#electoral bonds explained

[rightnewshindi]

Electoral Bond: सुप्रीम कोर्ट बार एसोसिएशन ने की अपने अध्यक्ष की निंदा, कहा, पत्र लिखने के लिए नही किया था अधिकृत

Electoral Bond: सुप्रीम कोर्ट बार एसोसिएशन ने की अपने अध्यक्ष की निंदा, कहा, पत्र लिखने के लिए नही किया था अधिकृत

Supreme Court Bar Association: सुप्रीम कोर्ट बार एसोसिएशन (एससीबीए) ने अपने अध्यक्ष आदिश सी. अग्रवाल द्वारा राष्ट्रपति द्रौपदी मुर्मू को लिखे उनके उस पत्र में व्यक्त विचारों की निंदा की है जिसमें उनसे चुनावी बॉण्ड योजना मामले में शीर्ष अदालत के फैसले पर राष्ट्रपति संदर्भ लेने का आग्रह किया गया है। अग्रवाल के विचारों से खुद को अलग करते हुए बार निकाय की कार्यकारी समिति ने 12 मार्च को जारी अपने…

[sharemarketinsider]

Adani Group Faces $250M Bribery Scandal—Impact on Stocks and Future Risks

🚨 Adani Group Stocks Tumble After Major Bribery Allegations! 🚨 What does this mean for the future of India's top conglomerate and its investors? 📉 Discover the impact, risks, and potential opportunities in this unfolding story. Click to read more! #AdaniGroup #StockMarket #Investing #BusinessNews#Adaninews

[calledbyflowers]

im so sorry but like..... i fink atheism is actually an identifying characteristic of left-liberal politics at least in a us context. like in the sense of politics as establishing an us vs them like a crucial part of the "them" for the left-liberal is the white male rural christian (the leftist for them is just a left-liberal who is confused and can repent and become an ally in cheering on the democrats in the spectacle of electoralism) and like atheism is part of a central myth of being smarter, superior, knowing better and being right about everyhting. and like not being arent dumb rednecks who believe in religion cuzt heyre smart intelligent educated dogs who believe in science and stuff bwehhhh

and like atheism projects a loathing and disgust that can b attached both to the targets of imperial violence which they r the beneficiaries of and to the them that is defined within their own country and among their own ppl to explain why everything is bad (this being attached in different respects obvs the white male christian american is a figure to be laughed at for the fmost part a joke a mockery a silly and detestable thing which is to be feared only because its stupidity could impact your whole country which to you means all of the human race and like yknow umm the supposed muslim religious radical in the left-liberal collefctive unconscious is a figure who is principally to be feared and more importantly as non-human. the christian american is simplky a destestible human. the muslim is considered a threat and can be killed freely without having commited a cardinal sin-perhaps it is bad to do so but in the way that causing an unwanted miscarriage is like bad but its not murder u dont in doing so sentence urself to deaht)

like the left-liberal analysis is "cuz theyre r these bad mean white christians who r bad and white and christian" and i dont wanna pretend that this is any material or concrete form of oppression like this only smthn w one specific strain of the liberal political tendency but i think it is interesting to speculate on the role that this identity construction which embraces atheism (or some kind of multicultural spuritial practice without specific theologies and ontological commitments - though the two often overlap) as a way to justify their position in society and provide them w an enemy which grants them unity and who thehy can complain abt it w friends is yknow this dumb crazy christian whos so crazy and christian and like thats a social bond it helps lube up the left-liberal social bond to make them cohere as a distinct strain of the liberal poltiical tendency what doe this mean? idk just a funny observe

[bhaskarlive]

SC rejects plea seeking SIT probe into electoral bond ‘scam’

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a Special Investigative Team (SIT) probe under the supervision of a retired apex court judge into an alleged scam in poll financing using electoral bonds.

During the hearing, the bench presided over by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud observed that the ordinary course of law may remedy the allegations raised in the petition, and asked advocate Prashant Bhushan to explain as to why the top court should interfere in the matter.

Source: bhaskarlive.in

[zingoor]

Electoral Bonds | The Biggest Scam in History of India? | Explained by D...

[mohibburrahman]

Electoral Bonds | The Biggest Scam in History of India? | Explained by D...

