OPINION: Cooper’s all in on critical race theory
By Ray Nothstine, Opinion Editor, Carolina Journal
Even in North Carolina, the rejection of fundamental American principles thunders ahead. The proof? Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed an anti-critical race theory bill on Sept. 10. If one reads the text, it’s hard to imagine political leaders opposing these principles a few years ago. Simply put, the bill works to reinforce the American tenets of equality and our E Pluribus Unum motto.
A common refrain, lawmakers, and advocates for the bill are right to wonder whether Cooper has even read what he opposed. What’s controversial about saying one race or sex is not inherently greater than another?
Certainly, he has read it. Even in a state that Donald Trump won twice; Cooper continues to fully morph into one of the most reliable mouthpieces for the national Democratic Party. One can no longer conjure up a single-issue Cooper disagrees with his party today.
The Republican-led bill didn’t ban the teaching of critical race theory outright. That’s an important point. The sole aim of the bill champions greater transparency in the classroom while elevating the core principles of a color-blind society.
“People need to take note when our governor and lawmakers won’t support the principles of equality and nondiscrimination,” says Dr. Robert Luebke, a senior fellow at the John Locke’s Center for Effective Education.
Cooper claims concerns over critical race theory are all a political distraction from more government spending and social engineering. He even went so far as to suggest the bill was “conspiracy-laden politics.”
Yet even he must know his veto is cheered almost solely by the ideologically left. Sure, he’d rather the issue disappear. After all, the politicization of K-12 classrooms across North Carolina is a growing concern for parents and citizens alike. It’s not hard to figure out that classroom indoctrination and COVID-19 policies have many parents running for the nearest public-school exits.
To his credit, Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, displayed leadership on an issue that is a legitimate and growing concern, particularly if one cares about the long-term implications of civil unity.
"I oppose it, and I will combat it with everything that I have, because I believe the doctrine undoes the framework that produced the most successful ongoing experiment in self-government in the history of mankind,” declared Berger.
In the foreword to “Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House,” noted neurosurgeon and political figure Dr. Benjamin Carson calls critical race theory “Neo-Marxist in theory.” Carson adds that CRT echoes the Jim Crow-era past by swapping “which race is favored and which race is disfavored.”
Critical race theory simply replaces class for race by echoing the Marxist focus of class struggle, pitting the so-called “oppressed” against the “oppressors.” Furthermore, it posits that certain people are victims solely because of race, and others are inherently oppressors. It reduces people to ideology and the materialist worldview made so famous by Karl Marx.
This type of ideological dogma must be rejected. The intent is to divide and distract Americans so the power of the state surges.
Political leaders and citizens shouldn’t be afraid to speak the truth. America’s greatness will smolder away If we can’t embrace our founding principles.
John Locke CEO and Carolina Journal publisher Amy Cooke noted George Orwell’s infamous line from “1984”: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
It should be alarming that politicians, including North Carolina’s governor, now routinely reject fundamental American principles.
Cooke adds, “The reason the left is openly rejecting them is that they want to fundamentally change our nation into something much different where the state is paramount to the individual. I recently read a terrifying phrase — ‘communal freedom.’ That isn’t freedom at all. It’s socialism, and socialism isn’t compatible with our constitutional republic.”
America’s founding documents and the American Civil Rights movement have given this nation a great legacy and an ability to strive for ideals that are not always fulfilled. Watching Cooper and other politicians pander to woke mobs and their impoverished ideology, all for the sake of power, should, at the very least, remind us of the inheritance we are squandering.
