The extreme, religious right-wing conservatives have won yet another significant victory in their efforts to force their world view down the throats of unsuspecting Americans. I personally don’t care what they choose to believe. But I take HUGE issue with their feverish evangelical approach to forcing everyone else in the nation live by their narrow belief system. In fact, I resent the hell out of anyone, right or left, forcing their beliefs on me, let alone forcing them on unsuspecting children to whom they didn’t give birth!
Knowing they could never pull this off in California, the conservative movement targeted Texas, the state that gave the nation George W. Bush. In a 10 – 5 vote along party lines, the Texas Board of Education voted to approve the following conservative tenets being taught in their state’s Social Studies curriculum and supported by the state-adopted textbooks:
- stress the superiority of American capitalism
- question the founding fathers commitment to a purely secular government
- present Republican political ideologies in a more positive light
I am only mildly humored that the people in this movement frequently and publicly outright deny that the founding fathers demanded the separation of church and state. Their successful efforts here in Texas clearly admit that this is a core tenet that formed this nation. The religious right wants to force our nation to become the very thing we were founded to escape! And, to my horror, they are succeeding!
Make no mistake, this is a carefully planned, well executed strategy by the ultra conservative think tanks. They have turned their initial claims of their own personal religious persecution into the wholesale religious persecution of the entire nation. The end result will be religious tyranny, a return to the middle ages.
This decision in Texas has enormous ramifications for the entire nation—hence why it was targeted. The school textbook industry sells more textbooks in California, but too many people here have diverse thinking. But Texas is ripe for the picking. The good people of Texas think conservatively—very, ultra conservatively. Texas has the second largest textbook purchasing power in the nation. This is significant.
Now, the textbook industry will rewrite the Social Studies textbooks so they can sell them in Texas. This means the remainder of the nation will be forced to buy the drivel with which the ultra conservatives want their children in Texas indoctrinated. Mark my words: This is a political victory of the highest order with long term ramifications of the most serious kind.
The extreme right-wing conservative think tanks have taken the minds of many unsuspecting Americans with their ownership of FOX so-called “news.” They have taken ownership of the conservative Republican party of which I was once a part. They have manipulated to control the highest court in the land. Now they are seeking the minds of the nation’s children. This is serious! My country is actually under assault!
These extremists have quietly and patiently executed their strategy well under the banner of traditional values, heritage, and the homeland for decades. The only way I think Americans can fight this momentous trend to force the nation to live by a narrowly-defined, prescriptive set of religious values that divest diversity, deep thinking, critical analysis, social justice, economic opportunity for all, open mindedness, tolerance, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of faith practice, et. al., is to support countervailing strategies that are just as well planned and executed. As I’ve said, people who have divergent opinions and thoughts are the carefully selected target.
And as I’ve said before, I’ve become increasingly disgusted with what my nation is rapidly becoming, where the will of the few is increasingly being inflicted on the many in wealth aggregation, religious practice, legal policy, and now school curriculum. The extremist conservatives are well funded and organized at the grassroots level. It’s time to stand up to them in an equally well funded grass roots effort. The problem: unlike the radical conservative thinkers of their movement who can manipulate their masses with a highly defined, carefully crafted agenda of fear, open minded people who think critically lack a central focus around which to organize.
We have lacked a motivating rallying cry around which to centralize our efforts. Let this be it: preserving our true American heritage from those extremist conservatives who are rapidly redefining it and marginalizing everyone who thinks differently from them!
Where are all of the libertarians that want the freedom to live their lives as they personally define the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness?!
Tim is so not happy!
Related articles
- Texas Textbook MASSACRE: ‘Ultraconservatives’ Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum (huffingtonpost.com)
- Texas Approves Conservative Curriculum (politics.slashdot.org)
- Texas conservatives rewrite history | Richard Adams (guardian.co.uk)
- Texas Becomes Laughingstock Once Again: State Board of Ed Determines History Is a Liberal Conspiracy (schoolsmatter.info)
- Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards (nytimes.com)
- Texas ed board adopts social studies standards (sfgate.com)