by Dr. Thomas Patterson | Mar 25, 2021 | Opinion
By Dr. Thomas Patterson |
On his first day in office, President Biden unilaterally eliminated the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, which had written the 1776 Report as the only action of its brief tenure.
The Report (which is well worth reading) had been met by full throated hysteria from the Left, although in any other age it would have been regarded as informative and moderate. The report was written in response to the 1619 Project, now being introduced to school children nationwide, which holds that the introduction of slaves, not the Declaration, was the seminal event in American history.
The Report was not intended to plow new ground but to educate Americans about their unique and sometimes complicated history. The Report emphasizes how unique for the times was the founders’ commitment to political and personal liberty as well as the natural equality of all. It reviews the founding principle of natural rights endowed by our Creator, for which government is the safeguard.
The founders knew that previous attempts at republican government had floundered primarily due to class chaos and/or tyranny of the majority, so several safeguards were built in to prevent any group or branch of government from accumulating excessive power.
The written constitution gave substance to the founding principles, creating a unique combination of durability and liberty. Our precious freedoms of speech, religious liberty and the right to bear arms are specifically protected in amendments.
But the report doesn’t whitewash historical injustices either, such as the continuation of slavery. Yet the commitment to equality was heartfelt and today we know the result. Slavery was eliminated by a bloody Civil War 70 years later and the union was preserved.
It’s hard to defend the extension of slavery into the 19th century, but the historical probability is that if the founders had refused to compromise initially, the union would have fractured, creating a permanent slave nation. The suffering of those slaves bought immense blessings for their descendants.
The report also describes other threats to the constitutional order, such as fascism and communism, both of which were significant threats in their time. Progressivism, which argues we are better off surrendering our liberties to expansive, paternalistic government, is a current challenge.
Moreover, resurgent racism, the claim that race, gender and sexual preference define who we are rather than remain incidental to our shared humanity, is in direct contradiction to the Declaration and Constitution.
The report stresses that because slavery and voting restrictions were antithetical to our founding principles, it was actually the Constitution that provided the eventual basis for their elimination. Two of the great historical figures in the ending of slavery and achieving full constitutional rights for blacks, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, agreed.
Both argued for realizing and enforcing the founders’ vision. They recognized the Constitution as the great freedom document empowering black liberation.
Tragically, school children today are taught, and so growing numbers of Americans believe, that America’s history is primarily the saga of implacable bigotry and exploitation by the European descendants who founded the republic.
Critical Race Theory blames the purported debacle on the innate racism and claims of superiority supposedly held by all whites, an inborn characteristic not shared by other races. Students are taught to loathe their own country for its insidious but pervasive evils.
But as the late Walter Williams reminded us, American blacks post-slavery made greater gains, over severe obstacles, in a shorter time frame, than any racial group in history. Their unprecedented success, even though it has been hindered by the modern welfare state, speaks not only to the courage of a people but to the land of opportunity in which they lived.
The 1776 Report recounts that government of, by and for the people, the rule of law and equality before the law are part of our great national heritage. It reminds us that there is much about America to love, not because it is perfect, but because self-criticism and expected improvement are innate to our national character.
In 2021, the report was effectively spiked by the President of the United States. Generations of Americans who served and died for their country would have found that a crushing disappointment.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
by Pastor Drew Anderson | Mar 24, 2021 | Education, Opinion
By Pastor Drew Anderson |
“School Choice is the civil rights issue of today.” These powerful words are from a powerful civil rights icon named Reverend HK Matthews. Rev. Matthews made this statement on a video he recently provided in his support for Senate Bill 1452 which is legislation that will help low-income families receive the best education possible through a school choice program called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts or ESA’s.
Rev. Matthews marched in Selma, Alabama in 1965, demonstrated with Martin Luther King Jr., was beaten, and was jailed 35 times in his advocating for equality, so if anyone is qualified to speak on civil rights, it is Rev. Matthews. At 93 years old, he is considered a living legend and is still fighting for civil rights, and that fight is for school choice.
I agree with Rev. Matthews because I was a product of school choice myself and know personally what a lifesaving tool it is. As a poor black kid from the south side of Chicago, I was able to attend one of the best private schools on a football scholarship and going to that school allowed me to achieve my dreams of playing in the NFL.
Education is the one great equalizer that can provide the best way out of a bad situation, it was for me and I know that this is especially true for our low-income and minority children.
Some people ask me, ‘What is school choice?” and put simply, it is the freedom for parents to have their child receive whatever education they think is best. We know that all children don’t learn the same, so having different education options is crucial. Options include district, charter, and private schools, online/virtual options, in-home tutoring, micro schools, pods, or whatever helps with each child’s individual learning needs.
Remember, education dollars are really just tax dollars from parents, so parents ought to be able to have a say on how their dollars are spent on their kids’ education.
Rev. Matthews and I are not alone in supporting school choice for our students especially during this dire time where students of color are failing at record numbers due to distance learning. In committee, Senator Paul Boyer referenced a very recent poll conducted in Arizona by Cygnal (named by the New York Times the most accurate pollster in the nation) which had irrefutable results:
- 77% of Arizonans believe that COVID has caused students to fall behind in their learning because of the mass school closures and distance learning.
- 75% said they support school choice.
- 73% said low-income kids in Arizona should have access to an ESA to help them catch up in their learning loss (only 12% disagreed).
