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The Woke Left is Destroying American History at Founders’ Homes

The Woke Left is Destroying American History at Founders’ Homes

“Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate reportedly went woke, with visitors saying the displays and tour guides insult his legacy.”

A few years ago, when the left started demanding the removal of historic statues, they insisted that it was just about the Confederacy. Critics were accused of being paranoid.

Now we’re at the point where American history is being distorted at the homes of America’s founding fathers.

Visitors to the Monticello home of Thomas Jefferson now get a lesson in woke history, in line with the 1619 Project.

Amy Nelson reports at FOX News:

Visitor to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate calls out new ‘woke’ tours: ‘Depressing and demoralizing’

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate reportedly went woke, with visitors saying the displays and tour guides insult his legacy.

Jeffery Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, said his recent experience at the Virginia landmark was sad and deflated the American founder’s reputation. Tucker toured Monticello on July 4 to pay homage to Jefferson, who advocated for emancipation and the separation of church and state.

“Instead I got exactly the opposite,” Tucker said on “Fox & Friends” Monday. “They were just debunking his history, his reputation, putting him down, demoralizing everybody on my tour.”

Tucker recounted his previous visit to the estate as being full of grandeur with a “sense of majesty about the place.”

“No longer,” he told host Brian Kilmeade. “It is depressing and demoralizing and truly upsetting.”

Tucker described the house as looking like a rummage sale with contemporary paintings hung inside. He said tour guides repeatedly diminished Jefferson’s accomplishments, claiming his reputation is “wildly overblown.”

The same thing is happening at the home of James Madison.

The New York Post reports:

Founding father James Madison sidelined by woke history in his own home

The globalist billionaire who funded the woke transformation of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello paid for a similar overhaul of James Madison’s house — where the author of the US Constitution has been shoved into a supporting role, while slavery and racism take center stage.

No American flags fly at Montpelier, Madison’s plantation home in rural Virginia, and not a single display focuses on the life and accomplishments of America’s foremost political philosopher, who created our three-branch federal system of government, wrote the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers, and served two terms as president.

Instead, blindsided tourists are hammered by high-tech exhibits about Madison’s slaves and current racial conflicts, thanks to a $10 million grant from left-leaning philanthropist David M. Rubenstein.

“I was kind of thinking we’d be hearing more about the Constitution,” one baffled dad said when The Post visited the president’s home this week. “But everything here is really about slavery.”…

“They really miss the mark,” Greg Hancock of Mesa, Ariz. posted last week. “We left disappointed not having learned more about … the creation of the Constitution.”

“The worst part were the gross historical inaccuracies and constant bias exhibited by the tour guide,” complained AlexZ, who visited July 8.

This is an insult to America and its history.

Why is it being allowed to happen?

Featured image via YouTube.

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Comments

The left only destroys. They are not builders and they certainly do not build back better. They destroy everything they touch. Their feet run to do evil; death and destruction are in their wake.

Who writes history? The winners, and the Dems think they are the winners.

Perhaps for a battle, but they are laying the groundwork for losing the war.

I just hope it happens before they destroy the country.

    Peabody in reply to Dimsdale. | July 17, 2022 at 10:24 am

    You have good insight.

    Danny in reply to Dimsdale. | July 17, 2022 at 3:57 pm

    Well how is the left going to lose?

    Is it going to be from a Republican president deciding that the school lunch program will be cut and that the (woke) military will have a massive budget increase every day ending in Y and Jeff Bezos’ taxes will be cut half a percent?

    The only way the left loses is if we make it lose, and we have an endless amount of work to do changing the Republican Party from “MUH BIGG GOOOOOVEEEERNMENT BAAAAADDDDDD” into something actually willing to fight the culture war (if DeSantis had stuck to “MUH BIG GOVERNMENT” he would have achieved a total of nothing).

    Sorry but while the left is good at this we do also need to look in the mirror for why we are losing.

      Barry in reply to Danny. | July 17, 2022 at 10:15 pm

      Loser. 100%.

      This is how you lose, by fearing to cut the federal school lunch budget, a program that shouldn’t even exist. By fearing to cut taxes when the tax burden is 75% higher than it need be. By fearing to build a military that puts fear in the hearts of the enemy so that you need not use it.

      Danny is a big government marxist that puts an “R” at the end and thinks it means something special. Just a neverTumper that is a handmaiden of the left.

        Danny in reply to Barry. | July 18, 2022 at 3:06 pm

        That is possibly the most moronic post you have ever wrote and you are routinely moronic.

        1. Never Trump is a term that by definition excludes people who voted Trump. You are free to be as big a bleephole you want you are not free to create your own alternate universe.

        2. Both idiots like you and leftist idiots need to start using the term “Marist” correctly. Please provide proof I intend on having the United States government abolish private property and corporations or STFU. Every government past the bronze age has regulated the public square, including American governments in the 20th century with Republican presidents. The Republican Party flirtation with selective anarchy has to end. We are not an oligarchy.

