Rarely do we get to look into the bowels of political machination. The deals that are cut in the back rooms throughout America are often obscure and rarely do we get to take a sneak peek.
But I came across a disturbing document this past weekend, one that should give us all a lot of pause to think about how our country is being slowly taken over by other factions who want to return us to the dark ages.
Their agenda is all about control. Control of our individual rights in the name of nationalism. They don’t want us to question. They don’t want us to have freedoms. Oh, sure they say they do. They hide behind such slithery monikers as having a “right to life” (i.e., anti-abortion), “preserving the sanctity of American principles (anti-gay), and wanting to stimulate our economy through free enterprise” (unrestricted profits, lower taxes for the wealthy and fewer worker rights).
Now, before my right winger friends get their panties in a bunch, this isn’t about your party’s belief system, well, at least directly. O.K., it is about part of the system, one that the Texas Republican Party is espousing. Hell, they’re not espousing it, it’s all there in black and white, the adopted position of the Republican Party in the seemingly not so great of Texas.
Since I will be speaking about some of its principles, I thought it only fair that I provide a link to the original document. I think most of my friends can make a judgement for themselves about its contents and I will only dwell on some of the high points, or rather low points, as I see them.
Surprisingly, I’m not going to pick on some of the things in here, such as all that nonsense about returning to the gold standard, eliminating our federal army in favor of state militias, shipping little Pedro back over the border, or even the severe limitations placed on a woman’s right to decide what to do with her vagina. And I won’t share my own personal views about saying the pledge of allegiance in school, being able to pray in school or the party’s desire to eliminate all sex education in schools and teach abstinence instead as the only option.
No. Instead, I want to focus on what I think is the scariest thing anyone has ever published in a platform. If you don’t really know what these platform things are, they are an official document that outlines what the party believes in and stands for. In a state, it carries an awful lot of weight, at least if you happen to be a Republican candidate who wants to get elected there.
But the document is also used at the upcoming national convention. Each state has their own platform, and they want “planks” from it to become the official position of a national candidate. Therein lies the danger of such thinking.
So, what’s the big scary in the Republican platform? It’s education. To be fair, some of their ideas are good ones, like putting 80% of all funds go to teachers and classrooms and that schools be given more latitude to deal with disciplinary issues.
But it’s this part that is so disturbing, and I will just quote it directly:
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
This should scare you sh**less. Basically, the party is espousing that we no longer let kids think for themselves but instead to become mindless drones, spitting out only what was put into their heads. As anyone who went to college knows, critical thinking is essential for creating new knowledge. We learn to assess and reject what is known, add or delete other facts and hypotheses and come to our own conclusions. That’s what critical thinking is all about.
It is all about questioning assumptions and authority. It is what lead to progress and breakthroughs. It allows us to gather evidence through observation, put them into context, assess all the variables and come up with an answer. Critical thinking makes us more open minded.
Wait! Silly me! That’s the problem here. These particular political dweebs don’t want future generations to be open minded. They might think of themselves. They don’t want us to advance as a culture and evolve. These people want things the way they used to be, where a woman can’t divorce her husband without cause, where they can’t determine their own reproductive rights, where there is no affirmative action or equality, where only Christian values are taught in schools… I could go on. It’s all in there in black and white. You don’t even need to read between the lines.
Now that’s the ticket. Control the future generations, spoon feed them your own version of the truth, isolate their thinking, make them join the “scouts,” have them all sing the national anthem, salute the flag and thank almighty God (the Christian one) for the grace he has shed on thee.
Everybody in line now. Don’t ask questions. Accept what we tell you as the absolute truth. March in a straight line. Those who don’t will be ostracized. If you don’t blindly follow your leaders, your patriotism will be questioned and you will be sent away for re-education. It is for the good of the nation that we assimilate. We must marshall our nationalism to protect ourselves from the outsiders who seek to destroy us. Don’t assemble. Don’t speak out. Don’t question authority!
And put on that nice little brown shirt we made for you.
In the Emerald City, suddenly beginning to wonder about all those UPS drivers,
– Robb