Happy belated New Year friends. We hope you’re finding your way through the same pandemic, the same culture wars, and the same broken politics in good health, good spirits and hopefully both. Principles First remains home to an increasing population of folks wintering the dark days of polarized infighting preparing for the Spring of new ideas to bolster the health of our republic.
Our DC summit is near on the horizon. We gather on February 26-27 at the National Press Club. The Principles First Summit is open to all who are concerned about the health of our republic and want to encourage principled leaders to seek election and make a stand for integrity. Come join us and stay up to date on our speaker list via the website. We will begin announcing the impressive slate of speakers January 24th.
With that. Here are a few things going on in Principles First news:
January 6, 2021: the date that will live in…obscurity or infamy depending on your political persuasion. A year has passed since President Trump, after losing an election and continuing to deny it, rallied his supporters and sent them down the street where they broke into the Capitol while Congress was trying to certify his opponent’s election victory. The contest to characterize that day, where both Capitol Police and rioters/insurgents died, marches on. Many Republicans on the far right say the whole thing was a Capitol tour gone bad. Two Republicans, Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), were appointed to the January 6th Commission to ensure the official account of January 6, 2021 is a complete picture. No matter a person’s preferred characterization of the event, most agree we do not want it to happen again. A complete picture of the facts surrounding the assault will help us ensure it does not. The rest of the Republican party boycotted the fact-compiling process while Cheney and Kinzinger stepped out to lead.
Bye Bye to Biden’s Triple B. The White House’s Build Back Better plan was knifed several times by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) - or at least he is taking the heat for it. After the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in November was followed by record inflation, Senator Manchin is the only Democrat standing in the way of another $1 trillion+ bill aimed at “soft infrastructure,” meaning programs like family leave and healthcare expansion rather than roads and bridges. The bills were formerly tied together and splitting them was the first nail in the coffin of the BBB or “soft infrastructure” bill. Both Manchin and Senator Kirsten Sinema (D-AZ) showed some fortitude in holding their ground while their party sought keep the spending spout flowing, forcing the split bills in order to pass the widely popular “hard infrastructure” only portion.
Culture wars continue to rage in a school boardroom near you. From Michigan to Texas and California to West Virginia, the GOP ground game rooted in the fear of children possibly feeling bad about the transgressions of their ancestors is winning. A formerly obscure legal theory, Critical Race Theory (CRT), came to the forefront in reaction to Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Any mention of positive race relations is quickly getting lumped under the umbrella of CRT and branded as socialist propaganda. Many local officials who, like former Dallas Cowboy Russell Maryland, were charged with finding a way to improve race relations in schools were blindsided by the successful cultural war offensive that is defeating their cause. Most of the officials, and many defeated candidates accused of pushing CRT, had not heard of the theory, much less sought to implement it. But the politics works to the far right’s favor, especially in affluent suburbia. Maryland’s plight in a DFW suburb is particularly illuminating:
In the past, Maryland has been the celebrity face of Carroll ISD, helping to raise more than $300,000 for the district over a three-year period. After the viral video (in 2018), he became the celebrity face of the fight against a culture of racism and homophobia in the public school system.
“I never thought that I would be the one in this [Critical Race Theory] fight,” Maryland said. “This has been stronger than any double team by the Washington Football Team or the New York Giants that I've ever faced. This has been a tough fight.”
That’s all for today. Thank you to our supporters and readers. It is the continued efforts of this amazing community and the patchwork of similar organizations who harbor the hope of our continued American experiment. See you in DC on February 26-27!
Have something we should be reading? Send your recommendations for the Principles First Rollup to pfrollupeditor@gmail.com.
Today’s Principles First Rollup editor is Justin Louis Pitcock (twitter @jlouispitcock)