[sushilayadav1990]

Electoral Bonds Verdict: Supreme Court’s Landmark Decision Explained

[buglecourier]

"115 Crores Frozen, Don't Have That Much": Congress On Bank Accounts Row

The Congress today faced a temporary hurdle after the Income Tax department froze its main bank accounts, including those of the Youth Congress. However, the party swiftly challenged the move, and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal granted relief by de-freezing the accounts until a final hearing next week.

The Congress issued a clarification stating that the party is mandated to ensure that a sum of ₹ 115 crore has to be maintained in their bank accounts. The amount has to remain untouched in compliance with the directive from the tax authorities, implying a freeze on these funds.

"This means that ₹ 115 crore have been frozen. This ₹ 115 crore is much more than we have in our current accounts," the Congress said.

In a press conference earlier today, party treasurer Ajay Maken described the move as a "disturbing blow to the democratic process". The freeze reportedly stems from a tax demand of ₹ 210 crore raised by the Income Tax department, a move that the Congress claims is politically motivated and strategically timed to disrupt the party's election preparations.

Democracy doesn't exist; this is like a one-rule party, and the principal opposition party has been subjugated. We seek justice from the judiciary, media, and the people," Mr Maken said.

The Congress leader said that the party has taken legal action in response to the freeze, with the matter currently before the income tax appellate tribunal. In a press conference, Mr Maken explained that they chose not to disclose the information earlier as the hearing is pending.

The party learned about the freezing of its accounts yesterday, and the party's lawyer Vivek Tankha said that a total of four accounts have been affected. Banks have been instructed not to accept or honour Congress' cheques, with the frozen funds to be submitted to the Income Tax department.

Mr Maken claimed that in the election year of 2018-19, the party submitted its accounts 45 days late, but freezing the accounts is an extreme measure. He argued that there have been cases and precedents where such actions were not taken.

"We have given the names of all MLAs and MPs who have contributed, based on the Manmohan Singh committee report," Mr Maken stated.

The Congress leader claimed that timing of the freeze, coming just ahead of the crucial general elections, raises suspicions about the motives behind the Income Tax department's actions

"Right now, we have no money to spend. Electricity bills, staff salaries, our Nyay yatra, everything is impacted. Look at the timing; this is clear," he said. "We have only one PAN, and the four accounts are all linked."

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge voiced his apprehension, stating, "Intoxicated with power, the Modi government has frozen the accounts of the country's largest opposition party - the Indian National Congress - just before the Lok Sabha elections. This is a deep blow to democracy."

"The unconstitutional money that BJP has collected will be used in the elections, but the money we have collected through crowdfunding will be sealed. That is why we have said that there will be no elections in the future! We appeal to the judiciary to save the multi-party system in this country and secure India's democracy. We will take to the streets and fight strongly against this injustice and dictatorship," he added, in a post on X.

This development comes on the heels of the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment, striking down the electoral bonds scheme. The electoral bonds scheme, introduced by the government on January 2, 2018, was seen as a solution to replace cash donations and enhance transparency in political funding.

[thesecrettimes]

Reviewing El Salvador’s Bukele Predictions for 2022: What Went Wrong?

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador and die-hard Bitcoin enthusiast, formulated a series of predictions about the behavior of bitcoin and the crypto ecosystem for the past year. These included the top price of bitcoin, the influence of the cryptocurrency on U.S. elections, the issuance of the volcano bonds, and also the construction of Bitcoin City. However, he missed the mark on most of them.

Bukele’s Predictions for 2022

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, one of the biggest promotors of bitcoin in Latam, and the man behind the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in his country, made a series of predictions about the cryptocurrency world and its movements for 2022. The predictions touched on issues like bitcoin pricing, the influence of bitcoin on politics, and also the development of several El Salvador-specific developments related to Bitcoin. The first prediction, revealed in a tweet on Jan. 1, 2022, had to do with the price that bitcoin would reach, calculated by Bukele to be around $100,000. This did not become true, as the maximum price that BTC reached was around $47,500. The second of Bukele’s predictions stated that two more countries would adopt bitcoin as legal tender. This also failed to become reality. However, St. Kitts and Nevis did announce it would be exploring the possibility of making bitcoin cash (BCH) legal tender by March 2023, “once the safeguards to our country and our people are guaranteed,” as Prime Minister Terrance Drew stated on Nov. 12. Another prediction was that bitcoin would “become a major electoral issue in U.S. elections this year.” While bitcoin-related issues have been part of the political and regulatory landscape of the U.S. during 2022, more with the demise of FTX during these last two months, this prediction also missed its mark by quite a bit.

