So, smart moms in two homeschool
social-media groups of which I’m a member are super-excited about Hillsdale
College’s free “Constitution 101” course. “Hillsdale’s conservative, so it must
be teaching Christian-centered history,” they say.
“Hillsdale doesn’t accept grants
from the federal government or participate in federal financial-aid or
student-loan programs. How principled,” they opine. “Rush Limbaugh and Mark
Levine both endorse Hillsdale as being an ‘authority on the Constitution’, so
it must be quality curriculum,” they hope.
Hey now, not so fast. Let’s not
take all these assumptions on face value.
For years, I’ve been receiving and reading Hillsdale’s monthly
mailed newsletter Imprimus, which highlights guest lectures, speeches by visiting
professors, and articles by intellectuals associated with the college. It
sometimes features valuable articles by modern thinkers I respect and offers up
opinions that are not status quo. But not always.
In fact, Hillsdale as a place of learning is overall a neocon
institution. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, like
history professor Brad Birzer, and his wife and history lecturer Dedra Birzer.
Much has been written and
discussed about neoconservatism.
In short, they were ex-Trotskyites who abandoned the left decades ago, and they
and their descendants have been pushing for foreign interventionism, open
borders, and giving up on the culture war, all while claiming to be for
“Founding principles.” These wolves in sheep’s clothing pretend to be
patriotic, yet undergird the very ideologies that are tearing America apart.
“… With the modern displacement by
the Neocons of the traditional (and Southern) conservatives and their
opposition to the growth in government and to the destruction of those bonds
and traditions that characterized the country for centuries, the results we
observe around us do not augur well for the future.”
Larry P. Arnn, who delivers the first video lecture, is president of
Hillsdale and also on the Board of Trustees of the Heritage Foundation – a
neocon think-tank that alleges to advocate for limited government and fiscal
responsibility, but simultaneously lobbies for foreign entanglements and “spreading
democracy” through bombing campaigns. In other words: globalism a la the
military-industrial complex while America burns.
This isn’t guilt by association.
Rather, it’s just connecting the dots. So, is it any wonder that I’m skeptical
of this free Constitution course? Therefore, I signed up to see what all the
fuss is about.
One need look no further than the welcome email. The “about” section
describes how the course will dive into “the Declaration of Independence
and The Federalist Papers,” yet no mention
of The Anti-Federalist Papers.
So, already we know that the curriculum is slanted toward the Hamiltonian view
of America, and not the decentralized view of Founders like Patrick Henry,
Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Sam Adams, Richard Henry Lee, and James Monroe.
Thus, Hillsdale is planting their flag on the hill of empire, not that of
states’ rights. THIS is a problem, my friends.
With the most charitable view possible, I understand that this
could be an oversight. After
all, many learned people don’t even know that there’s a collection of writings
called The Anti-Federalist Papers, which argued that the U.S. Constitution would grow the
federal government and eventually lead to an all-powerful executive branch akin
to monarchy. Prescient, wouldn’t you say?
In fact, if it wasn’t for
the anti-federalists, we wouldn’t even have a Bill
of
Rights – the only fleeting safeguard against federal overreach
and the complete eradication of our God-given liberties. These amendments sure
ain’t a cure, but can you just imagine how even more embroiled in tyranny our
lives would be without it?
Okay, this was probably just an
innocent mistake, you say. So then, let’s take a gander at the “overview”
portion of the email. Hillsdale faculty who teach the lecture series tell us
that “American political history is defined by three great crises.”
Number One: the American
Revolution. No duh.
Number Three: progressivism. Yep,
couldn’t agree more.
But Number Two? Hmm. Here’s what
they say.
“The second crisis was the crisis
over slavery that culminated in the Civil War. While the Founders had opposed
slavery in principle, but had been forced to compromise with the institution in
practice for the sake of the Union, the rise of the ‘positive good’ school of
slavery in the South marked a turn away from the Founders’ principles, and
their practice. In response, Abraham Lincoln explained and defended the
Founder’s approach.”
No, no, no. This is complete
historical revisionism. It’s the stuff of Marxist Eric
Foner, Straussian Harry
Jaffa, and plagiarist and “Lincoln idolater” Doris
Kearns Goodwin, who’s wont is to demonize Robert E. Lee as a foot
fetishist. Yet, these snake-oil salesmen are all lauded as the popular “historians” of
the Washington elite.
