Inside the Beltway: Ben Shapiro stands up for founding vaules, Founding Fathers

NEWS AND OPINION:

There was a time when the Founding Fathers garnered respect and admiration from the public without question. New cultural perspectives coupled with revised school curriculums and hostile media coverage of the Founders has tarnished their image. That phenomenon would have been unheard of among members of the “Greatest Generation,” or even the restless baby boomers who followed.

A new Fox News poll gauges public sentiment toward the historic stalwarts of yore. About three-fourths of U.S. voters say statues or monuments devoted to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson should remain standing, while nearly two-thirds of voters consider these two men to be “heroes.”

But the trend alarms Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro.

“Only 63% of Americans describe the founders as heroes is devastating. That means that 37% of Americans do not describe the founders as heroes. They describe them as either villains or ’I don’t know,’” Mr. Shapiro told Fox News, adding that White voters (71%) are more than twice as likely as Black voters (31%) to consider the founders to be heroes.

“A growing number of Americans want to tear down what it’s taken us 250 years to build — and they’ll start by canceling our shared history, ideals, and culture. Traditional areas of civic agreement are vanishing. We can’t agree on what makes America special. We can’t even agree that America is special,” Mr. Shapiro writes in his new book “How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps,” published Tuesday by Broadside Books.

He says “disintegrationists” now hope to persuade Americans that the traditional “unionist” idea that the U.S. is indeed united by founding values is gone.

Meanwhile, examine the complete Fox News findings on attitudes toward the Founders in the Poll du Jour at column’s end.

’TRUMP’S ALREADY WON THE ELECTION’

Veteran columnist Roger L. Simon believes this: “Trump has already won the 2020 election,” and he credits the role of the nation’s “normal people,” for the victory.

’These people aren’t just white. They are brown and black and yellow and everything in between. Some of them are friends and relatives and co-workers who aren’t saying a word about anything, who rarely ever do — who don’t want to get their cars keyed or have something a whole lot worse to happen to them. But they are there,” writes Mr. Simon for the Epoch Times.

“Some of them even cringe at some of Trump’s presumed excesses, but they cringe more at the thought that police will not be there in an emergency for their families. They also despise the cancel culture because they are basically good human beings,” Mr. Simon continues.

“These people, when they walk into the voting booth, are not going to be worrying about whether Christopher Columbus was or was not a racist, or whether someone waved a Confederate flag at a NASCAR race. They are going to be worry about whether they can walk their dog at night without fear of being shot,” he advises.

TEXAS ALL IN FOR WEST

The nation’s largest state GOP has a new leader.

Allen West was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Texas in the early hours of Monday during a virtual vote among the organization’s membership. The retired U.S. Army officer and former presidential hopeful has already begun “his strategy to hold Texas” by underscoring the role of traditional conservatism for Lone Star Republicans.

“We need to focus on maintaining the conservative policies that made Texas strong and drive voter outreach across the state,” Mr. West said in a statement.

“The grassroots will no longer let watered-down conservatism be the guiding light. The focus on conservative principles and expanding the tent of the party is the future,” his campaign said.

President Trump took immediate notice.

“Congratulations Allen, great job!” he tweeted after Mr. West’s victory went public.

GOYA JOY

When Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue publicly voiced his support for President Trump, there were immediate calls for a boycott of the company’s products from such progressive lawmakers as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat.

Thousands of New York City bodegas, however, are pushing back.

“Did any of these boycotters stop to think about the impact their actions would have on the more than 13,000 bodegas in the Big Apple — and on hundreds of thousands more stores all over the country that sell Goya products, a staple of the Hispanic dining table? Did they stop to think about the thousands of black and Latino workers Goya employs?” asked Francisco Marte, secretary and treasurer of the New York Bodega and Small Business Association, writing in an op-ed for The New York Post.

“The Unanue family, immigrants from Spain, are role models for every single immigrant to this country — a family whose achievements attest to the promise of America as a land of opportunity. Goya is a job generator, while most of its detractors haven’t done a thing to create a single job for the Hispanic community.”

A GoFundMe effort for Goya Foods has now raised over $315,000 in just over a week, from 9,000 contributors. Organizer Casey Harper will buy Goya products with the funds, then distribute them to food banks in and around the nation’s capital. The first order is 40,000 pounds of food — about $25,000 worth — destined for a food pantry in Arlington, Virginia.

“I was told the manager of the food pantry was dancing with joy,” advises Mr. Harper.

POLL DU JOUR

• 73% of U.S. voters say monuments devoted to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson should “stay up”; 90% of Republicans, 77% of independents and 57% of Democrats agree.

• 16% of voters overall say they should be “taken down”; 7% of Republicans, 10% of independents and 26% of Democrats agree.

• 63% overall say the founders of our country are “heroes”; 79% of Republicans, 56% of independents and 50% of Democrats agree.

• 15% overall say they are “villains”; 7% of Republicans, 15% of independents and 23% of Democrats agree.

• 48% overall say Confederate monuments should “stay up”; 73% of Republicans, 49% of independents and 27% of Democrats agree.

• 39% of voters overall say they should be “taken down”; 17% of Republicans, 34% of independents and 61% of Democrats agree.

Source: A Fox New poll of 1,104 registered U.S. voters conducted July 12-15.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin