Making a mockery of American history

It’s become a commonplace that many of the issues in our culture war are fights for control of the dictionary. What is a man? What is a woman? What is a citizen? What is a child?

But it’s also a fight for control of history. As George Orwell famously put it, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” According to a new Trump administration report, when it comes to the history of America, social justice radicals are currently in control of our nation’s most prominent history museum.

The 162-page report, released last week and entitled “Saving America’s Story,” demonstrates in detail how the Smithsonian Museum of American History has been ideologically captured by left-wing activists who have “problematized” American history at every turn in order to discourage patriotism and divide Americans on the basis of race, gender, and sexuality.

The report details the ways in which the activist leadership of the Smithsonian have intentionally altered the museum’s mission in order to address “the needs of historically harmed communities” (such as BIPOC, LGBTQ, and so forth). By adopting “restorative history” as a primary tool of social justice, the museum now seeks to address the various forms of systemic oppression it says are at the heart of the American story.

The result is unsurprising. The Founding Fathers are at best ignored and erased: There are no exhibits dedicated to the Pilgrims, Puritans, or even the founding generation (Washington, Jefferson, and the Continental Congress). When these figures are mentioned throughout the museum, they are inevitably regarded as “colonial oppressors” and agents of white supremacy. Rather than celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, the museum aims to “problematize” the founding, moving away from an Anglo-centric and “America first” mentality.

So if the museum now ignores classical American heroes such as the Pilgrims and the founders, what does it celebrate in their place? The answer is a laundry list of left-wing political causes, from illegal immigration to gender ideology.

The report highlights the way that key exhibits reframe and problematize American history: “While American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith deconstructs and reinterprets the American idea to mean revolution and resistance to persistent racial hierarchies and systemic flaws through petition and protest, Many Voices, One Nation reframes ‘our past’ to consist of cross-cultural encounters of ethnic, sexual, and racial identity groups seeking restorative justice, particularly immigrants.”

For example, under the banner of Restorative History, the museum casts “illegal alien political activism in heroic terms,” creating curriculum and exhibits that present illegal aliens as essential to America’s culture, economy, and society, as well as highlighting activists demanding amnesty and that ICE be abolished. The museum makes ample use of the monarch butterfly as a symbol for illegal alien activism (the museum’s director, Anthea Hartig, describes the “DACA butterfly” as one of her favorite things in the museum).

Another exhibit entitled Girlhood (It’s Complicated) is shot through with gender ideology and aims to upend the gender binary by insisting that gender is a social construct (not a matter of biology), and that some girls are born in the wrong body. The exhibit celebrates trans activists such as Jazz Jennings (a confused boy put forward as a “trans” girl). Not only that, but certain exhibits contain sexually suggestive material, from magazine covers depicting nude women to videos celebrating drag queens.

Perhaps the apotheosis of the report’s thesis appears in its description of a special display near the museum’s entrance. The display features a graduation gown with Monarch butterfly wings worn by Jairo Javier Morales, a “queer, Mexican, and undocumented” man who came out at his graduation.

Visiting the museum in April, my own impression tracks with the report. My family and I did not learn much about the Founding Fathers or the influence of Christianity on our nation, but I did learn that illegal aliens are the foundation of our nation’s greatness and that vaudeville lesbians of the 19th century literally built America.

The report doesn’t merely highlight the woke nonsense on display at the Smithsonian. It asks a more fundamental question: What should a national museum of American history do? And it proposes an answer: “Our conviction … is that such a museum should tell the American story clearly and fairly.” This includes both America’s achievements and its failures. But most importantly, it should “present America as a coherent nation and heritage worth teaching with gratitude and honesty.”

The Trump administration has done a great service in presenting this evidence to the American people. Now it is incumbent upon the American people and our elected officials to take action. The vice president of the United States serves on the Smithsonian’s board in an ex officio capacity. The Smithsonian is funded through congressional appropriation. Withhold funds until the Smithsonian Board cleans house. Alternatively, Congress can appropriate funds for specific exhibits with particular parameters, such as exhibits celebrating our Founding Fathers and the Christian influence on our nation. Reports are vital, but only if they lead to action.

The story of Aaron and the golden calf in the book of Exodus contains a subtle but important detail. After Aaron makes the calf, the people gather around it and proclaim, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4). As they abandon their God, they also rewrite their past.

On our 250th anniversary, America is in the midst of a great culture war. Reclaiming our history and our museums matters. A nation that rewrites its past to condemn its present will soon have no future to defend.