Statesmanship’ as applied by the Left by Don Frost

By Don Frost

            Poor Mary Miller. She has much to learn about life in The Swamp.

            She’s the Republican freshman representative of the Illinois 15^th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. A mere two days after being sworn in she opened her mouth and inserted foot. You might think that a new arrival in the halls of Congress wouldn’t have had time to make enemies. Wrong. She’s a Republican, so every Congressional Democrat’s hand is turned against her.

            She gave a speech at a rally sponsored by a group called Moms for America. That’s bad enough because in “liberal” world Moms for America is a pretty suspect group of women. But it gets worse in this deadly paragraph taken from the speech she delivered before the group that has all of official Washington in a dither:

            “Each generation has the responsibility to teach and train the next generation. You know, if we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing, unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing: he said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’ Our children are being propagandized.”

            Tch, tch, Rep. Miller. You have a lot to learn. You never, ever mention that name – “Hitler” – unless it is accompanied by a string of damning adjectives such as “evil,” “monstrous,” “malevolent,” and “vile.” Even then you’re treading on thin ice if you say he got something – anything – right.

            Good grief! Even if Hitler had written in “Mein Kampf” that two plus two equaled four, we are instructed to condemn him as being totally, completely, and utterly wrong about that sum. Amid a flurry of righteous posturing sweeping Congress, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) actually said that: “It is absolutely repugnant, obscene, and unacceptable for any American . . .  to claim Adolf Hitler was right about anything.”

            Hers is a mindless knee-jerk reaction, something that required zero thought. And note the preponderance of her negative adjectives, “proving” she’s no fan of the late dictator. Other Democrats chipped in, adding their assessment of Miller’s words as “unfathomable and disgusting” and “garbage.”

            Following the Democratic playbook, every right-thinking person on the Left is demanding her resignation. Get used to it, Miller. Guard every word you utter. There will always be a Democrat somewhere eager to claim to be mortally offended by what you say. He or she will then go on to express outrage and demand your resignation.

            That’s what passes for statesmanship in The Swamp.

            Of course Miller apologized, using agonizingly familiar words: “I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused and regret using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history to illustrate the dangers that outside influences can have on our youth.”

            This apology was, of course, deemed unacceptable. On her Twitter account, her staff said, “Congresswoman Miller’s statement was a denunciation of evil dictators’ efforts to re-educate young people and similar efforts by Left-wing radicals in our country today.” Sounds reasonable. Certainly nothing that could be interpreted to mean she wished the Nazis had won WW II.

            Anybody who claims Miller’s speech suggests she approves of Nazism wants to see it that way. But more than likely, they know she’s every bit as anti-Nazi as they are and that they’re just making political hay.

            Miller did not say, hint, or suggest that Adolf Hitler was a swell guy or a wise and thoughtful social/political philosopher. She said he was right about only one thing, and, by golly, he was right. And Miller was bang-on right to say so. She was also right when she said, “Our children are being propagandized.”

            Hitler formed the Hitler Youth to indoctrinate German children into the Nazi way of thinking, of believing, of behaving. He was propagandizing them. Such indoctrination is taking place in classroom all across America today. “Liberals” don’t mind that at all because they’re the ones doing the propagandizing.

            That teachers are being ordered to brainwash their students is beyond dispute and heavily documented. Illinois teachers, for example, face a massive list of mandates – things they are required to teach – before they can teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. It comes under the heading Inclusive Curriculum Law (ICL). The latest entry to this list (it runs 11 pages) mandates that by the time an Illinois student finishes 8^th grade he and she will have been indoctrinated on the contributions LGBTQ people have made to the state and to U.S. history.

            Under “U.S. History” the ICL reads, “The teaching of history shall include a study of the role and contributions of African-Americans and other ethnic groups including, but not restricted to, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hungarian, Irish, Bohemian, Russian, Albanian, Italian, Czech, Slovak, French, Scots, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, etc., in the history of this country and this State.”

            Under “Women, people with disabilities” there’s, “All public schools must include in their curricula a unit of instruction studying the events of black history; particular topics . . . to include the history of the African slave trade, slavery in America, and the vestiges of slavery in the United States. . . .  Each school district shall provide instruction about disability history, people with disabilities, and the disability rights movement. . . . All public schools must include in their curricula a unit of instruction studying the events in the history of women. . . .  the study of events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression. . . . Holocaust and Genocide Study. All public schools must provide a unit of instruction studying the events of the Nazi atrocities from 1933 to 1945 and include lessons studying other acts of genocide to include those in Armenia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Sudan.”

            Those are only highlights. Go to any state’s Board of Education website and search for mandates. Read them all then dare assert Miller was wrong to say, “Our children are being propagandized.” She had it right when she said it. Hitler had it right when he said, “Whoever has the youth, has the future.” And Moms for America had it right when they said, “Truth is truth regardless of the source.”