The bad news is that even the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Jefferson’s famous Monticello estate as a museum, now trashes Jefferson more than it honors him.
The worse news is that there’s little hope of this changing anytime soon.
As usual, conservatives and centrist traditionalists have been asleep at the switch as left-wing ideologues take over cultural and educational organizations nationwide. That’s because conservatives tend to look past ideology when filling board positions and top staff, but modern leftists deliberately exclude conservatives as if non- “progressive” ideology is itself a disqualifier. And once leftists reach critical mass at an institution, there’s no looking back.
The subject arises because Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the libertarian Brownstone Institute, late last week began making the media rounds about his “demoralizing” Fourth of July tour of Monticello. He now becomes the most prominent of numerous visitors who say the main focus of Monticello now seems to be to ruin Jefferson’s reputation.
“The tour guides play ‘besmirchment derby,’ never missing a chance to defame” the author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote one visitor on Facebook.
The main focus, from start to finish, seems to be on slavery, not on Jefferson’s manifold accomplishments. As reported by the New York Post, “Books by critical race theory proponents Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates enjoy pride of place in the visitor center’s gift shop, while the smaller Farm Shop store displays five titles on Jefferson’s slaves — and a single biography of the man himself.”
Tucker, the Brownstone founder, put it this way: “I just thought that maybe Monticello would be protected from this disease of ‘wokeism,’ but I was sadly wrong.”
A subsequent column will defend Jefferson more extensively, but suffice it to say that the Sage of Monticello did more for human liberty and expansion of human knowledge than all but a handful of individuals in human history. The Left’s obsessive attempts to destroy his reputation are both malicious and historically and contextually ignorant.
A look at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation board shows how the foundation’s original intentions have been subverted. The board chairman is left-wing luminary Melody Barnes, a former aide to the late liberal Senate icon Ted Kennedy and former domestic policy adviser to President Barack Obama. Among other controversies, she appeared on the timeline of Justice Department shenanigans to drop an already-won voter-intimidation case against two violent members of the New Black Panther organization.
Vice-Chairman Tobias Dengel is a businessman who donated to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. His LinkedIn account laments “the United States’ past” while pushing liberal boilerplate about “a more equitable future.” Board member Renee Grisham is a “social justice” activist married to notably liberal author and activist John Grisham. Board member Miki Woodard, who boasts of “vast equity, cultural diversity and social justice experience,” is CEO of the Texas Women’s Foundation, an actively liberal group that gives grants to such left-wing outfits as the Alliance for Justice. Board member Suzi LeVine was a big enough Democratic fundraiser to secure an ambassadorship from Obama.
The list of leftists goes on. In contrast, I can find information on only four (of 17) Monticello board members — one of them is well-known equity firm manager William Walton III, another Sarah Perot, daughter-in-law of late billionaire Ross — hinting at significant Republican or conservative leanings.
Meanwhile, last month, the board of the Montpelier Foundation, which preserves the home of founder James Madison, similarly capitulated to the forces of wokeness that seemingly see all U.S. history through the lens of slavery. At both Monticello and Montpelier, wokeness seeps in when the rest of us get caught napping.
