This week, Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 Project tweeted, "Black people posed a danger to the country's idea of itself; they held up a mirror into which the nation preferred not to peer.  So the inhumanity visited on Black people by every generation of white America justified the inhumanity of the past and the inequality of the present."  She added, "The North did not fight the Civil War to end slavery." 

At the start of the Civil War, she was, technically correct.  The Union Army was just that: an army raised to preserve the United States.  However, on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln changed the context of the war with the Emancipation Proclamation.  For the next three years, the North was fighting to put an end to the institution of slavery and to bring the rebel states back into the fold.  Let's not forget that the South initiated the secession because of the fear that President Lincoln and the North would abolish slavery in the first place. 

This isn't the first attempt by the Progressives to rewrite our history. Most of these instances, such as the one above, are laughable — at least on the surface.  Conservatives tend to view them with scorn.  Instances like this latest tweet are glossed over and mocked.  Yet they are out there, propagating a twisted narrative.

What is that narrative?  The United States was never a great country.  It was built by slaves and other oppressed people.  It was flawed from its inception.  Our country's iconic heroes such as Washington, Jackson, Jefferson, and others should be cast down because they owned slaves.  Capitalism is a system of racial and social oppression that, by its nature, makes it corrupt and evil.  There is no American dream.  To the Progressives, America is so deeply corrupted that it must be changed from the ground up — starting with the history of the nation. 

George Orwell wrote, "Who controls the past controls the future."  The far left has adopted this mantra and is running with it.  Leftists intend to reboot the United States.  Our history, our true history, stands in the way of that.  So do our American values, our love of country, and the moral center that our religions provide.

On the historical front, their solution is eloquent and dangerous: change the history as the basis for forging a new Progressive future.  This is not just about rewriting history books.  They will alter our money, removing the "undesirable" presidents and replacing them with approved Progressive icons.  Monuments are already toppling and have been for years.  It is easy to imagine the left demanding that the Washington monument be renamed, or that the Lincoln Memorial be replaced with something they deem more socially and politically acceptable.  To underestimate how far they are willing to go is a mistake we cannot afford.  

Our nation is not perfect.  We have flaws, but we constantly strive to overcome them.  Our leaders are far from being saints.  In my lifetime, race relations are better than they have ever been.  Some business people are corrupt, but our economic system has given millions the opportunity for a better life.  We are one of the best nations to live on the Earth.  We have fought wars around the globe to liberate oppressed people.  We are a nation where anyone can become whatever he desires...if he puts the effort into it.  We are prosperous, hardworking, and a deeply convicted people.  The American glass is not half-empty; it is almost full.  Yes, things could be better, and we are willing to undertake that work. 

A nation that alters its history to fit current imaginary social constructs is doomed.  Erasing a people's past does not make anything better; it serves only to foster division and hate.  Tearing down works of art because you don't like the politics of the people they represent is the act of radicals and anarchists.  No nation that has cast aside its past to fit an agenda has ever achieved lasting greatness.

Conservatives need to take a harder stand against these efforts.  History is not a plaything for politicians with narratives to fulfill.  History exists for us to learn from.  Lying about it, altering its context, and attempting to change it for nefarious reasons will ultimately tear this country apart.  History can be added to — but it is not there to be treated as a plaything.  We run the risk of an entire generation of our youths not understanding where they come from, what they represent, or what they stand for.  If we do not take a stand, they will be taught a story that has no bearing on reality — which means we will have already lost them.  

Blaine L. Pardoe is author of Blue Dawn: The most chilling "what-if" in history...the progressive overthrow of the United States and The Democratic Party Playbook, Election 2022 Edition.  Pardoe is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author who lives in Virginia.  He is the author of numerous science fiction, military history, true crime, horror, and business leadership books.

Image via Max Pixel.