        3, The tax burden is not 75% higher than it needs to be you pulled that number out of your behind. Over 60% pay no federal tax, and frankly the fact that the people who DO pay federal tax (you know the rich) are Democrats should tell you you are barking up the wrong tree. If you are so desperate to make the high taxed blue staters pay lower tax don’t try to explode the deficit with more tax cuts for billionaires. Get up. Move to a blue state. Run for governor. I am not willing to pawn my nations future so Democrats who vote for higher taxes pay lower taxes. If you live in a high tax state and desperately want a tax cut move to a red state (as millions of Americans are).

        3. So you want to eliminate a program that gives food to the poor. Is the military also going to see you being a deficit hawk or is this restricted to a program that helps working class families?

        We need to become actually populist which means no more being concerned with outdated slogans, no more donating elections to Democrats to fight for rich Democrats (who are woke and hate us by the way) and actually stand for our constituents (including in the economic field).

        Do you know what just got a massive judgement for a stewardess fired for being pro-life?

        Lets see was it the privately owned airlines or government?

        Lets see who passes laws that are enforced in a court of law-Oh right government!

        See how good regulations can do good for our side? Now that one airline has suffered for firing a pro-life employee for being pro-life that will have influence over other airlines.

        Feel free to continue pretending it is 2002 and to continue pushing the Bush agenda though, just be aware nobody likes anarchism, people have a right to standards, and the public square will be regulated.

Our extended family toured Monticello about 8 years ago. We found the tour guides to be extremely rude and full of themselves. A bunch of angry senior citizens who expected the guests to genuflect before their unquestionable expertise. We bought a Monticello shaped candle at the gift shop and our family had a wonderful laugh and great pleasure in watching the place (in wax miniature) burn to the ground. It might as well be burned to the ground – it no longer has anything to do with Jefferson’s history and legacy but is instead another woke platform of indoctrination.

Thanks,
Ted

    henrybowman in reply to Ted Bell. | July 17, 2022 at 5:56 pm

    We were there in 1999. The full genius of the man was on display.
    I fear for my grandchildrens’ freedom.

My trip to DC 6 years ago, it was slavery non stop. I hated it and was so freaken disappointed, I can’t imagine what it is like today

    The Gentle Grizzly in reply to gonzotx. | July 17, 2022 at 4:47 pm

    I related the incident in detail here and in other venues a few years back. The Air and Space Museum on the mall managed to inject race into the descriptive card next to a cabin model for a Douglas airliner, for heaven sake!

The left has infiltrated EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE

What have we been doing?

chrisboltssr | July 17, 2022 at 11:39 am

“Why is it being allowed to happen?”

Because you refuse to treat Leftists as enemies of the United States of America and insist their bullshit is only political differences.

IMO, the best thing to do is to not patronize these monuments. If enough people refuse to pay to be indoctrinated, it’s possible things may change. I we fortunate enough to have visited these historical homes long before the wokesters took over.

    txvet2 in reply to mishka. | July 17, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    That won’t work either, because the left’s proudest achievement would be to remove these names and their works from history altogether. You’d just be helping them.

    bhwms in reply to mishka. | July 18, 2022 at 10:57 am

    IOM – it’s only money.

    The best thing to do is to take over the boards of whomever controls these institutions one by one. That is probably an impossible task, but could be looked into.

    The next best thing is to create our own “visitors center” or monument where the true history can be on display. I believe someone has already done that – I keep seeing ads for them building a second replica of these historic buildings in Utah, so there must be a first set of replicas. Who is running that, where is it, and is the true history being taught?

retiredcantbefired | July 17, 2022 at 12:12 pm

I’m glad I saw Monticello before these creeps took over.

number crunch | July 17, 2022 at 12:36 pm

A true narcissist cannot tolerate the idea of anyone being better than him. So when that happens, the narcissist pulls those more capable down by harping on faults – both real and perceived – and omitting accomplishments. Somewhere in this cast of players is a nucleus of narcissistic tendencies.

So most of the founding fathers were just slave holders and nothing more. Forget the fact that this country would be mob-ruled failure instead of a Republic and the fact that Jefferson and Madison made it so means they must be brought down to the lowest possible level.

Whether Rubenstein is the villain here I cannot say. He clearly shifted the emphasis to slavery as a condition of his philanthropy and like other billionaires, seems to be trying to buy their way into heaven after a lifetime of privileged business dealings with carried interest loopholes to avoid income tax providing the means to his oversized wealth But if it’s not him then he’s fallen in with bad company and failed to supervise the outcome of his gift. I suspect that it’s a combination of narcissism, guilt, overcompensation and inattention on his part and a gleeful cadre of employees happy to share in the woke narcissistic narrative.

Regardless, the Montecello, Montpelier and Mount Vernon estates are now overpriced tourist traps; the woke-based narrative being foisted as conditions of the gifts means it’s time to avoid them. Spend your tourist dollars elsewhere and they’ll get the message.

    randian in reply to number crunch. | July 17, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    “Carried interest” is not a loophole, it’s standard partnership taxation. Asset sales by a partnership are given the same tax treatment they would have if the sale had been done directly by the partners, thus the sale of long-term gain property retains that tax treatment when the income is attributed to the partners. The tax treatment of partnership income is not (generally) related to the partner’s contribution of capital.