El Salvador-Specific Predictions

The second half of the predictions made by Bukele had to do more with Salvador-specific issues, including the status of the volcano bonds, which would be issued by the government to finance the construction of Bitcoin City, and also with the construction of the city itself. The fourth prediction that Bukele stated was that the construction of the Bitcoin City, the geothermal-powered, bitcoin mining-friendly city, would start last year. However, this also failed to happen, with one of the last statements related to its construction happening on Jan. 9, 2022, when Bukele explained they were drilling more geothermal wells to secure the energy needed to run the city. This also has to do with his fifth prediction, which explained that the volcano bonds would be oversubscribed. However, the issuance of volcano bonds did not occur in 2022, with Treasury Minister Alejandro Zelaya blaming the postponements of the issuance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the fall of the cryptocurrency market. In September, Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino also stated that these bonds would be further delayed because the laws supporting the issuance were still not ready Its sixth and final prediction stated a surprise to be revealed at The Bitcoin Conference, which was held in April in Miami. However, Bukele was not able to appear in the event, as El Salvador faced an onslaught of gang violence that started in March, with a response from the government qualified as “cruel and inhuman” by the United Nations. What do you think about the predictions of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, for 2022? Tell us in the comments section below. Read the full article

[rightnewshindi]

मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त की बड़ी घोषणा, कहा, समय से प्रकाशित करेंगे चुनावी बॉन्ड डाटा

मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त की बड़ी घोषणा, कहा, समय से प्रकाशित करेंगे चुनावी बॉन्ड डाटा

CEC On Electoral Bonds: एसबीआई (SBI) की ओर से चुनावी बॉन्ड (इलेक्टोरल बॉन्ड) की डिटेल मिलने पर मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त राजीव कुमार का पहला रिएक्शन सामने आया है. सुप्रीम कोर्ट के आदेश पर भारतीय स्टेट बैंक (एसबीआई) ने मंगलवार शाम को निर्वाचन आयोग को उन संगठनों का विवरण सौंपा था, जिन्होंने अब समाप्त हो चुके चुनावी बॉन्ड खरीदे थे और राजनीतिक दलों ने उन्हें प्राप्त किया था. मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त ने कहा कि…

[archduchessofnowhere]

Hi! I’m one of your mutuals, but I’m asking this question anonymously because I believe it’s the epitome of dumbnesses 😂 Why the title “in Bavaria” and not “of Bavaria”? This “in” is having me all sorts of confused

Hello! JKSDKFJKGD it's not a dumb question at all! It can be quite confusing, especially because most Sisi biographies just don't explain what the difference is. Or worse, mistranslate the title (this happens almost always in Spanish translations sigh).

I'd be lying if I said that I understand this in detail, but basically the title dates back to the 16th century, however it only started to have relevance after the death of Karl Theodor, Elector of Bavaria, in 1799. Since he had no legitimate children his heir was his first cousin once removed Max Joseph, the future first King of Bavaria. At the time of the elector's death, there were only two surviving branches of the House of Wittelsbach: the Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, headed by future King Max, and the Birkenfeld-Gelnhausen, headed by Max's distant cousin and also brother-in-law Wilhelm.

So when Max became Elector in 1799 he recognized Wilhelm as the head of the only branch of the family and they agreed that the Wittelsbach lands would be indivisible. As Elector, Max was the Duke of Bavaria (Herzog von Bayern), and since there could be only one Duke of Bavaria at a time, he gave Wilhelm the title of Duke in Bavaria (Herzog in Bayern). Basically what this distinction denotes is that this branch doesn't rule over any territory, they're dukes and duchesses in Bavaria, not of Bavaria. Duke Wilhelm was Duke of Berg for three years until Napoleon gave the duchy to Joachim Murat and that's it, that's the only territory he was ever in charge of. When Wilhelm died he left his only son and heir Pius August no land to rule over.

But no need to get sad about our territory-less side branch: they were loaded. According to historian Martina Winkelhofer, the Dukes in Bavaria actually had more money than the King. This is why King Max thought it would be great to marry one of his daughters to Wilhelm's grandson Max: so the money stayed in the family. Princess Ludovika married down in title, true, but up in fortune.

