As I note at Breitbart, the National Archives has produced a report that declares themselves racist -- including, specifically, the Rotunda in which the nation's founding documents are preserved.
I don't think there could be any serious objections to adding exhibits to the Rotunda that reflect broader participation in the nation's founding. However, the casting of the nation's Founding as racist -- or, at best, incomplete -- is a real problem.
The report declares: "Freedom wasn’t fully chartered by the three documents in the Rotunda." That reflects what one might call a "soft" version of Critical Race Theory: not that the documents are racist as such, but insufficiently anti-racist.
President Trump offered a (p)rebuttal to that argument when he delivered a speech at the Rotunda last September: "America’s founding set in motion the unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism, and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history." In other words, freedom was inherent to the documents. Other, later documents simply elucidated and elaborate the original idea.
It is true that later documents -- like the post-Civil War amendments, for example -- added to, and subtracted from, the original text. But a nation that wants to survive must believe that its founding is transcendent. You can have an academic debate, or you can have a nation that preserves the right to that free academic debate, but if you only have the former, you won't for long.
https://www.archives.gov/files/news/archivists-task-force-on-racism-report.pdf
This is my first broadcast from the new office and studio in Washington, DC, where I'll be for a couple of years my neighborhood back in L.A. cleans up -- and as we follow the Trump administration from a little closer up than usual.
Topics:
- The anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump
- The escalating tariff battle with various different trading partners
- The future of the Middle East peace talks, and ongoing antisemitism
- The Jeffrey Epstein files and whether they mean anything at all
- The continued crisis of the Texas floods, and stories of heroism and survival
And more!
Special guests:
- James Rosen - Newsmax chief Washington correspondent
- Bob Price - Breitbart News Texas reporter, on the ongoing floods
- Robert Cahill - Trafalgar Polling, on a new alliance of reliable pollsters
- Rabbi Yaakov Menken - Coalition for Jewish Values - on Israel & antisemitism
Tune in: 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week’s portion tells the grand story of the prophet who tried to curse people of Israel and instead ended up blessing them.
I am reminded that these portions continue to be relevant anew, as this particular reading lent the title for Israel’s recent 12 Day War against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion.”
This week's portion includes the commandment of the red heifer -- one of the classic "irrational" commandments whose fulfillment is an expression of faith. It also includes the regrettable episode in which Moses strikes the rock.
I referred to this story in a wedding speech last night. Why was Moses punished for striking the rock in Numbers, when he struck the rock without incident in Exodus -- both for the purpose of providing water to the people?
The answer is that in the interim, the Jewish people had received the Torah, which is like the marriage contract between the people of Israel and God. In a marriage, you do not resolve things by breaking boundaries, but through love.
The additional reading, from Judges Chapter 11, is the story of Jephthah (Yiftach), a man whom the leaders spurn, but to whom they must turn to save the nation. The parallels to our present political circumstances are striking.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Fourth of July!
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