The Civil Rights Movement was almost immediately turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders. The ideas that drove this change had been growing in America for decades, and they distorted many areas of policy in the half century that followed. 1/

Among the distortions was the abandonment of nondiscrimination and equal opportunity in favor of “group rights” not unlike those advanced by Calhoun and his followers. #AffirmativeAction #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 2/

The justification for reversing the promise of color-blind civil rights was that past discrimination requires present effort, or affirmative action in the form of preferential treatment, to overcome long-accrued inequalities. #oscillation #AffirmativeAction #IdentityPolitics 3/

Those forms of preferential treatment built up in our system over time, first in administrative rulings, then executive orders, later in congressionally passed law, and finally were sanctified by the Supreme Court. #woke #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 4/

Today, far from a regime of equal natural rights for equal citizens, enforced by the equal application of law, we have moved toward a system of explicit group privilege.. #IdentityPolitics #SocialJustice #RacismByAnyOtherName #woke #1776Report 5/

..a system of explicit group privilege that, in the name of “social justice,” demands equal results and explicitly sorts citizens into “protected classes” based on race and other demographic categories. #IdentityPolitics #woke #insanity #1776Report 6/

Identity politics values people by characteristics like race, sex, and sexual orientation and holds that new times demand new rights to replace the old. #IdentityPolitics 7/

Identity politics is the opposite of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s hope that his children would “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”.. #IdentityPolitics #RacialJustice 8/

Identity politics makes it less likely that racial reconciliation and healing can be attained by pursuing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream for America and upholding the highest ideals of our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. #1776Report 9/

Whereas the Declaration of Independence founded a nation grounded on human equality and equal rights, identity politics sees a nation defined by oppressive hierarchies. But this vision of America is actually not new. #HistoryRepeats #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 10/

While identity politics may seem novel and ground-breaking, it resurrects prior attempts in American history to deny the meaning of equality enshrined in the Declaration. #HistoryRepeats #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 11/

In portraying America as racist and white supremacist, identity politics advocates follow Lincoln’s great rival Stephen A. Douglas, who wrongly claimed that American government “was made on the white basis” “by white men, for the benefit of white men.” #1776Report 12/

Indeed, there are uncanny similarities between 21st century activists of identity politics and 19th century apologists for slavery. #IdentityPolitics #RacismByAnyOtherName #1776Report 13/

John C. Calhoun is perhaps the leading forerunner of identity politics.. In the context of American history, the original form of identity politics was used to defend slavery. #TruthAbout #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 14/

As American history teaches, dividing citizens into identity groups, especially on the basis of race, is a recipe for stoking enmity among all citizens. #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 15/

The modern revival of identity politics stems from mid-20th century European thinkers who sought the revolutionary overthrow of their political and social systems.. #IdentityPolitics #CriticalTheory #1776Report 16/

The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci argued that.. revolutionaries should focus on countering the “Hegemonic Narrative” of the established culture with a “Counter-Narrative,” creating a counter-culture that subverts and seeks to destroy the established culture. #CriticalTheory 17/

Gramsci was an important influence on the thinkers of the “Frankfurt School” in Germany, who developed a set of revolutionary ideas called Critical Theory. Herbert Marcuse, one member of the Frankfurt School, became the intellectual godfather of American identity politics. 18/

Critical Race Theory is a variation of critical theory applied to the American context that stresses racial divisions and sees society in terms of minority racial groups oppressed by the white majority. #CriticalRaceTheory #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 19/

Following Gramsci’s strategy of taking control of the culture, Marcuse’s followers use the approach of Critical Race Theory to impart an oppressor-victim narrative upon generations of Americans. #CultureWars #IdentityPolitics #woke #1776Report 20/

This work of cultural revolution has been going on for decades, and its first political reverberations can be seen in 1960s America.. The Civil Rights Movement came to abandon the nondiscrimination and equal opportunity of colorblind civil rights in favor of “group rights”. 21/

A radical women’s liberation movement reimagined America as a patriarchal system, asserting that every woman is a victim of oppression by men. #CriticalTheory #woke #1776Report #Feminism 22/

The Black Power and black nationalist movements reimagined America as a white supremacist regime. #CriticalRaceTheory #CriticalTheory #CulturalMarxism #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 23/

Identity politics divide Americans by placing them perpetually in conflict with each other. This extreme ideology assaults and undermines the American principle of equality in several key ways. #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 24/

First, identity politics attacks American self-government.. American self-government, where all citizens are equal before the law, is supplanted by a system where certain people use their group identity to get what they want. #IdentityPolitics #1776Report 25/

Second, by dividing Americans into oppressed and oppressor groups, activists of identity politics propose to punish some citizens while rewarding others.. This leads to a “cancel culture” that punishes those who violate the terms of identity politics. #CancelCulture 26/

Third, identity politics denies the fundamental moral tenet of the Declaration, that human beings are equal by nature. This founding principle provides a permanent and immutable standard for remedying wrongs done to Americans on the basis of race, sex, or any group identity. 27/

Fourth, identity-politics activists often are radicals whose political program is fundamentally incompatible not only with the principles of the Declaration of Independence but also the rule of law embodied by the US Constitution. #AntifaTerrorist #riots2020 #1776Report 28/

All Americans, and especially all educators, should understand identity politics for what it is: rejection of the principle of equality proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. #IdentityPolitics #CriticalTheory #1776Report 29/

As a nation, we should oppose such efforts to divide us and reaffirm our common faith in the fundamental equal right of every individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. #IdentityPolitics #CriticalTheory #CulturalMarxism #1776Report 30/30