Why? Because they and
their self-righteous ilk,
like Victor Davis Hanson, Dinesh D’Souza, Jonah Goldberg, Ben Shapiro, and all
the talking heads at Fox News (save Tucker Carlson), use this misinformation to
construct a narrative of America as an “idea” that wasn’t realized until St.
Lincoln “freed the slaves” and smashed those evil racists below the Mason-Dixon
Line.
America must be cleansed of her “original
sin” of slavery. It’s
all presentist rubbish. Lincoln was no friend of the black
man and certainly no freedom fighter.
In fact, no American’s ideology has ever been more contrary to Founding principles than
was Dishonest Abe’s. Because of his totalitarianism and subsequent worship, we
now have a federal government that micromanages every aspect of our lives, as
well as increased social
division. We have lost states’ rights and voluntary association,
which were cornerstones of America’s founding. We have attained the “idea,” and
people couldn’t be any unhappier. Kinda makes Number Three seem silly, now
don’t it?!
We are living in the Hamiltonian vision of America, which
metastasized into the cancer known as Lincolnian
nationalism throughout the 20th century and has devolved into
today’s “managerial state” (as the late Sam Francis called it). Out with the
voluntary compact of sovereign states. In with the cult of Unionism and pegging
Confederates as the heretics.
It is this “propositional nation” mythos which is the basis for
all this “reform”
we’re drowning in today. It has opened the door for secular-humanism, radical
egalitarianism, and universalism.
It has smashed localism for centralization; destroyed equal justice under the
law for the evils of “equality;” routed traditionalism for post-modernism; and
annihilated self-determination for statism. The tale is how the neocons and
their uber-leftist cohorts push for “permanent revolution.”
And to do this, they must incessantly tear down the traditions
that rooted Jeffersonian America up until 1861. Since the progressive notion of
“exceptionalism”
was fashionably spreading across the growing 19th-century landscape, the
remnants of subsidiarity that survived only in the South had to be extinguished
to attain the nation-state. And because it is still the only place where this
Jeffersonian ideal exists, her people must be maligned and their culture razed.
In the name of “progress,” the South must continually be demonized and
distorted in order to “deify the ideaof America.” To attain this new world order, the “pogrom against
Southern history and symbols,” as historian Clyde Wilson describes it, must
carry forward. It is the linchpin for the con.
Today, the invasion (Third-World socialists, instead of Yankee
soldiers and carpet-baggers) and total
war(political correctness, cultural genocide, and anarcho-tyranny,
instead of amassed Federal armies invading, killing, raping, pillaging, and
burning cities to the sea) may look different. But make no mistake, puritanical-progressive
conquest and Reconstruction still roll on. There may not have
been 700,000 deaths … yet, but the goal is nonetheless the same.
“The
agents of Big Conservatism are just as responsible as are their leftist
counterparts of seeking to fundamentally transform America by radically
rewriting its history.”
If Americans get this wrong (meaning, the real crisis that
occurred from 1861-1865 and the ensuing cultural Marxist “remaking” of America
that has followed unabated), we cannot fully understand any history, much less have a
firm grasp on current events, keen eyes for charlatans, or an understanding of
modern threats which imperil any shreds of liberty that may be salvaged from
the Lincolnian wreckage.
Like all good propaganda, the Hillsdale hearsay is peppered with
grains of truth, giving it the illusion of fact. Christian homeschoolers,
please do your homework before buying into this dangerous paradigm. Don’t get
conned. After all, there’s nothing more important than truth.
Just because something’s free
doesn’t mean it’s worth your time or money … or soul. In fact, it will end up
costing your children (and their posterity) way more in the long run.
• For more on neoconservatism,
dig into the voluminous writings of American sage Patrick J. Buchanan, historian Boyd
Cathey, and retired humanities
professor and author Paul Gottfried.
• For the truth about the War
Between the States, check out the work of stalwarts the Kennedy Brothers,
historian Clyde Wilson and professor Thomas
DiLorenzo, the blogs of yours
truly (many of which are linked within this story), and
articles and podcasts by historian Brion McClanahan and the indispensable Abbeville Institute.
• And for politically
incorrect curriculum, please consider purchasing real history courses at Liberty Classroom and McClanahan Academy. I promise: they’re worth
every dirty Lincoln penny.
Liked it?
Take a second to support Dissident Mama on Patreon!
