By a vote of 415 to 14 in the House, with unanimous support in the Senate, Juneteenth, June 19, which commemorates the day in 1865 when news of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reached Texas, has been declared a federal holiday
It is to be called Juneteenth Independence Day.
Prediction: This will become yet another source of societal division as many Black folks celebrate their special Independence Day, and the rest of America continues to celebrate July 4 as Independence Day two weeks later.
Why the pessimism? Consider.
Days before Congress acted, the Randolph, New Jersey, board of education voted to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. A backlash ensued, and the board quickly voted to rescind its decision.
Still under fire, the board voted to drop all designated holidays from the school calendar and replace them with the simple notation “Day Off.”
The school board had surrendered, punted, given up on trying to find holidays that the citizens of Randolph might celebrate together.
But the “day off” mandate created another firestorm, and the board is now restoring all the previous holidays, including that of Columbus.
The point: If we Americans cannot even agree on which heroes and holidays are to be celebrated together, does that not tell us something about whether we are really, any longer, one country and one people?
Do we still meet in any way the designation and description of us as the “one united people” that John Jay rendered in The Federalist Papers:
“Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people — a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs.”
Does that depiction remotely resemble America in 2021?
Today, we don’t even agree on whether Providence exists.
We hear constant worries these days about a clear and present danger to “our democracy” itself. And if democracy requires, as a precondition, a community, a commonality, of religious, cultural, social and moral beliefs, we have to ask whether these necessary ingredients of a democracy still exist in 21st-century America.
Consider what has happened to the holidays that united Americans of the Greatest and Silent Generations.
Christmas and Easter, the great Christian Holy Days and holidays of that era, were expunged a half-century ago from the public schools and the public square — replaced by winter break and spring break.
The Bible, the cross and the Ten Commandments were all expelled as contradicting the secularist commands of our Constitution.
Traditional Christian teachings about homosexuality and abortion, reflected in public law, are now regarded as hallmarks of homophobia, bigotry, sexism and misogyny — i.e., of moral and mental sickness.
Not only do Americans’ views on religion and morality collide, but we also seem ever more rancorously divided now on matters of history and race.
Was Christopher Columbus a heroic navigator and explorer who “discovered” America — or a genocidal racist? Was the colonization of America a great leap forward for civilization and mankind, or the monstrous crime of technically superior European peoples who came to brutally impose their religion, race and rule upon indigenous peoples?
Three of the six Founding Fathers and most of the presidents of the first 60 years of our republic were slave owners: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Polk and Zachary Taylor, as well as the legendary senators Henry Clay and John Calhoun.
A number of Americans now believe that Washington and Jefferson should be dynamited off Mount Rushmore at the same time the visages of the three great Confederates — Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Confederate President Jefferson Davis — are dynamited off Stone Mountain, Georgia.
From all this comes a fundamental question.
Is the left itself — as its cultural and racial revolution dethrones the icons of America’s past, who are still cherished by a majority — irreparably fracturing that national community upon which depends the survival of the democracy they profess to cherish?
Are they themselves imperiling the political system at whose altar they worship?
The country is not the polity. The nation is not the state. Force Americans to choose between the claims of God, faith, family, tribe and country — and the demands of democracy — and you may not like the outcome.
A question needs to be put to the left in America.
If your adversaries in politics are indeed fascists, racists, sexists, homophobes, xenophobes and bigots, as you describe them, why would, or should, such people accept and embrace your rule over them — simply because you managed to rack up a plurality of ballots in an election?
Free elections to decide who governs are, it is said, the central sacrament of democracy. But why should people who are described with every synonym for “deplorable” not reject the politics of compromise and instead work constantly to overthrow the rule of people who so detest them?
Winston Churchill called democracy “the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried”
Are both sides sticking with democracy — for lack of an alternative?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.” To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.
These Dishonorable liberal Democrat phony crusades have little or nothing to do with protecting the sensitivities of Black Americans or other groups and everything to do with the Democrats setting themselves up as their saviors. Their practice of patronizing groups cannot yield to the facts that the Democrat Party has a long history of racial discrimination. For their cause is not defending the oppressed or the offended but about making themselves look wonderful with their latest deceptive political Con.
It is ALL about Control, Power and Rule.
Where are the howls from the GOP about how ‘racist’ this is?? OH YEA< they (other than 14) voted WITH THE DEMENTED left, on this bill..
Are we still ” One United people, as John Jay of the Federalist Papers once said of America, ” Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one United people , a people descended from the same ancestors. ” because of the Marxists Democrat Party elites, having taken a page out our countries history, that America was a Nation of immigrants, still to also record what John Jay also said ” That America was ” One United people descended from from the same Ancestors, and not, as is true of the immigrants flooding our borders, coming from many different countries with no common ancestors to bind Americans together as was true at America’s founding.. The Marxist democrats take only the fact that America was a Nation of immigrants and use this fact to explain why we should accept all immigrants into our country….
IMO NO way in hell, are we “One people united..”
Just face it, according to liberals, our Country is evil! Also, according to liberals, we Conservatives are evil, we are homophobes, xenophobes, racist. Hey liberals, get out of our evil country. Once all of you liberals have left our Country, we will have law and order, we will have a free Country with no crime, we will have honesty.
Dem policy and legislation rots our Government, Law , Education Establishments, Media, Entertainment and thus society. This Dem Legislation , and bad worldview Supreme Court appointments are evil to the core.
Hungary Passed Legislation by a vote of 157 to 1 PROHIBITING PRO-LGBT MATERIALS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Their reason being ,” There are contents which children under a certain age can misunderstand and which may have a detrimental effect on their development at the given age, or which children simply cannot process, and which could therefore confuse their developing moral values or their image of themselves or the world.”
