Iowa Republicans Introduce a History and Civics Curriculum "Long Con"
And a brave history professor resists...
An editorial in the Des Moines Register last Tuesday is titled: American history is under attack. A bill in Iowa would restore civics education: What does it mean to be an American? How have we benefited from Western civilization? These are two important questions that many young Americans cannot answer.
The authors are David Randall, director of research at the National Association of Scholars, and John Hendrickson, policy director at Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation.
The bill the authors refer to is HF 2330. The title of the proposed legislation is:
An Act relating to education, including by modifying provisions related to the social studies instruction provided to students enrolled in grades one through twelve and the educational programs provided by the institutions of higher education under the control of the state board of regents.
A long con is:
an elaborate confidence game that develops in several stages over an extended period of time wherein the con man or swindler gains the victim’s trust.
Let’s explore why this is a long con. First, who could possibly be against students learning more about civics and history? That’s the soft opening that sucks us in and establishes an intuitive position that’s difficult to disagree with. They are building our trust. And, they say, history is under attack, establishing the position that they are defenders of history and civics—again luring us into their narrative.
Will you walk into my parlour? said the spider to the fly…
So, in the immortal words of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as portrayed by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, “Who are those guys?”
Ed Tibbetts, my friend and fellow member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative does the heavy lifting here.
Ed reports:
Large sections of the bill’s text are copied, practically word for word, from model legislation and definitions you can read in this report by the National Association of Scholars and the America First Policy Institute.
The institute is run by former aides to Donald Trump and has figured in articles about preparations for his second term, if there is one.
Donald Trump isn’t interested in civics and history, he’s interested in blowing up our democracy and imposing an authoritarian regime. If Randall and Hendrickson and Republicans in the Iowa Legislature want to educate Americans on civics and history, they need to start with Trump. Their efforts are disingenuous, cynical and put our nation at risk.
Remember how Donald Trump wanted to suspend the Constitution? How he continues to spread the Big Lie and sow discontent? How he worked to overturn our government on January 6, 2021 by inciting the attack on the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., where approximately 140 police officers were assaulted and others died? How he favors authoritarians and dictators while insulting our NATO allies? How he would cede Ukraine to Russia and encouraged Putin to attack our NATO allies if they don’t “pay up?” And let’s not forget that Trump faces 91 felony counts in four different jurisdictions.
HF 2330 is a Trojan Horse. These guys and Trump don’t know or care anything about civics or American history. They want to rewrite it as a white supremacist narrative that furthers their cause, undermines democracy, and puts our allies at risk.
Trump and his enablers are con men.
Laughably, they want to impose on our students a civic literacy examination Trump couldn’t pass, and after reading Randall and Henrickson’s column and the legislation under consideration at the state house, I’m not sure anyone involved in the effort could either.
There is another reason that this is a long con. Words shape our reality, and they and others are using words to undermine the fact that we are a democracy, thereby undermining democracy itself.
Randall and Hendrickson say:
The objective is to reorient the social studies curriculum around the appreciation of our nation’s history and ideals of liberty and republican self-government.
Notice they don’t say “democratic,” or “democracy.” Those words aren’t used in their column.
Maybe a dozen or so years ago I started hearing Republicans during the Iowa caucus cycle tell assembled crowds the United States isn’t a democracy, it’s a republic. The fact of the matter is we are a Democratic Republic. NPR lays it out:
Throughout our history we have functioned as both. Put another way, we have utilized characteristics of both. The people decide, but they do so through elected representatives working in pre-established, rule-bound and intentionally balky institutions such as Congress and the courts.
The government seated in Washington, D.C., represents a democratic republic, which governs a federated union of states, each of which in turn has its own democratic-republican government for its jurisdiction.
NPR continues:
George Thomas, the Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College, found "some truth to this insistence" on calling the U.S. a republic but added: "It is mostly disingenuous. The Constitution was meant to foster a complex form of majority rule, not enable minority rule."
Republicans who say “we aren’t a democracy we are a republic” are playing a word game to create an anti-democratic rationale for seeking minority rule by Republicans.
