Dr. Matthew Spalding - Is the Smithsonian rewriting American history?

 America's museums are meant to preserve history, but critics argue some have become vehicles for political activism. Dr. Matthew Spalding, Vice President of Washington Operations at Hillsdale College and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government, joins the show to discuss his congressional testimony on the Smithsonian and whether taxpayer-funded museums are drifting from their mission. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. My next guest told the Congress that the Smithsonian Institution isn't actually teaching history anymore. It's teaching self-loathing for America. Should taxpayers keep putting the bill? Dr. Matthew Spaulding is the vice president of Washington or for Washington operations at Hillsdale College and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government. Dr. Spaulding, welcome back to the program.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Good to be with you, Lars.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Have I misdescribed what's going on at the Smithsonian? Because as a kid, I love the Smithsonian. Even as an adult, I visited D.C. I've gone to a number of the museums. I don't think I've been to the one in New York City. But what in the world is going on there to cause what's what's happening now?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Well, look, there are all these great artifacts of Smithsonian. I love the Smithsonian. Scott uh you know the great flag that uh inspired the national anthem. But in in recent years, in the in the you know, say the last decade or so, a new director, Secretary of the Smithsonian and a new director of the American History Museum have over time completely changed how it works intellectually and how it presents itself. And looking back now, we we have their internal documents, and that's what this report is based on. Uh they they lay it out, which is say it's a twofold problem. On the one hand, what we expect, what we all love the Smithsonian about, what we expect to see the women go, is a history of American national uh events, a chronology, a narrative, a story, but that's not there anymore. There are odds and ends, the flag, uh Jefferson's writing desk, Lincoln's hat. But the story is gone, the which means the context is gone, and now it's all about uh instead uh socially oppressed groups, uh, those who have not been elevated or intentionally elevated, and the founders in American history is disu, you know, is is put aside, decentered, as they say, and they lay out the strategy, and now we see the fruit of it. So we don't learn anything about the the founders. There's no narrative about the American founding and the 25th anniversary, but we do learn about uh young girls who are confused about their gender. We do learn about drag queens, we do learn about um uh very sexually explicit clothing and things that uh that can be worn. We do learn that uh Franklin did electoral experiments and were asked to consider the fact that he might have conducted experiments on slaves. I mean, this is absurd. It's it's it's complete, a egregious example of kind of a radical postmodern ideology applied to our own history at America's National History Museum of Smithsonian.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Now, Dr. Spaulding, feel free to call me a Pollyanna on this, but I would think that even if you get new leadership into an institution like that, that some of the people who've been there a long time, who have a deep history in history, not in trying to craft a certain political message, that they would object to this and say, hey, hold on. Yes, we're the Smithsonian, yes, we maybe change a bit with the times, but at the same time, you can't go back and simply erase history or leave people without an understanding of what was the context of what happened in in this country's founding and and its uh and its progress. Are the are was anybody pushing back against all this new leadership?

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Well, we we don't know. I would expect so, because you know, at first when these things come out, you know, this is a debate about history, and there's a liberal and conservative opinion, and it's questions of nuance and this kind of thing, but it's not like that at all. If this were a museum dominated by what I would call old liberals, um you know, I would have less of a problem because I can work with them, I can talk to them, we can have a conversation, and there's a broad consensus about what that American narrative is, how it started, how the country began, who the main figures were, what are the key events. But that's all gone. I can't imagine that uh there's no one there that finds this problematic. Because if I were an old liberal type, um, who you know even was somewhat progressive in their opinions about various things, you still have a general sense of what actually happened. You can't erase the realities and the facts of history and replace them with an abstract theory about powers, struggles, and oppression uh that completely upends all that. I don't I don't see how that was not objected by someone. But having said that, uh the current secretary, the current uh head of the Smithsonian clearly has completely shaped uh this institution. They lay out it out and they have interpretive documents, they have restorative history documents, they have annual reports, they changed the mission statement and they dropped the word history and the word American history from their mission. Wow. This is crazy. And and we're just now seeing this because it's the 25th anniversary and a lot of people went there and people started noticing something that was awry, shall we say. And lo and behold, they lay it out before us in their own documents.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Well, is there any way to fix that?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, this is the hard question. I mean, uh it seems to be a leadership problem, you know, and there's a border registr over the Smithsonian. It's not directly under the president, it's heavily funded by Congress, so they've got some leverage here uh in in the form of money, annual appropriations. But geez, this is not just a minor disagreement of opinions. Uh this is an institution, as the report um concludes, and I and I support that conclusion, has uh suffered from ideological takeover. Uh it's now been uh captured by a very narrow uh ideological understanding of history, which really denies history and makes it all about power struggles. I mean, that's uh an interesting conversation, I suppose, for the faculty lounge. But this is the Smithsonian, this is the National Museum of American History. And you go there and you don't learn American history. I just find it um uh uh amazingly disturbing. Uh and I think there's gotta be Congress has got to look into this. I think uh the president, although it's not directly into the president, has an obligation to think about how this money is being spent and and and uh whether this is actually in the national interest. The region should be looking into this very closely and taking this very seriously uh because they oversee it. It's not an independent institution. Uh but something something uh serious has got to happen. I just I just find this, I was appalled, I'm shocked. Uh, and I I I don't this can't go on. This is not merely a small minor uh difference of opinion. Uh this is something much larger that uh I'm uh very, very upset about because this is the National Museum, it's America's 25th anniversary anniversary, and yet here we are, here we are.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

And and if they continue to go this direction, I've seen other institutions, and we're aware of them both in the private sector and in the nonprofit sector, where when they go far enough woke, they end up with an institution that simply destroys itself. That's Dr. Matthew Spaulding. He's vice president of Washington Operations for Hillsdale College, the Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government. Dr. Spaulding, thank you very much. I very much appreciate the time. By the way, a dollar, and I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, a dollar does not buy what it did 10 years ago. And that's something every family has experienced, from groceries to gas to housing. The question isn't whether prices change, it's whether you're prepared for what comes next. And that's why I want to encourage you to stay informed before you make important financial decisions. Swiss America has been educating Americans about precious metals for more than 40 years, and they've offered up a free report, and you can get one. I've got one too, The Secret of War on Cash. It explains why many Americans are looking for ways to help preserve their purchasing power over the long term. And there's no obligation, just straightforward information from a trusted company with decades of experience. Don't wait till rising costs force you to start asking those questions. Learn about your options today. And it's easy. Call or text 800 289-2646 or visit Swiss America.com slash Lars. That's 800 289 2646 or Swiss America.com slash Lars. Tell them Lars sends you message and data rates do apply.