| This week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with the latest piece in our ongoing civic institution series. American Civics portal editor Mike Sabo highlights the Tocqueville Program at Furman University. Co-directed by Professors Benjamin and Jenna Storey, the program offers students an education in the enduring ideas that have animated the best minds in philosophy, history, and politics for millennia. Through “exploring the moral and philosophic questions at the heart of political life,” students can rise to practice the art of self-government in their communities, towns, and cities. In light of the impending removal of Thomas Jefferson’s statue in New York City Hall, many responses have been flooding in that oppose this move. Historian Sean Wilentz writes that though Jefferson was a man of contradictions and sometimes great flaws, his triumphs such as authoring the Declaration of Independence, which includes the crucial yet “simple assertion that all men are created equal,” should be publicly celebrated. Wilentz prefers the statue to stay “in City Hall, where it’s stood for nearly two hundred years, as a symbol of the democratic values that New Yorkers hold dear.” Samuel Goldman contends that the “removal is disgraceful” and that Jefferson “is clearly being honored for composing an immortal argument for liberty and equality,” not his moral shortcomings. He also argues that removing the statue “diminishes the ideals” Jefferson “came to embody and the many Americans who feel a deep and abiding connection with them,” especially Jews. Jews have historically been a “widely despised and persecuted people who thrived in America like nowhere else” and thus “do not fit into the sharp distinction between oppressor and oppressed that characterized ideological ‘antiracism,’” Goldman notes. According to the ideology behind the statue’s removal, “Therefore, Jewish experiences must either be ignored or reduced to a monolithic conception of white supremacy.” Quoting George Santayana’s famous dictum, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Roger L. Simon argues that removing the statue could increase the future possibility of taking down the statues of other American heroes such as Benjamin Franklin, whom he calls “America’s own DaVinci.” Original Posts Mike Sabo, RealClearWire Essential Reading Samuel Kronen, City Journal For more than three decades, best-selling author and Hoover Institution senior fellow Shelby Steele has illuminated the psychology... In the News Jay Cost, Wall Street Journal Hillel Italie, ABC News Wilfred M. McClay, Law & Liberty Jared Marcel Pollen, Quillette Frederick Hess, The Dispatch Jeff Jacoby, Jewish World Review No Labels, RealClearPolicy Jennifers McDermott, AP Shoshana Bryen, Newsweek Hadley Arkes, Law & Liberty Ken Masugi, Teaching American History Stanley Kurtz, National Review Scott W. Stern, New Republic Doug Teschner, New Hampshire Business Review Roger L. Simon, Epoch Times Allen Guelzo, NPR 'Robert E. Lee: A Life' is a new biography that examines one of the most well-known and controversial Civil War figures. Author... Donald Drakeman & Jeff Sikkenga, American Idea In this episode of The American Idea, Jeff welcomes Donald Drakeman, Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Notre Dame and the Founding Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Chris Flannery, American Story I had some time on my hands, and before I knew it, I had time on my mind. Time flies, marches on, and sometimes just stands still... Jamal Greene, Michael McConnell, & Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center On April 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14023 forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court... Justice Clarence Thomas, Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation and the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at Antonin Scalia Law School hosts... Michael Warren, Patriot Week Learn how American liberty was threatened following the American Revolution. Explore how the Articles of Confederation... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories Nearly six decades ago, a young guitarist who went by the name of Dick Dale began playing dance music at ... On this date in 1919, Congress overrode Woodrow Wilson's veto to pass the Volstead Act, which set in place the ... It's late in the year to be reporting that the first game of the World Series has taken place and ... | 