The US , Canada , and most of Europe have hundreds of Gender Medicine Clinics which mutilate Genitals of confused children, and youth by doctors and nurses. A Vancouver father objected and he is in jail, because of evil government legislation. The Muslims mutilate their daughters genitals so they will not feel pleasure also . Joe Biden and The Dems appointed a Muslim Supreme Court Justice to turn the US to a Muslim like justice system. This is bad news for the children.
IF our nation is so inherently racist, WHY THEN DO SO MANY MILLIONS of minorites, FLOOD INTO our nation, year after year?!
The truth isn’t of interest to the Democrat Marxist party, instead the Democrat elite are only concerned with having and maintaining their power over the people. The Democrat Marxist elite want to control a large block of of immigrant votes by offering welfare to all immigrants who vote for them so they can retain their power over the citizens This Quote explains what the Democrat elite are doing right now , and the outcome of the Democrats succeed in their agenda, ” When the government fears the people, there is Liberty, when the people fear the government there is Anarchy. “
This is how Babbling Biden and the dem-rats “Unify the Country”.
They’re off to a great start!
Ask Putin about how well the meeting went. This has turned into comedy show for all the world leaders viewing pleasure. Even with handlers and directions in his ears he still goes into the dark mindless ah ah ah ah’s. TOTALLY ill equipped to be president but I think most of us will agree having a dumb dumb in the office is better than Kamala. The whole thing is a farce and a horse and pony show. Lord hear my prayers, TRUMP BACK QUICKLY! It’s time we get some people OUT of the House spots, they’re so many I can’t count them all. Key is Nancy, Chucky, Schiff, Jackson, Clyburn, AOC and the squad, the Penguin, I could go on and on…………………
HE never ever had any intent to “Unify us”..
That was a load of utter balloney.
The Democrat party isn’t any principles except one, and that principle that drives the democrat, Marxists is ,To remain in power over the people….
I suspect that if you polled a solid sampling of black people the vast majority would have no clue as to what Juneteeth Day celebrates, why it might be important to black people, and even on which day in June it is celebrated.
When polls are taken of young people of all colors today most cannot explain the most basic historical facts. I’m talking about ‘challenging’ questions like “From whom did America fight for independence?” or “When was the Civil War?” or “Did the USA fight in WWII?” Some people can’t even name the 50 states and/or find them on a map let alone list the capitals.
Our school systems have failed for many years. The kids and young people will pay the price with their ignorance of the world around them.
In the left’s eyes, by utterly brainwashing millions of kids into the leftist ideology, to them, THAT WAS a success,
The Marxist school system, ran and controlled by other Democrat Marxists, hasn’t failed in their indoctrination of America’s youth who only hear the daily Marxist message drummed into their heads, that Message is , ” That America is controlled and ran by ” Greedy White Raced, Men and this is the reason for the Black man not succeeding in life, it’s all because of the White Greedy Old men denying them their rightful place in society, it’s not the individuals fault it’s because of slavery that was during Abraham Lincols time that the Black man is held back today , over 150 Years ago Sure, that’s the reason the Black man isn’t further advanced than they are…
ANd i find it ironic, that with all the calls to demonize the founders, and those who signed the constitution etc, that they would HONOR LINCOLN like this..
The liberal mindset seems to be to destroy America and replace it with a totalitarian government they control. As far as Juneteenth goes, blacks learned of their liberation at different times. In western Kentucky the black community has August the 8th celebrations since that is when news of black freedom arrived here. The intentions for this holiday designation may be good, but it should have received more thought.
As far as Columbus Day is concerned, this holiday is important because it should highlight a very important fact. World history would be significantly different if it wasn’t for the explorers who are willing to risk their lives in the interest of advancing mankind. Over the years I’ve run into a number of young socialist liberals who have demonized Columbus. Perhaps they should return to Europe, because without Columbus it is likely the Western Hemisphere would have remained undiscovered by the Old World.
I see Kamala made an appearance for that.
“Free elections to decide who governs are, it is said, the central sacrament of democracy. But why should people who are described with every synonym for “deplorable” not reject the politics of compromise and instead work constantly to overthrow the rule of people who so detest them?”
I will say it again: the word “freedom” has been taken to mean that anything and everything goes in this country. The principles and values that we were founded upon have been, and are continuing to be, chiseled away. Chaos, division, rejection of values, and societal upheaval are being used to destroy America.
Democrats have an anti white, anti Ameria agenda. They are replacing Americans with illegals and legions of omar refugees.
Biden is an incompentent disaster for America.
Vote for Americans, NOT democrats.
Something i have been saying since CLINTON was in office..
WHY SHOULD WE conservatives, ever ‘work with/compromise or the like, with a group of folks (the entire bloody DNC) that utterly DETEST US..?!
Juneteenth is a Texas celebration (possibly the surrounding states) to make it a national holiday shows an extreme lack of knowledge regarding history and facts.
Believe that activity is called “V I R T U E S I G N A L I N G”, one thing the Commie Left is so talented at doing.
Excellent article.
And I’d like to point out one thing…. In the Confederacy’s own documentation decreeing secession, they acknowledge that they were making this decision because of slavery… therefore, meaning that the Confederacy was officially going to be defined by slavery…. which we all know is a bad thing. And now, by declaring “Juneteenth” a national holiday, they’re trying have the whole of the USA being defined by slavery…. and the 600,000+ people killed in the conflict over it…. anyone else see the irony in that?
man look at all that hate in that picture!!!
its pure evil.
Ironically, as a Conservative, I find John Jay’s statement… “problematic,” in that the United States was never based on its citizenry being descended from the same ancestors. We are (were) a nation founded on shared ideals and principles, not on an ethnic identity.