The Daily Signal - What's Next for 1776 Commission and the Fight to Preserve US History

Episode Date: January 22, 2021

One of President Joe Biden’s very first executive actions was to disband the 1776 Commission and remove the commission’s report from the White House website.  Mike Gonzalez, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and member of President Donald Trump’s 1776 Advisory Commission, joins the show to explain the purpose of the new report and why Biden was so quick to discredit it. Read the full report here. Purchase Mike Gonzalez's book, "The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free," here. We also cover these stories: President Joe Biden signs over 10 executive orders for coronavirus vaccinations and testing.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress will move ahead with former President Donald Trump’s impeachment even as Biden calls for unity in the nation.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is now working with the Biden administration and says the U.S. will remain a part of the World Health Organization.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, January 22nd. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Virginia Allen. One of President Joe Biden's very first executive actions was to disband the 1776 Commission and remove the commission's recent report from the White House website. Mike Gonzalez, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and member of President Trump's 1776 Advisory Commission, joins the show to explain the purpose of the new report and why Biden was so. so quick to discredit it. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts

and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. President Joe Biden on Thursday signed over 10 executive orders for coronavirus vaccinations and testing. In a Wednesday night call with media, Jeff Zinnett's Biden's coronavirus coordinator said, for almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government

for any strategy, let alone, comprehensive approach to respond to COVID, and we've seen the tragic cost of that failure, saying that Biden's plan will fundamentally change course of pandemic and get us back to our lives and loved ones. The Biden administration also says a plans to use the Defense Production Act to speed up the creation of vaccines and testing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress will move ahead with former President Trump's impeachment, even as President Joe Biden is calling for unity in the nation. Pelosi said the article of impeachment will be sent to the Senate, but did not say when. She argues that an impeachment trial will not so further division in the nation.

The fact is that the President of the United States committed an act of incitement of insurrection. I don't think it's very unifying to say, oh, let's just forget it and move on. That's not how you unify, Pelosi said Thursday during a press conference. The House Speaker added that it is our responsibility to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And that is what we will do. Just because he's now gone, thank God, you don't say to a president, do whatever you want in the last months of your administration. You're going to get a get out of jail free card because people think we should make nice and forget that people died here on January 6th. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief

medical advisor to the president, who for a time sat on former President Donald Trump's Coronavirus Task Force, is now working with the Biden administration and said Thursday that the U.S. will stay part of the World Health Organization. The Trump administration had previously decided to leave the WHO, which the Biden administration has retracted. Fouchi said via the the Washington Examiner that I am honored to announce that the United States will remain a member of the World Health Organization. Fauci has also been named part of the WHO's examiner. Executive Board taking the place of Assistant Secretary of Health, Admiral Brett Gronor. New York Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee,

is asking the FBI to launch an investigation into Parlor's role in the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Users of the social media platform Parlor may have used the website to plan the riots at the Capitol, and Maloney says the House Oversight and Reforms Committee will be looking into these claims. In addition to examining the role Parlor may have played in the planning of the capital attacks, Maloney is also asking the FBI to investigate Parlor's financing and its ties to Russia, which the intelligence community has warned is continuing to use social media and other measures to sow discord in the United States and interfere with our democracy. The trust of the American people in media is plummeting. According to research from Edelman,

shared with Axios. Fifty-six percent of Americans agree with the statement that journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations. And 58% of Americans think that most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public. Additionally, when Edelman again pulled Americans post-elections, Axios reported that the figures had deteriorated even, even further, with 57% of Democrats trusting the media and only 18% of Republicans. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Heritage's Mike Gonzalez as we discuss the 1776 Commission and their report and President Biden's decision to remove the report from the White House website

and disband the commission. Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 2 million times every year. God forbid that my mother has ever faced with a scenario where she has had to be. has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians, protected by professional armed security, didn't strip her of the right to use the firearms she can handle most competently. To watch the rest of Heritage expert Amy Swearer's testimony on assault weapons before the House Judiciary Committee head to the Heritage Foundation YouTube channel.

There you'll find talks, events, and documentaries, backed with the reputation of the nation's most broadly supported Public Policy Research Institute. Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe and share. I am joined by Mike Gonzalez Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow in the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy and a member of President Trump's 1776 Advisory Commission. Mike, thanks so much for being here.

Virginia, it's always a pleasure to be on with you on these podcasts. Oh, thank you. It's such a pleasure to have you back. The 1776 Commission and the report you all just released Monday has received a lot of attention. We're going to get into President Biden's action against the Commission in just a moment. But for anyone who's not familiar with the Commission or the report, could you just explain a little bit about President Trump and why he specifically created the 1776 Commission at the end of 2020? Sure. He created it in November. and we were selected sometime in December.