In the Wikipedia article of the Dukes in Bavaria it says that King Max gave them the title of Royal Highnesses after 1799, which isn't correct. The agreement was that they would receive the title after Duke Max and Ludovika's wedding. But when they married King Max had already died and the new king, Ludovika's half-brother Ludwig backed down and just… not gave him the title (the reason seems to be that Ludwig just freaking hated his brother-in-law lol). Duke Max and his children only became Royal Highnesses in 1845, when Elisabeth was already eight-years-old.

So Elisabeth's position when she became empress was special, because her title itself was special. On the one hand it was a minor title that basically meant "these guys don't rule anywhere", on the other hand the title also meant that they were closely related to the royal branch. She wasn't a nobody: she was the granddaughter, niece, and cousin of the king of Bavaria, and she grew up in close contact with her royal relatives. But the position of her family was special: they had no territory to rule over, and because Duke Max retired from the Munich society to live a bohemian life, his family had nothing to do on an official level.

In a way, Elisabeth's situation reminds me a bit to her Leuchtenberg cousins, who were also in a limbo of "we are from the ancient house of Wittelsbach but our dad's title is weird and technically doesn't mean anything" (though Elisabeth and her siblings' position was far more stable and secure than their Beauharnais cousins). Ludovika and her sister Auguste in fact were close despite their twenty-years age gap, so I wonder if "our children are royalty but in a strange way" was one of the things they bonded over.

To finish this ask, a trivia: the dukes in Bavaria branch became extinct in 1973, and today's living Wittelsbachs all descend from the royal branch. The last Duke in Bavaria was Ludwig Wilhelm, son of Karl Theodor "Gackl", Elisabeth's favorite brother. He had no children so in 1965 he adopted his grand-nephew Max Emanuel (grandson of his sister Duchess Marie Gabrielle in Bavaria and Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria), who uses the title of Duke in Bavaria as his last name ever since.

I hope you find my answer helpful (and that I didn't confuse more)!

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Reviews, 2022 Federal Edition Introduction

It's time for the biggest event in Australian democracy: the federal election. This is the fourth federal election I have reviewed on here, in addition to one NSW and two Victorian state elections. This means I can link to a pretty decent archive of past reviews as I go.

I intend to review every minor party that appears on the ballot anywhere in the country. I will also be reviewing all grouped and ungrouped candidates who appear on the WA Senate ballot (for I now live in Western Australia). As per usual, I will not be reviewing the Greens, Labor, or the Liberal/National parties of the Coalition—if you are the sort of person who follows this blog, you probably know what those parties stand for—and this year I am also excluding One Nation from my reviews for the same reason.

This leaves 32 parties, a considerable drop on last time around: the new 1,500-members threshold is doing its job. There are also two grouped independents and five ungrouped independents in WA. In 2019, I had to write 52 entries to get through all the parties and indies; this time I should need only 35 as I tend to do a combined entry for the ungrouped indies. I do not review indies for lower house seats unless one is standing in my own electorate, and I encourage you to find your local candidates here. This year, I am in the Division of Swan, a swing seat with ten candidates, all standing for registered parties.

If, by some stroke of good fortune, I have time to review independent Senate candidates elsewhere, I will. I already know there are some interesting and unusual ones elsewhere. If you are in Victoria, you will have a choice of 12(!) ungrouped candidates if you vote below the line, including James Bond (yes: Bond, James Bond) and Max Dicks (no really). I hope both of those gents lean into the humour of their names.

I will issue my usual disclaimers up front: I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of a political party. I review from the perspective of a small-g green democratic socialist. I am trained and work as a political historian. This background guides my reviews, which originated as personal notes to guide my vote and do not aim for any false neutrality or objectivity. I share them in the hope they are useful to others trying to navigate Australia's plethora of micro-parties.

I am, of course, not alone in reviewing parties. Leading psephologist Kevin Bonham has already released his rundown of Tasmanian Senate candidates. Beth at b_auspol is reviewing all parties and independents contesting the Senate in NSW and her reviews are certain to be smarter and more clear-eyed than mine. And, delightfully, there is Something for Cate, a blog continuing the thoughtful election-reviewing traditions of deeply-missed Catherine of Cate Speaks.

If you are unsure how to cast a ballot, Patrick Alexander has two fantastic explainers: you can't waste your vote for the House of Representatives and what's the go with voting for the Senate?

