| The curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal this week begins with an op-ed by Jack Miller, the founder and chairman of the Jack Miller Center. At RealClearEducation, Miller argues that the key to recovering American unity is a civic education grounded in the principles and practices of the American Founding. The rise of critical race theory and the 1619 Project has only widened our divide, he contends. Students should instead look to understand “our form of government, as well as our history of progress toward achieving the promise of our Declaration.” They should “learn about the American culture of freedom and opportunity that enables anyone to achieve success and has made our country a magnet for people from around the world.” Allen C. Guelzo reviews a new book on Abraham Lincoln by John Avlon, a former editor of The Daily Beast. Guelzo writes that while Avlon rightly highlights Lincoln’s virtues such as “empathy, honesty, humor and humility,” he mostly avoids discussing Lincoln’s strong political commitments. “Lincoln relentlessly dedicated his political life to deploying a domestic agenda of tariffs, banking and economic infrastructure-building,” Guelzo notes. He also points to Lincoln’s well-known “House Divided” speech, which “was a confrontational demand that the nation make up its mind over slavery and freedom, and become ‘all one thing or all the other.’” Though the country has gone through “moments like this before, and survived,” Guelzo concludes that making Lincoln into the mold of careful centrist obscures his political teachings. Danton Kostandarithes argues at The Federalist that despite his growing legion of modern day critics, Lincoln “did not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.” Yes, he approved the hanging of 38 Native Americans after the 1862 Dakota Uprising. What gets left out of the historical narrative is that he also “commuted 265 of the sentences,” “making a distinction between Native Americans who participated in ‘massacres’ and those who engaged in ‘battles.’” Kostandarithes says that we should thus “view the Lincoln Memorial not as a tomb to a flawless individual (a notion the self-deprecating Lincoln would assuredly have ridiculed), but as a step in Americans’ ceaseless quest for self-correction and expanding liberty” in light of our founding principles. Essential Reading Jack Miller, RealClearEducation In his Gettysburg Address at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pointed out that the United States was “conceived in... In the News David Withun, RealClearEducation Allen C. Guelzo, New York Times Bruce Schreiner, Kansas City Star Naomi Schaefer Riley, New York Post Clay Eals, Seattle Times Mary Niall Mitchell & Kate Schuster, Slate No Labels, RealClearPolicy Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capitol Chronicle Pete Sepp & John Hendrickson, National Review Christopher Brooks, RealClearPolicy Rafael Bernal, The Hill Ben Stimson, Fox News Megan Stewart, Newberg Graphic Colleen Long, Associated Press Jesse Greenway, History.com Kite & Key Media What is the president's job? Over the years, the answer has changed ... a lot.The Founding Fathers, worried about the president’s... Hannah McCarthy, Nick Capodice, & Sarada Peri, Civics 101 The modern presidency includes giving upwards of 400 speeches a year. How does the president find time to do it? They don't... Liz Evans, Jeremy Gypton, Tara Bartlett, & Tammy Waller, Rebuilding AZ Civics Thank you for joining us on our journey as we dive into Educating for American Democracy and discuss how with a team of... David Randall, E.D. Hirsch, Kelley Brown, & Ian Rowe, Pioneer Institute Pioneer Institute held a webinar on January 26, 2022 on “Civics 2.0: Educating for Self-Government,” with presentations and... The Editors, PlannedMan Race is complicated, and we don’t want to pretend to have all the answers. Okay, we don’t even want to pretend to have all any... Bob Woodson & Pete Peterson, Pepperdine School of Public Policy On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 Pepperdine School of Public Policy hosted the founder and president of the Woodson Center... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories I hope you had a nice Presidents Day weekend. For me, today's date is the easiest of the year -- ... Yoko Ono lived a charmed life. It did not last. Born and raised in Tokyo, she spent time as a ... It's Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, the day of the week when I pass along a notable quotation. Today's words of ... |
