The Patriot Post® · The Left Defends an Indefensible Smithsonian

I can practically hear the groans as you scan the headlines of today’s stories: There goes Andrews again, ranting about the Smithsonian.

I mean, the Left’s dismissive reaction to the Trump administration’s scathing report on our nation’s history museum is to be expected, right?

And why does it matter, this fight between the Trump administration and a bunch of leftist academics and bureaucrats? Well, maybe you’re good with Christopher Columbus being labeled a “thief,” a “slaver,” and a “murderer.” Maybe you’re good with evidence-free suggestions that Ben Franklin conducted electric shock experiments on slaves. Good with Mickey Mouse being compared to “blackface minstrelsy.” And good with video clips of drag queens, and exhibits featuring crotch harnesses and chest binders, and with pages from a six-year-old girl’s diary in which she prays “every night for my penis to grow.” But I’m not.

Oh, have I got your attention now? Good.

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III called the Smithsonian “the glue that holds the nation together,” and in a sense, he’s right. The Smithsonian is the caretaker of the American Story. But Bunch also pooh-poohed the July 4 report from the White House Domestic Policy Council:

While there will always be room for improvement, this report is not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History. At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story. As public servants and the keepers of this institution, we are charged with helping a nation find understanding, hope, and clarity and as part of that duty, we are dedicated to excellence, reflection, and growth.

Not fair, eh? Did he actually read the report? Unlike the Left’s critique of the report, the report itself is replete with examples of the very ideological filth it criticizes. On the one hand, I’m sympathetic toward Bunch because he’s caught in the crossfire of this important battle amid the culture wars. But on the other hand, C'mon, dude.

This is Occupy Wall Street, but without the tents and the rapes and the feces and the hullabaloo. It’s part of the stealthy assault and quiet capture of everything that has made our country great — from the nuclear family to the Constitution to the free enterprise system.

The New York Times, not surprisingly, has joined the fray. And it does so by quoting the Organization of American Hysterians Historians:

“The National Museum of American History interprets America’s history through its vast collection,” it said. “This report’s objective is to punish it for doing that in a way that makes U.S. history accessible to and reflective of all Americans. The report is only the latest chapter in a broader, systematic campaign that now targets an institution that was never meant to answer to any single administration.”

Whether the Times wants to admit it or not, what’s been happening over the years at the Smithsonian is the embodiment of German leftist Rudi Dutschke’s “long march through the institutions,” and literally so — it’s the Smithsonian Institution. It’s what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci referred to as “warfare of position,” in which the Left ultimately overwhelms us not from without but from within; not by firing a single shot but by infiltrating our institutions and then indoctrinating us, like frogs in a pot. The question is: Are we too stupid to notice that the water temperature all around us keeps rising?

For a more balanced assessment of the battle, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board notes, “The report isn’t a cheerleading document seeking to hide America’s warts. What it seeks is a history of the U.S. that doesn’t resemble the 1619 Project in its partisan bias.”

Here’s more from the editors: “The Smithsonian American Art Museum and Smithsonian Learning Lab created a poster that says, ‘Whiteness as a concept is foundational to the history of the United States, actively shaping this country’s social, cultural, political and economic structures.’ Whiteness? This is today’s leftwing identity politics imposed on the past.”

Exactly so. The Trump administration’s scathing report has revealed countless examples of anti-American bias within the National Museum of American History, but the Establishment Left rejects those findings and instead has rallied to defend the museum.

This is part of the culture wars, and it’s a really important battle. No, it’s not as awful and pervasive as the Left’s capture of our educational institutions from kindergarten through college, but make no mistake: The American Story matters, and for the sake of not only future generations but of the nation itself, we can’t allow American history to become American hystery.

As in all wars, though, this history will be written not by the losers but by the winners. And just as it was against the British, and the Japanese, and the Germans, and just as it is against the Islamists, it’s essential that we win, and win resoundingly.

Because losing the Smithsonian is not an option.