“Oh Granny, what big eyes you have,” said Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to see you with,” replied the wolf. “Oh Granny, what big teeth you have,” gasped Little Red Riding Hood. “All the better to eat you with!” replied the wolf, as he pounced…
I searched search for the words democracy, democratic, and republican in the proposed legislation. “The word “democratic” isn’t used once. “Democracy” is used only in reference to the suggestion students should be taught from the book “Democracy in America” written by Alexis de Tocqueville, and a reference to Jacksonian “Democracy.”
Not that the United States is a DEMOCRACY.
“Republican form of government” is mentioned six times, “republican liberty” once, “republican government” once, “republicanism” once, and “republican self-government” once.
They are using language to shift the public’s perception of what our government actually is. Are you ready for minority rule? If Republicans get their way that’s what we will have, as they continue to consolidate power.
Johnathon K. Williams may be the bravest academic in Iowa. He’s a native Iowan and an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of Northern Iowa. That means he has no job security. He received his MA at the University of Northern Iowa in 2016 and his Ph.D. from Boston University just last year in 2023. On Friday of last week, he had this commentary in the Des Moines Register critical of the bill:
The Iowa social studies bill is the real attack on American history; there are shameful parts of the American past, and teaching students about these does not mean generating hate toward the United States.
Williams says: I love the United States — it has always been my home — and that passion developed from my public education in Iowa to become a first-generation college graduate. I am fortunate for the opportunities this state gave me, and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to return the favor as a term-based professor at one of its great state institutions of higher education. Yet, I am troubled by the recent advancement of House File 2330, a bill that will dictate how history is taught in K-12 education in the state — one that erroneously simplifies history and dissuades critical thinking and civic engagement among Iowa students.
Where are all of the other professors in history and the humanities and sciences speaking out against this proposed legislation? Where are the administrators, the university presidents and the most powerful in our great institutions of learning speaking out against this and other legislation Republicans have introduced that undermines our institutions and student learning from preschool through college? Where are the tenured, the retired, and our leaders of business and industry who have profited from a liberal arts education? Whose businesses and industries profit because our institutions teach critical thinking? Democratic legislators are resisting, but they need help. Where is their help?
The fact is those who lead and work in our institutions of learning and our leaders in business and industry all fear Governor Kim Reynolds and her wrath. Some fear for their jobs or how their institutions or businesses might suffer if they speak out. They fear Kim Reynolds and what she might do just as much as weak-kneed Republicans in the Senate and the House fear Donald Trump.
They fear for their livelihoods and I understand their fear.
Jonathan K. Williams is brave. If I were in his position, I hope I would be as brave as he is, but I have my doubts…
“Everything will be all right. And even if it won't be, we'll have the consolation of having lived honest lives." - Alexei Navalny.
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Oh Bob...you remind of the profs I had as an undergrad at UNI. One of the very best was history professor Dr. John Eiklor, who taught massive sections of Humanities I and II for general education. You may have had him. They video recorded the classes in the Auditorium (Lang Hall) and played them through the day for the wave of boomer students matriculating through the university back then. We had to buy a historic world atlas as a study guide for the class. One day he put a current world map from that atlas on the screen said, sarcastically, "Here a map of the world with the United States in the middle -- RIGHT WHERE GOD PUT IT." He was well known for his sardonic sense of humor, but he was also a Navy veteran and believed in our systerm of government. There's many more anecdotes I could tell, but that one underscores that one thing he and others did was to encourage critical thinking. In fact that was true through my earlier years; I learned about 1619, now considered social blasphemy, in Catholic school. I guess we benefited from growing up in the painful, turbulent but instructional 1960s and early '70s. It's the duty and obligation of citizens in a democracy to question authority to keep it on the right track and to seek office themselves to effect change if necessary. One can be a skeptic without being a cynic and causing societal paranoia. We are a representative democracy. This is not divine right of kings. Unfortunately I fear one of our major political contenders slept through history and American government class (deemed irrelevant to making money) but has watched an awful lot of TV and movies. I'm sure Godfather movies were included in the viewing fare. Government by omerta and vendetta. Rules are for suckers, nice guys finish last and you have to impose your will on others to survive.
I read this column a little skeptically. Then I clicked the link and read the bill. I was shocked by the detailed requirements requiring only laudatory and exemplary information--and the parts of our history that were excluded from the list.