    What the left wants to do is distort partnership taxation and prevent a partner from having standard tax treatment when their share of income is not the same as their share of capital. It’s pure spite motivated by envy, not sound tax policy.

    gonzotx in reply to number crunch. | July 17, 2022 at 2:40 pm

    But why is a private billionaire allowed to donate money to our national treasures and allowed to dictate what is said amd done?
    Yet we give billions to Ukraine which is demanding 740 BILLION more!

    What the F do they have on anyone and in reality nothing would happen even if they made that public, we already unfortunately know that

    The World is run run by the Fourth Estate and they don’t give a F about you and me.

      Edward in reply to gonzotx. | July 18, 2022 at 9:10 am

      I see you read that article which informs us that “Ukraine demands $750 Billion to rebuild the country after losing the war to Russia.”

      Until I happened across that item I didn’t realize that Ukraine had given up and surrendered to the Russian Army.

Sadly never been to either historical site and won’t be going soon

henrybowman | July 17, 2022 at 6:05 pm

“…a visit to a Chinese high school classroom and an examination of several of the most widely used history textbooks here reveal a mishmash of historical details that many Chinese educational experts themselves say are highly selective and often provide a deeply distorted view of the recent past… Although some defend the curriculum, many academics say the way history is taught in China forces even the best teachers to bob and weave around anything deemed delicate by the country’s leaders and leaves students confused about their own country’s place in the world.”
“China’s Textbooks Twist and Omit History,” New York Times (2004)

Since it is owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the only way to effect change is with a concerted and publicized campaign to stop the flow of donations. And with a few billionaires willing to corrupt anything that may not be possible.

Steven Brizel | July 18, 2022 at 8:36 am

This is Marxist propaganda at work and in practice

The American Left are not unlike the Taliban.
Destroy everything current and historical that doesn’t fit their ideas and narrative.

In fairness, those leading the Montpelier Foundation have officially rebutted the claims and for example included a picture of a United States flag in front of the building.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.montpelier.org%2Flearn%2F071822_pressrelease%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0aiTf_AiK7PNoD3Ve9nJP0d_r7eMKXgsOAfWndsweUVGkM7mSLZLzdukI&h=AT3YpKL1HkS427FXsVm_9E8NbVG-toPpANPVNlTqnQ-8pjfMFOjJT1xe0x5xZnPCr2jFTs7XBzZmHF6MwhuA2pvlVMjXKWEM7_3jJFBF4Tr_ueAYlhKwQ1bzlOSWQlxWrQ&__tn__=R%5D-R&c%5B0%5D=AT0BTV5tfZ2k6jR6D02AutI7_Nf4wglsd77ZwrdusKXmLG_HfoTG6LQan8Z4vpmiPrbJVocLT5tF02gEdKGIOgZ0S2hlPE9FS_TeFBeYKtsMKiB4-5VbsTciBLu6TXccNf4X09SJt3haF_4xNsA2KEJKjjtCyrmNa3Y

To be clear, I am not naive about the extent to which Howard Zinn type historians have rewritten and distorted our History for their own political agendas. 30 years ago when we visited Mt. Vernon and Monticello with our children the former slave quarters were a critical part of the our tour and there was no attempt to hide that troubling part of both George Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s personal stories and our collective history. However, their accomplishments as politicians, war leaders and planters and farmers were also related.

It would be useful to document what is and is not being said to those touring these locations today.

Steven Brizel | July 19, 2022 at 8:56 am

If you have any knowledge of American history as taught by reputable historians as opposed to Zinn, you can and should refute such garbage if you are touring such sites

Earlier I pointed to a statement from the Trustees at James Madison’s Montpelier that rejected out of hand that the organization was distorting history ending with “Montpelier does exactly what the New York Post article claims it should: teach all history honestly and without distortion. Montpelier encourages those who have not had the opportunity to fully experience the site to visit and explore these momentous lessons from American history. ”

Well first of all, the piece they are criticizing from the New York Post certainly appears to have flaws and does strike me as being hyperbolic. It prompted me to see for myself. So I looked at what books were for sale in the Montpelier bookstore. Based on the 40 or so items listed, I would have to say that the Trustees defense is kind of weak. It is hard for me to see how books by Kendi, Coates, Wilkerson, Dyson shed light on Madison. They don’t but they certainly fit an overall 1619 Narrative. Moreover, why can’t someone buy a copy of the Federalist Papers that include many of Madison’s own writings and arguments for our Constitution. In addition, whatever happened to the singular event of Madison’s Presidency, The War of 1812?
I think the Trustees at Montpelier have some more thinking to do since it strikes me that, based on the books in the bookstore, their version of history is, at the very least, incomplete. The buyer of the Museum Bookstore needs to be replaced.