Every party registered with the AEC is fielding a candidate in at least one state; last time, out of the 58 registered parties, 4 did not field candidates anywhere. The following parties are fielding candidates in every state and territory: Greens, Labor, Legalise Cannabis, Liberal Democratic Party,* Liberal/National coalition parties, One Nation**, Sustainable Australia, United Australia Party***

*The Liberal Democrats do not have Senate candidates in the ACT but are fielding a candidate in one of the ACT's three seats in the House of Representatives, the Division of Fenner **One Nation has no Senate candidates in either territory, but they have candidates in all five ACT/NT divisions for the House of Representatives ***The UAP's Senate candidate in the NT will appear below-the-line only

There are fewer single-state parties this time around. In 2019, seventeen parties ran in just one state. This year, there are ten single-state parties:

ACT: David Pocock (yes, the party's registered name is simply his personal name); Kim for Canberra QLD: Katter's Australian Party SA: Centre Alliance (Division of Mayo only); Rex Patrick Team [note that Nick Xenophon is a grouped independent; he entered the race too late to register a party and will have an unlabelled square above the line] TAS: Jacqui Lambie Network VIC: Derryn Hinch's Justice Party; Victorian Socialists WA: Australian Christians; Western Australia Party

There are no parties who will only appear on ballots in NSW. This is quite a change from last time: in 2019, NSW led the pack with 6/17 single-state parties running only in NSW.

I will start posting reviews tomorrow. My "running where" statement that opens the reviews usually refers to where the party is fielding Senate candidates—many also have candidates for divisions in the House of Representatives but I only list these when the party has no Senate candidates in a given state or territory. Basically, what I try to indicate with the "running where" category is whether you will see this party on at least one of the ballots in your state or territory.

My reviews will conclude with a recommendation. Before I explain this, I should clarify that in the House of Representatives (small green ballot), you must number every square; in the Senate (large white ballot), you must number 1–6 above the line or 1–12 below the line, and can then distribute further preferences at your leisure. I recommend giving full preferences in the Senate. It is your discretion to stop listing preferences at any point of your choosing after 6 (ATL)/12 (BTL), but, as Kevin Bonham emphasises in the entry lised above, failing to number all boxes weakens the potential political power of your vote. The more preferences you give, the more powerful your vote is; it will stay in the count longer.

Here is my recommendation system for this year:

Good preference: a party with a positive overall platform that has few or no significant flaws for the left-wing voter.

Decent preference: a party with a generally positive overall platform but I have some reservations; or, a single-issue party with a good objective but by definition too limited in their scope to encompass the fullness of parliamentary business.

Middling preference: a party with a balance of positive and negative qualities, or a party with a decent platform undermined by a notably terrible policy or characteristic.

Weak or no preference: a party with more negatives than positives. In the House of Representatives, put these parties as low as possible. In the Senate, I recommend you do likewise to maximise the potential power of your vote; but I recognise that some of you prefer not to express preferences between varying gradations of undesirability or prefer not to rank the most odious parties.

This schema is flexible; I may, for instance, suggest a “middling to decent preference”.

Stay tuned for those very partisan reviews!

[erzherzog-von-edelstein]

Germanic Rarepair - Poland and Saxony

---------------------------

Saxony was sitting in camp listening to the flurry of orders in a mix of German and French contemplating his situation. He had a blank piece of paper in front of him and no idea what to put on it. France had said that Napoleon wanted him to write to whatever cousins he thought could be swayed, since he was the sole German state supporting the cause. But, it was not so easy to convince his family of anything. He also was not sure how necessary it was if both Austria and Prussia had been pacified.

He heard the footsteps behind him, but did not turn to look at who was approaching. He thought he recognized the soft footfalls, and waited to hear a familiar voice to confirm his suspicion. Instead hands covered his eyes.

Calloused hands that he knew well, that he had felt on his skin many times before. The person spoke in his ear, “Guess who.”

Saxony knew the answer from the sweet smell of perfume, the brush of long hair against his cheek, and the voice that he could never forget. He answered, “Is it my star-crossed lover?” 
 He got his answer along with a kiss on his cheek, “It is indeed.”

He turned to face Poland with a smile, and was immediately surprised when the other took it as an opportunity to sit in his lap. Poland leaned in close and said, “You could never forget someone as special as me, could you?”

Saxony replied, still someone flustered from suddenly having a beautiful man in his lap, “Of course not.” It nearly took his breath away to be this close again. For years he had only had sketches and portraits from the time when they had been married. It did not compare to the real man. He was so handsome in the flesh that it was impossible to not be in awe.

