It's time we talked about e pluribus unum and what it really means for our country, especially in light of all the propaganda that's being injected into our collective bloodstream by the 'woke' Left. I'm speaking, of course, about diversity and its relationship to our nation's past, present and future.
Back in the latter part of the 18th century, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin proposed that the new America should adopt a Latin motto. They chose e pluribus unum, which basically means 'one from many' to describe our core belief that the new Republic should be one nation of many states, each with their own voice representing their own population's voices. Pretty radical for its time, but it stuck.
Our Founding Fathers were well aware that the diversity of our people's religions, traditions and lifestyles presented challenges when it came to the formation of our Republic so they created a blueprint outlining our core values that built the next level on top of the ground floor of our diversity. While that blueprint enumerated the people's rights to think differently and act independently of one another, it also gave our society its own Magna Carta and showed us how diversity fit into the collective values we held highest.
One of those protected our society from tribalism, nepotism, elitism and cultural cannibalism. It was called, 'meritocracy,' and it endured for a couple centuries until certain special interest groups decided that it and the democracy it undergirded should be replaced. The approach they chose essentially reversed all the gains we made since our revolution, the most important of which was our victory over an elite aristocracy that had exerted control over everything by using unbridled power, fear and favoritism.
Exit meritocracy. Enter diversity.
By the 21st century, we had become wealthier. Much of it was due to a free market philosophy, liberal regulatory policy, and to a lesser degree a network of families with inherited money. But for those who weren't the sons and daughters of captains of industry or wolves of Wall Street there was one saving grace…America's meritocracy. It was a way for those who worked hard and who understood the system to prosper. The result was the creation of new 'diverse' millionaires and billionaires that succeeded despite their race, ethnicity, education or political persuasion.
But that wasn't enough for the radical Left. They wanted the tables turned on all the evil White supremacists, racists, etc. who, in their opinion, had rigged the system to keep 'ordinary' men and women without sufficient means outside the circle. What the Left really wanted was an American Revolution 2.0 that would give 'their' people the combination to the vault where power and money lay. And since the powerful were not going to surrender without a fight they decided to use a modern-day Trojan horse to get inside the city walls. That 'horse' was diversity. Aware that destroying meritocracy would take longer, they chose a cultural battering ram - targeted accusations of racism - to accelerate their progress.
They then employed an additional tactic -- changing how America saw itself in the cultural 'mirror.' They called it going woke or a wholesale (re)awakening of American culture through questioning all our core values and replacing them with the belief that America is a systemically racist country, built on centuries of oppression by an unfeeling majority. And the only path forward was the total elimination of the American-style meritocracy.
The Left has succeeded in frightening corporate America into adopting 'DEI' (diversity, equity and inclusion) in their HR policies; persuaded government to use 'box checking' identity-based hiring practices for civil servants and Schedule 'C' appointments; AND they have intimidated and persecuted our military for doing what they were recruited to be…fighting men.
They have wormed their way into our schools with CRT (critical race theory) curricula, opened the doors to drag queen performances and instituted 'gender fluidity' programs that have totally by-passed parents.
And before you think this is just happening on the East coast or the 'Left coast,' you had better think again. DEI and CRT and all the other social theories that build on presumptive racism are alive and well and flourishing here. They are especially hazardous to our overall New Mexico health when they are combined with our low literacy rate and abysmal test scores because they give underachievers yet another excuse for failing to measure up with the rest of the USA.
The Progressive 'revolution' must be stopped now before our guiding principle of "out of many one" becomes just an antiquated phrase, quoted by bespectacled political historians. America's resolve lies in her strength which is derived from widely-held and time-tested shared beliefs. While diversity is exciting and one of our society's foundational pillars, it cannot support our temple of freedom, alone. Only unity of purpose can.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of twelve books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,300 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website: www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com