In September of last year President Trump created the 1776 commission. Its aim was to combat the leftist effort called the 1619 project heralded by the New York Times. The 1619 project’s aims are to place slavery front and center in the American ideals.

The 1776 commission released its report on MLK Day. The MSM wasted no time in labeling it racist (CNN link) and unfounded. It shouldn’t be surprising that they would come out swinging so hard. The report takes an honest look at the foundations of progressivism.

Progressives believed that America’s original “software”—the founding documents—were no longer capable of operating America’s vastly more complex “hardware”: the advanced industrial society that had emerged since the founding.

More significantly, the Progressives held that truths were not permanent but only relative to their time. They rejected the self-evident truth of the Declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed equally, either by nature or by God, with unchanging rights. As one prominent Progressive historian wrote in 1922, “To ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false, is essentially a meaningless question.” Instead, Progressives believed there were only group rights that are constantly redefined and change with the times. Indeed, society has the power and obligation not only to define and grant new rights, but also to take old rights away as the country develops.

It should sound familiar. Progressives believe that they have the wizards of smart that can and should make decisions for you. The idea of a “living constitution” is really just a way of nullifying its original intent. This belief is that the ideas that were enshrined in the founding documents do not stand up to the changes in society.

In order to keep up with these changes, government would be run more and more by credentialed managers, who would direct society through rules and regulations that mold to the currents of the time.

The most obvious issue here is that the ideals set down in the constitution are not passing fancies. They are basic building blocks of a government that is intended to be restricted in its power.  It is also meant to be accountable to the people. There was no intention to have a governing body delineate what basic rights were, or were not.

Progressives believe that there is a need to have a ruling class. This bureaucracy would be unelected, and unaccountable. They would also control most of the power within the government. It is understandable why this report is being condemned. The present day progressives don’t want a light shined into the machinery they have created. It should be no surprise that President Biden has dissolved the commission.

Read the whole report here.