Poland leaned in even closer and said, “A little birdie told me that you said you’d support Napoleon if he gave me my state back.”

His breath on Saxony’s neck sent a shiver through his body. It had been far too long since they had been allowed to be alone together.

He replied with a smirk, “Did the little birdie have blue eyes and a French accent?”

It would have had to be France that told, since he was the only one who knew the details of the agreement. But Saxony was not going to complain about Poland knowing, especially if it made him amorous. Poland nodded, confirming that France had not kept it secret.

Saxony decided that he would explain his decision, and he said, “I want to undo a wrong. I am certain that Gilbert proposed those partitions as an act of petty vengefulness.” He was certain that it had all been for some imagined slight when Prussia had been a duchy. A proud insecure man was bound to be vengeful.

He added, “And now it is possible to give you back what you deserve. Gilbert is out of the way.” 
 Poland chuckled, “He was humiliated from what I heard. Badly injured and confined to bed. I read that report so many times. It was better than Christmas.”

Saxony could not think of the last time he saw Poland so happy. It was good to see it, even if it had taken a war to get there. Saxony reached up and stroked his cheek and said softly, “If everything goes well, maybe we can get married again if you’ll still have me.” 

He instantly saw all the bravado fall away as Poland showed, for a moment, a flash of real vulnerability. He looked like he was very much pained by the way that their marriage had ended. Poland leaned into the touch on his face like he found it deeply comforting. He said, “I missed you, Christoph. These years alone with Ivan have been hard. ”

Saxony was absolutely certain that he had made the right decision by joining the cause. The look of relief on Poland’s face was worth it. He said, very sincerely, “I have never stopped loving you.”

He could swear that he could almost see tears forming in Poland’s eyes. Poland responded, “I love you too.” Then he leaned in and kissed Saxony on the lips.

-----------------------

Historical notes under the cut:

- Augustus II (better known as Augustus the Strong) the elector of Saxony was elected King of Poland-Lithuania for the first time in 1697. He converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism to take the crown.

- The bond between Saxony and Poland was severed a couple years later by the Swedish invasion of both kingdoms during the Great Northern War, which forced Poland to accept a different Swedish-backed monarch.

- After Russia’s defeat of the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Augustus returned to Poland and ruled the Commonwealth until his death.

- He was followed by Augustus III, who also served as both King of Poland-Lithuania and Elector of Saxony. The Saxon connection was again severed by the partition of Poland.

- During the Napoleonic Wars, Saxony changed sides after the defeat of the Prussians at Jena. It then remained a French ally until the defeat of Napoleon.

-Poland was briefly returned to the European map as the Duchy of Warsaw after the Treaty of Tilsit, which stripped Prussia of its gains from the partition. This new Duchy was a personal union with the Kingdom of Saxony, with Friedrich Augustus I as the new Duke of Warsaw.

-The defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna again erased Poland. Prussia also attempted to completely annex Saxony as punishment for supporting France. This was ultimately unsuccessful because Prussia gaining that much land would imbalance power in Europe too substantially.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 2, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and 36 Republicans sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona accusing him of trying to advance a “politicized and divisive agenda” in the teaching of American history. This is a full embrace of the latest Republican attempt to turn teaching history into a culture war.

On April 19, the Department of Education called for public comments on two priorities for the American History and Civics Education programs. Those programs work to improve the “quality of American history, civics, and government education by educating students about the history and principles of the Constitution of the United States, including the Bill of Rights; and… the quality of the teaching of American history, civics, and government in elementary schools and secondary schools, including the teaching of traditional American history.”

The department is proposing two priorities to reach low-income students and underserved populations. The Republicans object to the one that encourages “projects that incorporate racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse perspectives into teaching and learning.”

History teaching that reflects our diverse history and the way our diversity supports democracy can help to improve racial equality in society, the document states. It calls out the 1619 Project of the New York Times, as well as the resources of the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History, to note how our understanding of diversity is changing. It notes that schools across the country are teaching “anti-racist practices,” which it follows scholar Ibram X. Kendi by identifying as “any idea that suggests the racial groups are equals in all their apparent differences—that there is nothing right or wrong with any racial group.”

The Education Department invited comments on these priorities. The department does not have much at all to do with local school curricula.