And the purpose of the commission was to restore the teaching of history to his proper role throughout America, not just at the school level, but as a civic engagement of all Americans. And the reason for that is, you know, we're very open about it, is that the left has been using history as just another instrument in order to advance its purposes to the left, especially the culturally Marxist left, there is no fundamental truth. The way we are taught history is just one narrative that can be replaced with another narrative. So there's no transcendent truth. Facts did not happen. It's just in the telling of the facts. And what they would call the hegemonic narrative can be replaced and ousted by a counter-narrative. And that is not really the proper use of history.

Facts are bipartisan and nonpartisan. Things happened, bad things happened, good things happened. By looking at what we as a commission and in the report proposed is looking at the primary sources, looking at the constitution, looking at the declaration, looking at the federalist papers, the Northwest Ordinance, all the important documents. looking at the letters that were written at the time, the speeches, what the founders said in analyzing that. And of course, we can have a debate about what these things mean. And we have to be humble about that.

Historians should be humble about how to debate historical facts. But the thing that can not be had is a political agenda. History is very important. It gives it's the same thing to, history is to a nation, what memory is to an individual. And we can imagine how dislocated we would be if we were to wake up one morning and not have any memory of who we are or where we came from. So really in an effort to remind the American people of our history of that, of where we have come from, the commission released a report on Monday. I don't know if President Biden

read the report, but I don't think that he'd even taken the oath of office yet. before the report was pulled down from the White House website. And then President Biden announced shortly after he was sworn in that he would be disbanding the commission. Why do you think Biden took these actions? Yes, you know, it was amazingly quick. It was lightning. I guess the report must have been anathema. And, you know, early this morning, I got up really early. I'm working on another the book. And I was reviewing an interview that Angela Davis had with Alicia Garza, the founder of the Black Last Matter movement. Angela Davis, of course, is the communist. She's still a communist member of the Communist Party, USA, who was in prison in the 70s as a Black Panther, and she's a strong

influence on Black Lives Matter. And she was telling Alicia Garza that the interview took place just three days after Trump's inauguration in 2017. And she was telling Alicia, as she was telling Alicia Garza, you know, the reason he won is because the other candidate by whom she meant Hillary Clinton had not, was not seen as properly expressing the views of your movement, the views of the new movement, meaning the Black Glass Matter movement. And I think Biden, who was vice president then, or rather just prior, I think he's internalized this, and he is going to, he's given every indication that he is going to side with the very extreme woke left in his party for the reasons that Angela Davis spoke of.

Well, that's certainly disturbing to hear you say that. If you have the opportunity to sit down with President Biden, even this afternoon, and talk with him about the work of the commission, why it's so important to our nation, about the report, what would you want to tell him? Yeah, I don't know, Joe Biden. I've never been in a room with him, I don't think. My very first column, as a journalist, my first opinion column in 1987 was about Joe Biden, and I still have it in the drawer of my desk here at home.

But I have an impression of him as actually an amiable guy. You know, I don't think he probably has a single-wook bone in his body. just Irish Catholic guy from Pennsylvania, I'd love to overbear with Biden. I don't agree with his policies. I never agreed. I don't think I've ever agreed within a single thing he's done. But I would love to sit with him and try to explain to him why having a nonpartisan approach to history, not viewing history as a cudgel to change America, to change our future, to take over history

and change the narrative of history in order to change our future, why that is so important and why it may be, he may believe that it's politically intelligent for him to do so, but it would be very bad for the country. So considering what we have seen from President Biden so far, do you think it's possible that he's going to create his own commission to look at America's history? And do you expect liberals, including lawmakers, to take any moves to promote their views of history in the near future. He doesn't need to do that.

The left has already done that. The left has done that with the 1619 project of the New York Times, which is the very epitome of what I have been describing, this attempt by the left to take over history, change it according to its lights so it can change our future. In the case of the 1619 project, it's an interpretation of history by looking at all the worst things of America, I'm believing that this is who we are, that really we are, that America does not begin in 1776 when the declaration is signed or does not begin with the Constitution when it's ratified in 1788 or drafted, framed, as we put it in 87. But it begins in 1619

when the first group of Africans arrive on a pirate ship to what is now Virginia. and that all of our history since then has been about slavery, and it is still the central issue of our time. And that is just not the case. The 1619 project, which is the equivalent of the 1776 Commission for Biden, actually claimed, began to claim that the revolution was waged because they wanted to, they thought that Britain, the colonial power, was going to take away the slaves and the power of southern colonies to have slaves. And then they have to pull back from that because they came on their withering criticism from historians of all sides.

And before the 1619 project, you have Howard Zinn, with his very influential, the people's history of the United States, published in 1980, and is still one of the top selling books on Amazon. And Howard Zinn is just not a historian. He said, fabulous. He makes up stuff. There is a single footnote in his book. So Biden has no need to create this because all of this has been created for the left by the left already. Well, and so much of the purpose of the commission and of the 1776 report is really to do exactly that, to push back on the narrative of the 1619 project to say, wait a minute, we need to look at what we're teaching our kids.

in school. We need to look at this radical left agenda where it's coming from, what the effects are that it would have on our nation. So going back to the report for a moment, could you just explain a little bit further of what exactly is in this report and what the 18 members of the commission were really seeking to achieve by creating this report? We were just trying to give a forthright, non-partisan view of history. What happened? You know, describe the ideals that pushed a man such as Jefferson and Madison and Washington to create the Constitutional Republic that we now call home. Talk about their, you know, the compromises they had to make, the horrible compromises they had to make, slavery being the most important one. But

but also explaining, you know, as Abraham Lincoln said in the third debate with Stephen Douglas, that neither the founders nor any of the people of the United States in the 1770s or in 1780s believed that slavery would still be around in the mid-19th century. And the reason that it was is because the southern slave owners understood the threat inherent in the ideals of the Declaration and the right defended by the Constitution. And they set out, starting in the 1820s and even earlier, to really try to undo all of that, just like they undid the Northwest Ordinance and its prohibition on the importation of the institution of slavery to the new territories and the new states. You know, that goes away with the Missouri Compromise, the Cancer Nebraska Act and so forth.

So we get to a point where this can hold no longer. And that point is obviously 1861 and the state seceding and the beginning of the horrible war that cost 600,000 lives. So that is really what we want to describe what this is about. And we also go ahead and describe identity politics to which I myself devoted a book, The Plot to Change America, which was published in July. And unfortunately, it's selling quite well. I say unfortunately because although I like the fact that my book is selling well, it is selling well because our nation erupted into violence and riots in the summer of 2020.

So we also describe identity politics and things like that modern things that are taking place contemporary things, not just history. And those who make up the 18 member commission, it's a really powerful group of individuals that Larry Arne, the president of Hillsdale. College. He's the chair of the commission. Carol Swain is the vice chair, Victor David Hanson, who writes a number of pieces on the Daily Signal website for the Daily Signal website, is also on the commission and is a historian. And I want to read just a piece of what he wrote about the report in his recent column for the Daily Signal. He writes, the report does not whitewash the continuance of many injustices after 1776 and 1787. In particular, chattel slavery centered in the South and voting reserved only for free males.

So how did the report handle America's past mistakes and failures, especially on that issue of slavery? Could you just speak to that a little bit more? Sure. I mean, one of the attempt to explain is that obviously the founders in 76 believed that that if they had said no, no, we must remain consistent with our principles, the principles we have stated, and none of the 13 colonies, once we have liberated ourselves from Britain, can continue to have slaves. If they had said that, if the northern colonies, as they wanted to, had said that the southern colonies would not have waged war, would not have united

themselves with the northern colonies. And that is the reason why the northerners accepted what the southern colonies insisted upon, but we do strive to demonstrate that they believed that this was going to be solved very, very quickly. And if you want to, for example, the people who say, well, the Constitution enables slavery, but the Constitution actually, Madison goes out of his way to make sure that the word slave or slavery are not mentioned in the Constitution. so he uses euphemisms. And he states clearly that he does not want to honor this institution by mentioning it, mentioning it in the Constitution.

Jefferson, likewise, in his first draft of the declaration, is very strong against slavery. And then that is taken out on the editing again, because you had southern colonists who insisted on this. And the revolution, the men who were leading the revolution, who wanted to lead the revolution, needed to eject Britain from North America, or at least from the 13 colonies. Well, and despite the fact that the report does point these things out, and, you know, in my view, I think creates a very kind of balanced view of history, not denying the sins of the past, but also saying, okay, how can we move forward? the report has still received a lot of criticism from the left.

