“I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.” - Alexander Hamilton
Our Founding Fathers risked their lives to forge one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. They numbered among the most brilliant men of their time – yet, they were but men, and thus flawed.
Were the Founding Fathers perfect? No. But scrubbing them from history is foolhardy at best and dangerous at worst. As Cicero observed, “To remain ignorant of history is to remain forever a child.” If we are to escape the doom of repeating our mistakes, liberals must cease acting as children who refuse to face our national history, both glorious and horrendous. Rather than suppressing facts, we should learn from them – the good and the bad.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem calls Mt. Rushmore: “the greatest symbol of our freedom and history of the United States.” South Dakota’s lone U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson stated, “There is a reason that Mt. Rushmore is called the shrine to Democracy. When you look at those four leaders, they symbolize the greatest strengths of America, about our unity, about our coming together, about our march toward a more perfect union.”
Yet, Mt. Rushmore is under attack. Calls from agitators continue to mount, demanding our National Monument be demolished or destroyed. To ensure Mt. Rushmore endures as an embodiment of our nation’s history, Representative Johnson introduced the Protect Mt. Rushmore Act, barring the use of federal funds to alter, change, and/or destroy Mt. Rushmore’s name or likeness.
The National Park Service (NPS) offers this graceful description of the monument: “Majestic figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota, tell the story of the birth, growth, development and preservation of this country.”
Yet, Biden’s NPS objects to the Protect Mt. Rushmore Act, calling it “unnecessary.” It seems the Biden Administration doth protest too much! In recent years, Thomas Jefferson was ripped from the New York City Hall; Abraham Lincoln was torn from Boston’s Park Square. Protestors toppled statues of George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt in Portland. Given the relentless ideological campaign to abolish any trace of these Founding Fathers, protecting Mt. Rushmore isn’t merely necessary, it’s imperative!
Accordingly, on July 24, 2023, the South Dakota Federation of Republican Women’s executive committee implored Congress to pass the Protect Mt. Rushmore Act.