McConnell’s letter in response to this call for comments is disingenuous, implying connections between the teaching of a diverse past, the sorry state of history education, and the fact that “American pride has plummeted to its lowest level in 20 years.” There is, of course, no apparent connection between them.

He complains that Cardona’s “proposal”—it’s a call for comments—would “distort bipartisan legislation that was led by former Senators Lamar Alexander, Ted Kennedy, and Robert Byrd.” That legislation was indeed landmark for the teaching of American history… but its funding was cut in 2012.

What McConnell’s letter is really designed to do is to throw a bone to Trump Republicans. On Thursday, Trump called for Senate Republicans to replace McConnell with a Trump loyalist, and embracing their conviction that our history is being hijacked by radicals is cheap and easy.

The prime object of Republican anger is the 1619 Project, called out in McConnell’s letter by name. The project launched in the New York Times Magazine in August 2019 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first landing of 20 to 30 enslaved Africans at the English colony of Virginia. Led by New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project placed race and Black Americans “at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.”

The 1619 Project argued that the landing of the Black slaves marked “the country’s very origin” since it “inaugurated a barbaric system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years.” From slavery “and the anti-black racism it required,” the editors claimed, grew “nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, its diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as a land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day.”

Their goal, they said, was “to reframe American history,” replacing 1776 with 1619 as the year of the nation’s birth.

The most explosive claim the project made was that one of the key reasons that the American colonists broke away from Britain was that they wanted to protect slavery. Scholars immediately pushed back. Northwestern University’s Dr. Leslie M. Harris, a scholar of colonial African American history, wrote: “Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war.” The project tempered its language over that issue but stood by its larger argument.

Trump Republicans conflated this project with so-called “Critical Race Theory,” a related scholarly concept that argues that racism is not simply the actions of a few bad actors, but rather is baked into our legal system, as well as the other institutions that make up our society. This is not a new concept, and it is not limited to Black Americans: historian Angie Debo’s And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes launched this argument in 1940 when it showed how Oklahoma’s legislators had written discrimination against Indigenous people into the law. But the idea that white people have an automatic leg up in our country has taken on modern political teeth as Trump Republicans argue that Black and Brown people, among others, are at the bottom of society not because of discriminatory systems but because they are inferior.

The former president railed against recent historical work emphasizing race as “a series of polemics grounded in poor scholarship” that has “vilified our Founders and our founding.” Calling them “one-sided and divisive,” he opposed their view of “America as an irredeemably and systemically racist country.” He claimed, without evidence, that “students are now taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but rather villains.” He said that “this radicalized view of American history” threatens to “fray and ultimately erase the bonds that knit our country and culture together.”

On November 2, 2020, just before the election, former president Trump established a hand-picked commission inside the Department of Education to promote “patriotic education” in the nation’s schools, national parks, and museums.

The commission released its report, written not by historians but by right-wing activists and politicians, on Martin Luther King Day, just two days before Trump left office. “The 1776 Report” highlighted the nation’s founding documents from the Revolutionary Era, especially the Declaration of Independence. It said that the principles written in the declaration “show how the American people have ever pursued freedom and justice.” It said “our history is… one of self-sacrifice, courage, and nobility.” No other nation, it said, had worked harder or done more to bring to life “the universal truths of equality, liberty, justice, and government by consent.”

Then–Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that multiculturalism [is]... not who America is.” It “distort[s] our glorious founding and what this country is all about.” Hannah-Jones retorted: "When you say that multiculturalism is 'not who America is' and 'distorts our glorious founding' you unwittingly confirm the argument of the 1619 Project: That though we were ... a multiracial nation from our founding, our founders set forth a government of white rule. Cool."

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden dissolved the 1776 Commission and took its report off the official government website.

But the fight goes on. The Pulitzer Center, which supports journalism but is not associated with Columbia University’s Pulitzer Prizes, produced a school curriculum based on the 1619 Project; Republican legislators in five states—Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Dakota—filed virtually identical bills to cut funding to any school or college that used the material. Other Republican-led states have proposed funding “patriotic education.” In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves called for a $3 million fund to promote teaching that “educates the next generation in the incredible accomplishments of the American Way” to counter “far-left socialist teachings that emphasize America’s shortcomings over the exceptional achievements of this country.” South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem proposed a curriculum that explains “why the U.S. is the most special nation in the history of the world.”

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON