A couple of incidents over the past week have made it clear that many conservatives still don’t understand the purpose or the importance of education.
Let’s start with Tucker Carlson. The Fox News host decided to target the Heritage Foundation — specifically its president, Kay Cole James — in a monologue this weekend accusing the conservative think tank of wasting its donors’ contributions and failing to protect conservative ideals. As evidence, Carlson cited an op-ed James wrote in late May decrying the murder of George Floyd and the many other wrongful killings that stem from law enforcement abuse.
“As America burned, Kay Cole James piled on,” Carlson claimed. “[Heritage] did nothing. They did nothing to help the people they pledged to protect — voters and their donors.”
Some of Carlson’s accusations were just flat-out false. He said James accused “America of being irredeemably racist” while saying nothing at all about the violent riots that took place in the wake of Floyd’s death. Neither assertion is true. In the second sentence of her op-ed, James clearly states that rioting and violence are wrong and counterproductive. And nowhere in her op-ed does she claim America is systematically racist. Rather, she speaks to the lived experiences of many black Americans who have legitimate complaints against law enforcement and the criminal justice system because of the way they’ve been treated. It is because of America’s founding principles that these injustices are able to come to light at all, she said. It is not because of America that racism exists, she continued, but in spite of it.
Carlson’s principal accusation — that Heritage has done nothing to protect or advance conservative principles — is also false. And it proves that Carlson, like many others, doesn’t really understand why Heritage exists.
The same can be said of some of my former peers who have recently taken up arms against our alma mater, Hillsdale College. An open letter circulating among alumni circles accused the college of perpetuating systemic racism and accepting “white supremacy” because the school has not publicly spoken up about matters of the day, namely, the Black Lives Matter movement. The college might not be racist, they conceded, but it isn’t “actively anti-racist” either. In other words, Hillsdale can and should do more.
The specific complaints against Heritage and Hillsdale are different, but the argument is the same: Both institutions are said to have not done “enough.” Carlson says Heritage isn’t doing enough to protect conservatives. Fellow alumni argue Hillsdale isn’t doing enough to combat racism. And at the root of both of these complaints is the idea that education, as both a means and an end, is not enough.
Both Heritage and Hillsdale rely on educational tools to advance conservative principles. Heritage hosts events regularly and invites prominent speakers to speak on political and cultural topics. Its staffers publish in-depth research on various policies and encourage other institutions — government agencies, media outlets, etc. — to use this research. Hillsdale does much the same while dedicating itself to its individual students, promoting virtual learning globally, and sharing its resources with a host of charter schools nationwide.
The idea that these actions aren’t “enough” couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, education is probably the single most effective tool we conservatives have in our belts, because it provides and strengthens the very foundation upon which conservatism is built. It’s much easier to fight for or against a specific policy when you understand why that policy, or the idea that backs it, exists in the first place.
Take, for example, the recent string of statue topplings. The mob, armed with ropes and spray paint, first targeted Confederate figures, who arguably do not deserve the recognition they were given. But the mob didn’t stop there. Next came the abolitionists and the Founding Fathers, because, according to the Left, there is no moral distinction between Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson Davis.
Those who have studied Jefferson’s history know that there is indeed a distinction and an important one at that. But more often than not, this distinction is left out by public universities and professors who are waging war against America’s founding values by teaching young, impressionable students that America was always bad, and that it still is.
This is where educational institutions such as Heritage and Hillsdale come in. They correct the record and redirect attention to first principles, thereby combating the historical revisionism coming from the Left at its very foundation. This is a powerful tool, yet conservatives such as Carlson are all too eager to dismiss it as too passive a means for change.
There is nothing passive about education. Just look at the way the Left has used the public education system to sway the culture and public opinion. Why would we think conservative educational institutions are any less effective? The tools are the same. All we need is the means to use them.
Heritage and Hillsdale have those means, and they use them daily. Heritage teaches government officials and average citizens alike to respect founding principles and apply them to policy. And Hillsdale teaches its students and millions of others what liberty, equality, and justice for all look like in a democratic society. In other words, they teach individuals to recognize truth, to love it, and to use this truth to change hearts and minds. This might not be an overt revolution against the Left’s narrative, but it is a cultural one nonetheless — and it’s effective.
Which is why institutions such as these are more important than ever. What they do on a daily basis works. And more importantly, it’s good.