The poll shows that minorities and Democrats, of which I am both, support school choice and ESA’s even more so than Caucasians and Republicans. This only reinforces what we are seeing both nationally and in Arizona, that people of all parties and race support low-income and black and brown students (who are now about 12 months behind their white counterparts) to receive the help they desperately need. While this disparity has always been a problem in the minority community, COVID has made it even worse.
All of this brings me to the recent vote on Senate Bill 1452, legislation that would provide ESA’s to low-income families which will allow them to use their tax dollars to provide the best education for their children. Even though Democrats like myself (and the 73-75% of Democrats surveyed that support school choice and ESA’s for low income kids), not one Democrat has yet to vote for this needed legislation.
On top of that, the Democrat Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman even sent her lobbyist (paid by public tax dollars) to oppose this bill when it was heard in Committee last week.
They keep saying they want to increase funding to schools, but we should care more about students rather than buildings, that’s why it’s called per-pupil funding, not per-school funding. We need to get out of the mindset that we need to prop up and support physical schools ahead of supporting kids.
This leads to my disappointment of the anti-school choice group Save Our Schools, who also testified against the bill. Their problem starts with their name as they are more interested in supporting brick and mortar schools and the funding that goes to them then they are in supporting or “saving” our students.
In closing, to address those who will not support giving low-income and minority kids every option possible to make up learning losses from COVID, I once again refer to the words of Rev. Matthews and say, “Shame on you!”
(Drew Anderson currently serves as Lead Pastor of Legacy Christian Center in Phoenix and the Chaplain of the NFL Alumni Association in Arizona, and played linebacker in the NFL for the Denver Broncos and Arizona Cardinals)
by J. Christian Adams | Mar 23, 2021 | Opinion
By J. Christian Adams |
Congress is considering a bill that would strip Arizona of one of its most basic powers – the power to govern their own affairs.
A monster 700 page bill called H.R.1 has already passed the House of Representatives that takes away power to run Arizona’s elections and send it to Washington D.C. The bill would do so many bad things there isn’t space to cover it all.
It would mandate ballots to roll in ten days after the election. It bans voter ID. It prohibits Secretary of State Katie Hobbs from cleaning voter rolls from deadwood, a task she has gotten very good at.
H.R.1 takes the power away from the people’s representatives to draw legislative lines. It even mandates that criminals convicted of voter fraud get their right to vote back!
That’s just the beginning. It also pays political candidates running for Congress a salary with your tax dollars, as hard as it is to believe.
Not only is H.R.1 full of bad ideas, it fundamentally transforms the relationship between Arizona and the federal government. The most fundamental power the states kept in the Constitution was the power to structure their own political system.
If the states did not keep this power 234 years ago under the new Constitution, there would not have ever been a United States. The politicians in Congress supporting H.R.1 want to undo that original Constitutional agreement. They are the new nullifiers, trying to extinguish the original designs of our founding documents.
Power is best kept closest to the people, not in Washington D.C. Our elections are decentralized and given to the states to run because decentralization helps preserve individual liberty. The founders knew when power is centralized, especially power over elections, bad things tend to happen.
Elections certainly have consequences. But there are limits to what Congress can do, even a Congress completely controlled by the Democrat Party.
America has gotten this far because our Constitutional bargain kept power over elections with the states. Nobody in Washington D.C. has the power to undo that bargain. If they try, it will be a destabilizing blow to our Constitution.
Christian Adams is the President of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a former Justice Department attorney and current commissioner on the United States Commission for Civil Rights.
by AZ Free News | Mar 23, 2021 | Opinion
A culture is far deeper than politics. It’s a national identity encompassing history, education, arts and entertainment, science, health, relationships … everything constituting the core values of any country.
Individualism has traditionally been the common denominator anchoring all other aspects of America’s cultural distinctiveness. Valuing sovereignty of the individual makes American culture exceptional; therefore, “Cancel Culture” warrants attention.
>> READ MORE >>
by AZ Free Enterprise Club | Mar 19, 2021 | Opinion
By Free Enterprise Club |
How much longer will the government allow Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and Apple to run amok? Is their penchant to play speech police enough? Google-owned YouTube has a history of deplatforming and demonetizing conservative organizations. And by now, you probably know that Twitter didn’t hesitate to ban President Trump while he was still the President of the United States.
Or what about their influence on this past November’s election? Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg alone gave hundreds of millions of dollars to election offices to influence local elections. And as you can probably assume, it wasn’t to ensure the process remained fair and nonpartisan.
Or could it be Big Tech’s uncanny ability to collude with each other to serve their own interests? Just ask Parler how it went when Apple, Google, and Amazon conspired to remove the new social media company from the internet—an objective that Apple still appears to be committed to.
>> READ MORE >>
by AZ Free News | Mar 19, 2021 | Opinion
Early this month, Democrats pushed through President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pork barrel COVID-19 bill with only Democratic support. Then, House Democrats passed H.R. 1, the so-called “For the People Act,” in a totally partisan 234—193 vote.
There is a reason you are seeing all these party line votes. It is because the Democratic Party is not operating as individuals representing distinct districts of Americans. The Democratic Party is operating as a machine—a machine designed to drive a single agenda and impose it nationwide.
In vote after vote, we are watching Democrats, many of whom represent politically mixed, diverse districts and states, falling in line to vote for whatever Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tell them to—with no regard for what the people they represent back home want. No Democratic Senator or House member seems to care or question what is in these bills. They are simply doing what they are told.
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