Joe Scarborough: Slippery slope: Trump's war on ‘woke' hits America's museums
When I was in law school, they often warned us about the dangers of a slippery slope, how one small action could set off a chain reaction, leading to a series of events you may have never even imagined were possible. Right now, Donald Trump is pushing the United States of America down that slippery slope.
Just consider his crusade against America's colleges and universities. It started with attacks on affirmative action and the idea of equality itself. Those attacks on equality become attacks on diversity. Suddenly, diversity becomes a bad word in America.
But diversity is who we are. It's part of the American identity — e pluribus unum, Latin for 'Out of many, one,' is featured on our nation's seal and etched into marble across Washington, D.C.
Other presidents understood the importance of diversity. In his final speech to the nation before leaving office in 1989, Ronald Reagan said diversity was the source of America's greatness. He believed that when we stop being diverse, we will stop being great. Under Trump, we've abandoned that idea.
Instead of taking lessons from America's past, the president is effectively trying to rewrite it. On Tuesday, Trump attacked the Smithsonian museums for their portrayal of U.S. history, calling it too negative and too focused on 'how bad Slavery was.'
Trump then pledged to take the same playbook he used to target America's universities to go after the country's museums. 'We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,' the president wrote in a post on Truth Social. 'This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE.'
The arc of American history is extraordinary. It's full of stories that need to be told. There are hopeful stories, like that of Abraham Lincoln, a man raised in abject poverty who dragged a racist, recalcitrant nation to emancipate Black Americans.
But America's story is also that of a country that continues to move toward being a more perfect union, and sometimes we may take a few steps back. Those are stories that should not be ignored.
We must tell all of America's stories to inspire future generations that no matter what we're going through, we can do better and we can be better.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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Yahoo
4 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Texas House OK'd GOP-favored redistricting. California intends to counter with map of its own
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USA Today
5 minutes ago
- USA Today
National map battle
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The Hill
5 minutes ago
- The Hill
Texas fires starting shot in redistricting war
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The tone from the Russians is cause for concern in light of what Europe, Trump and Zelensky say is the first opportunity since the war began to bring an end to the bloodshed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been tasked with the heavy lift: Meeting today with his European counterparts in an effort to advance a peace process that so far has gotten little traction. The White House is eyeing Budapest for peace talks with Zelensky and Putin, but Moscow is expressing little appetite and logistical challenges mount. ▪ The Washington Post: The limits of Trump's diplomacy are becoming clear as Moscow balks at his peace plan. ▪ The New York Times: What Russia is doing to grab Ukrainian land while it still can. ▪ Bloomberg News: Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, advocated that the U.S. set a strong red line with Putin and join the coalition of the willing in a security guarantee to back Ukraine for any peace deal. Opinion The Texas gerrymander freakout, by The Washington Post editorial board. Weaponizing the housing regulator, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board. The Closer And finally … 🕊️It's Thursday, which means it's time for this week's Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by Trump's meetings with Putin and Zelensky, we're eager for some smart guesses about presidents and treaties. Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@ and kkarisch@ — please add 'Quiz' to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday. The Camp David Accords, signed between Israel and Egypt, marked the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab nation. Which president presided? 1. Bill Clinton 2. Jimmy Carter 3. Gerald Ford 4. George H. W. Bush In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson personally delivered a treaty to the Senate, which had not occurred since 1789. Which treaty was it? 1. The Treaty of Versailles 2. The Treaty of Paris 3. The Peace of Westphalia 4. The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine Which president signed and ratified the North Atlantic Treaty, which forms the legal basis for NATO? 1. Franklin D. Roosevelt 2. Calvin Coolidge 3. John F. Kennedy 4. Harry S Truman Under President Barack Obama, the United States signed this climate change treaty, from which Trump withdrew the United States. 1. The Vienna Agreement 2. The Kyoto Protocol 3. The Montreal Protocol 4. The Paris Agreement
