OPINION:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to root out and remove those exhibits at the nation’s Smithsonian museums that display “improper ideology” — that is, the kind that advance Marxist and anti-American values and viewpoints. Let the purge go forth! Let the leftists cry all they want.
The left hates it when conservatives insist on using tax dollars for pro-America purposes.
For far too long, Democrats have taken the more than $1 billion that taxpayers provide each year for the Smithsonian Institution and spent them on the likes of programs that show why white people suck, why America sucks and why all of Western society sucks. An example?
“The order singles out the National Museum of African American History and Culture as problematic, claiming that it informs visitors that ‘hard work,’ ‘individualism’ and ‘the nuclear family’ are aspects of ‘White culture,’” The New York Post wrote.
Does that then imply “Black culture” would promote laziness, obedience to government and broken homes?
Certain principles should be unifying.
Certain values and behaviors and societal standards should be shared and celebrated.
And prior to the takeover of the Democrat Party by card-carrying communist-minded members — prior to Barack Obama’s days of presidency — it was pretty much assumed that both hard work and families that were headed by hard working parents, i.e., a mother and a father, i.e., a woman and a man, were core foundations of prosperous and healthy societies. Sanity, for Democrats, has long left the room, though. Now, it’s tough to find party faithful who dare to even claim the existence of two sexes, and two sexes only — which leads to Trump’s next issue with the Smithsonian.
His order also sets the American Women’s History Museum on notice that celebrating males as female athletes is a no-go.
Trump’s executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is his latest punch at the far-leftism that has invaded and rotted America’s culture. Weeks ago, he turned attention to the Kennedy Center, one of America’s premier performing arts’ venues, and set wheels in motion for a return to classier, more traditional days — you know, before all the drag queens booted the genuinely talented musicians and theater performers. Yes. Those days.
Now comes a much-needed cultural course correction with the 21 museums and multitude of research centers and educational facilities that comprise the Smithsonian Institution.
Trump’s order sets Vice President JD Vance, who’s a member of Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, to oversee a cleanup of museum content to determine what “remind[s] Americans of our extraordinary heritage” versus what does not. Out with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and in the with the ‘e pluribus unum’; out with the deceptive narratives about the nation’s inherent racism and in with the displays American Exceptionalism.
The arts matter.
Truthful history matters.
The culture matters — and what’s taught in the cultural world matters.
If we don’t have a nation of people who understand the history of America, and instead have a nation of people whose hearts and minds are filled with disgust and contempt for Western ideals, for traditional values and for all that’s beautiful and admirable — then we have a nation in cultural decline. And always, always, always, culture feeds politics.
As the culture goes, so, too, the politics and government and structures of civil society.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.