3/6/2023

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal leads off with the latest op-ed from Adam Carrington of Hillsdale College. Carrington asks the important question if using categories derived from social class as a lens through which to analyze our present-day political divisions violates the principles of the American Founding. No, Carrington argues. In fact, the Founders themselves “were keenly aware of class divisions,” he writes. None other than James Madison argued in Federalist 10 that society “is divided into different interests and parties” – a situation Madison took as given in political life, not as something that could be overcome. Carrington notes that people from different classes, following the argument of judge Theophilus Parsons, “make distinct, helpful contributions to the pursuit of justice.” “While operating according to majority rule,” he reasons, “our system seeks to integrate these different elements into wise and moral policymaking – a kind of checking and balancing of interests toward the common good.” Carrington closes his op-ed by noting that these “ever-present divides must be channeled toward good and steered away from bad. We must seek justice, affirming human equality and liberty even as we recognize distinctions among us.”

Brenda M. Hafera of the Heritage Foundation continues her work of exploring what American history museums are teaching founding principles and which ones are eschewing such civic education for other goals. Previously looking at James Madison’s Montpelier, Hafera turns her attention to the Lincoln Cottage, which she says features “social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and programming” that “is infused with critical race theory.” In fact, she writes that both the Lincoln Cottage and Montpelier are “owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns 27 historic sites around the country” and “has $412 million in assets.” It “asserts that historic preservation must ‘actively advance justice and equity” and “confront and address structural racism within our own institutions.” To counter this influence in civic education, Hafera argues, “Telling the complete story of America doesn’t mean we ignore our shortcomings, but it also doesn’t mean we gloss over our triumphs,” Instead, “Demoralizing our children will at best make them indifferent to our country’s demise, and at worst ready revolutionaries in the project of tearing it down.”