CNN called it racist, The New York Times, said that there were no historians on the commission. What's your response to the criticism that the report has received? That is untrue. Victor Davis-Hanson is a historian. He's a classical historian. And that CNN article that you referenced, I actually went right away on social media

and tweeted at the author. You know, it is a tentative journalist. that if you make a claim in the headline or the lead, it should be backed up somewhere on the body of the article. But the body of the article makes no attempt at pointing out where there's any racism in the report. It was astonishing to me to read that. And I just think even the AP report that I saw today,

you know, the wires used to be a place, I've worked in the wires in my day, I used to be a journalist, where you could just get the straight, facts, and that is just no longer the case. Yeah, it is, it's been wild to see the response that's been so vocal and oppositional from the left to this report. I think it's very telling.

And I think most Americans can agree on the fact that facts don't change. History is history. What has happened has happened. Where the disagreement and the contention really comes is in the perception and the interpretation of those events. So, Mike, how do you respond to those who say, we've been. been interpreting American history and the founding wrong? Well, I think interpretation can only go so far and you need to produce evidence. And if you're going to make a claim, such as the 1619 project

does, that the founders, the main goal of the founders was to preserve slavery, you do need to have a document that way they discussed this. And there is none. There is no evidence. nowhere do any of the founders say this, nowhere in the newspaper articles of the time, does any of this discussed? So you have to go to the primary sources and produce evidence. You have to produce evidence in court, and you have to produce evidence in history. And when the left does this, when Howard Zinn does this, they don't feel like I said, Howard Zinn does not have footnotes. Yeah. So how do we move forward? I mean, we're seeing this kind of battle between the far left with things like the 1619 project and now this wonderful report presented by the 1776 Commission. Do you think we're going to continue to see this kind of pitched battle between the left and the right over history?

Oh, my God. Yes. I mean, I think that the left, this horrendous event that took place. in January 6, were a violent mob attacked our capital. Now the left is going to use this to drive their agenda forward and to try to repress any hint of not just conservatism, but anything that is, you know, the center lane or in the center of the spectrum or not sufficiently hard left. So I think that, you know, we still have. we're going to have to really dig in and defend the truth.

We're going to have to defend American values, American principles against an onslaught from a left that now feels that it's got all the levers of power and that it can do anything at once. So what ultimately, I guess, is at stake in specifically in the classroom, when we look at what is being taught our students, what curriculum is being promoted, What are your thoughts on kind of how we move forward on that front? Well, I mean, I think that these battles are waged locally, right? We don't want to have a national curriculum like some countries do. That's not really the Constitution does not have education as a federal matter.

It is really not just in a matter for the 50 states. It's a matter for the 14,000 school boards that we have in the country. And that makes it hard because you have to have 14,000. strategies. And the hard left is content to have one strategy. They do want to have a national curriculum and one that makes Americans hold their country and they're finding documents in contempt. But we don't want to have as a solution in national curriculum. So we need to be in court. Look, already educators, people forming study groups have already contacted me over because I've been doing a lot of media on the 1776 Commission.

And hopefully what we will see is people sharing this and using it as a study guide. That is, if you're a parent and you see that your child is taught how it was in, as two of my three kids have been. And the other one has not been taught how it was in yet because he is still in middle school, but he will be soon taught how he was in as he enters the law. latter years of middle school, if they've history as any guide, you have to contact the teacher, as I have, and point this out. And the teachers know, because you're not the first parent who's picked up the phone and asked what the heck is this. Yeah, well, I'm glad that you're one of those

parents, Mike, who is picking up the phone and calling that being involved is so important. For the future of the commission, even though President Biden has just been on the commission, Dr. Larry Arne, he's the chairman of the commission. He says, your work is going to to continue. So what are the next steps? Well, we're talking about that just now. You know, it hasn't been 24 hours yet. As we said, we're going to continue to meet. And we're going to we have, we're hosting the report. In one of its first acts, the Biden administration stripped the commission's report from the White House website. It's an amazing, you know, display of where the priorities are. So what we did is we moved it.

to the Heritage Foundation, we're very proud to have to. We can be downloaded for free, heritage.org, or we can also, people can also go to Hillsdale College. They have it too, but they can see it on our website. Look, this is going to be a very long battle. As I said, I wrote a book, The Plot to Change America on this. And I will continue to write about this. And we, that's us individually, but as commissioners, hopefully we will continue to meet, yes, and pursue our work. Well, we'll be sure to put the link in today's show notes for the full report where you can find it on the Heritage Foundation website, as well as a link to Mike's book, The Plot to Change America. Mike Gonzalez, thank you so much for joining us today.

It's entirely, as always, always, always, always a pleasure. Thank you. And Scott will do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast. on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening, and we'll be back with you all on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

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