the bedrock principle of equal justice under law. In order to radically transform America, they must first cause Americans to lose confidence in who we are, where we came from, and what we believe. As I said at Mount Rushmore — which they would love to rip down and it rip it down fast, and that’s never going to happen — two months ago, the left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.

As many of you testified today, the left-wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools. It’s gone on far too long. Our children are instructed from propaganda tracts, like those of Howard Zinn, that try to make students ashamed of their own history.

The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods, and lies. There is no better example than the New York Times’ totally discredited 1619 Project. This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom.

Nothing could be further from the truth. America’s founding set in motion the unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism, and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history. (Applause.)

The narratives about America being pushed by the far-left and being chanted in the streets bear a striking resemblance to the anti-American propaganda of our adversaries — because both groups want to see America weakened, derided, and totally diminished.

Students in our universities are inundated with critical race theory. This is a Marxist doctrine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed. Critical race theory is being forced into our children’s schools, it’s being imposed into workplace trainings, and it’s being deployed to rip apart friends, neighbors, and families.

A perfect example of critical race theory was recently published by the Smithsonian Institution. This document alleged that concepts such as hard work, rational thinking, the nuclear family, and belief in God were not values that unite all Americans, but were instead aspects of “whiteness.” This is offensive and outrageous to Americans of every ethnicity, and it is especially harmful to children of minority backgrounds who should be uplifted, not disparaged.

Teaching this horrible doctrine to our children is a form of child abuse in the truest sense of those words. For many years now, the radicals have mistaken Americans’ silence for weakness. But they’re wrong.

There is no more powerful force than a parent’s love for their children. And patriotic moms and dads are going to demand that their children are no longer fed hateful lies about this country. American parents are not going to accept indoctrination in our schools, cancel culture at our work, or the repression of traditional faith, culture, and values in the public square. Not anymore. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

We embrace the vision of Martin Luther King, where children are not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

The left is attempting to destroy that beautiful vision and divide Americans by race in the service of political power. By viewing every issue through the lens of race, they want to impose a new segregation, and we must not allow that to happen.

Critical race theory, the 1619 Project, and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda, ideological poison that, if not removed, will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together. It will destroy our country.

That is why I recently banned trainings in this prejudiced ideology from the federal government and banned it in the strongest manner possible. (Applause.)

Now, had he stopped there, it would have been just fine, but he continued and stepped out of his scope of authority, which is determined by the US Constitution, and I might add, the Bible.

The only path to national unity is through our shared identity as Americans. That is why it is so urgent that we finally restore patriotic education to our schools.

Under our leadership, the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a grant to support the development of a pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history. (Applause.)

We are joined by some of the respected scholars involved in this project, including Professor Wilfred McClay. Wilfred, please. Thank you very much. Welcome. (Applause.) Thank you. Dr. Peter Wood of the National Association of Scholars. Dr. Peter. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. And Ted Rebarber. Thank you, Ted. (Applause.) Thank you very much, Ted.

Today, I am also pleased to announce that I will soon sign an Executive Order establishing a national commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the “1776 Commission.” (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. It will encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding. Think of that — 250 years.

While I agree that we should have unity, that unity comes under the law, not “identity.”  Additionally, the unity I speak about is not what Donald Trump is promoting.  Instead, he is claiming that he will usurp the authority given to him in the Constituion and “restore patriotic education in our schools.”

Where did he get that authority?  Please, cite Article, Section and Clause, if you are able, but no one is able to do so.

Furthermore, since there is no authority for the executive branch nor the legislative branch to be involved in education, there has been a usurpation of spending through the National Endowment for the Humanities, another unconstitutional organization that has now been given the people’s money to develop a “pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history.”  Well, given that Trump believes that the tyrant Abraham Lincoln was a great president, I’m not so sure I can count on either his nor the NEH’s judgment to develop such an honest curriculum, but then again, I shouldn’t have to as there is no authority to advance such a thing.

In fact, if you want to know the authority given to the president, I would encourage you to look at the scope of his authority in the Constitution.

The President’s Enumerated Powers – Rulemaking by Executive Agencies & Executive Orders

Additionally, I would encourage you to look at Congress’ constitutional authority.

Enumerated Powers of Congress

Finally, on the The Sons of Liberty – YouTube, we bring on the Common Core Diva Lynne Taylor for our Rotten to the Core Wednesdays and she has beat this drum relentlessly, as has President Ronald Reagan’s former Education Secretary Charlotte Iserbyt and others:  There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to involve itself in education at all.

Lynne recently posted, “If you uplift tyrants who abuse power, you might wish to reexamine your heart.  I’m speaking up, regardless of the R or D, presidents have NO Constitutional authority to direct ANY part of education. Nat’l Commissions are simply change agents using unconstitutionally delegated power.”

Amen!  That’s exactly right.  And how do I know that?  First, the Constitution provides zero authority in this arena and second, 20USC §1232a. Prohibition against Federal control of education states:

No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, or to require the assignment or transportation of students or teachers in order to overcome racial imbalance.

Remember,

President Trump, while sounding patriotic to the masses, is actually violating the Constitution and US code as legislated by Congress.  In other words, he is breaking the law.

There’s just no nice way to put this.

Lynne adds some comments to this.

About that 1776 Commission

Posted by Common Core Diva on Friday, September 18, 2020

While one can appreciate the desire to have actual, real history taught to our children, the fact of the matter is that the real history of America has not been taught for more nearly 200 years, and this was something R. L. Dabney pointed out in his excellent little book On Secular Education when he warned of the North’s imposition of public education on the South, the reality is that neither President Trump nor Congress is authorized to be involved in education in the states.  Sadly, the people are ignorant of their Constitution, as well as their Bibles which command them to teach their own children (Deuteronomy 6:1-10).

For more on lawful executive orders and those which usurp the constitutional authority given to the president, take a look at Bradlee Dean’s latest article.

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