✝️ OFFICIAL SUNDAY OPEN THREAD

How The Smithsonian Quietly Erased America’s Founders

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here was plenty of fireworks in Washington, D.C. this past Summer to celebrate America’s 250th birthday; and, there were also fireworks in some Capitol hearings related to controversy developing at the nation’s museum; the Smithsonian Institute:

• Is there “woke nonsense” at America’s prestigious Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., dedicated to our nation’s history?
• Is Mickey Mouse somehow racist?
• Is politeness a sign of “white supremacy?”
• Is it appropriate to have an entire trans public display for children?

These were some of the questions & allegations voiced last month during House Oversight hearings about the stewardship of the museum entitled “Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian’s Efforts to Reshape the Past.”

Dr. Anthea Hartig is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She was forced to answer important questions from Congressional members. With a straight face, she declared, “The museum does not take sides in America’s political debates.”

However, the Trump Administration holds the museum has undergone an “extreme makeover” under her leadership, promoting DEI, a woke view on American history and culture.

In March, the administration released a report entitled, “SAVING AMERICA’S STORY: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage.”

The bigger sin of the Smithsonian is not so much a sin of commission, but of omission. This “Saving America’s Story” white paper begins:

“One of the most significant findings in this report concerns what is missing. It notes that a visitor to the Museum today will find no major exhibit dedicated to America’s Founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other Founding Fathers, the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans, or major moments of the American Revolution, such as Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. Instead, visitors will find Founders, such as Benjamin Franklin, introduced chiefly through their connection to slavery while their decisive roles in building the Republic and their anti-slavery efforts are minimized or ignored.”

This is astonishing when you really think about it. Our leading American history museum, sometimes called “America’s Attic” because it contains the artifacts of the nation throughout the centuries, is accused of ignoring “America’s Story” — and of all things, during the year of our 250th celebration.

The report adds:

“George Washington and Abraham Lincoln appear in didactics that say next to nothing about who they are, let alone why they matter. The Pledge of Allegiance is treated as a tool for instilling nationalism without serious engagement with its rich meaning.”

There’s no Washington or Lincoln at the museum, but instead, Public space reserved to promote trans ideology. When Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) asked Anthea Hartig, “Can a man become a woman,” Hartig responded, “that it is irrelevant.” Mace counter-argued it is an extremely relevant question, given the museum hosts a pro-trans display which can be viewed by children.  

Rep. Bradon Gill (R-Texas) also weighed in on the Smithsonian’s woke displays. Telling Fox News:

“We need an actual objective telling of American history, not [looking] back on the American story and grouping different people into racial or ethnic groups or groups based on their gender or their sexuality or their immigration status … we are one American people, and I think that’s what we need to see.”

In his End of Day Report, Gary Bauer, a former Reagan Administration official, opined on the whole scenario:

“Cultural barbarians have hijacked the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History. Thankfully, President Trump and congressional Republicans are fighting back, trying to save our history from the cultural barbarians.”

This controversy is not completely new. The last time I visited the museum was in 2018; and I was shocked to see how biased the displays were. They were really anti-America. You left thinking America must be one of the worst countries in the world.

What’s really at stake in this battle over our history? No less than our freedom, history and our future. Consider the warning from Daniel Webster, one of the America’s great statesmen of the 19th Century. His Senate oratory was legendary

On July 4, 1802, Webster declared:

“We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by … deliberate consultations of the people. Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in 6,000 years cannot be expected to happen often. Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.”

Hear. Hear. The curators of America’s Attic should take heed to keep this in mind. ✪