Jul 20, 2020

Good morning from Capitol Hill. Heritage President Kay C. James says it’s time for bold action. Read her op-ed on how rioters and spineless politicians are waging war against democracy. Plus, parents and educators are still debating if schools should open this fall. Heritage experts say the decision doesn’t require a consensus and school unions need to be removed from the equation. Also, Heritage expert Mike Gonzalez weighs in on the attempt to boycott Goya Foods. Keep reading below to learn more!

Marxist Radicals and Spineless Politicians Are Waging War on America
All around us, the forces of socialism, Marxism, and anarchy are waging a war against democracy and the moral legitimacy of the great American experiment. Violent radicals have hijacked peaceful protests while mobs have taken to tearing down statues and memorials in an attempt to erase and debase American history. Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James says it’s time for Americans everywhere to take a stand against these radicals and the spineless politicians who enable them. “We must put an end to this now. The rioters and statue topplers must be arrested and prosecuted. We must educate the public about the truth of the founding of the most exceptional nation on earth. And we must wrest our educational system from the hands of leftists who use our schools as indoctrination centers—before we lose yet another generation to them,” James writes in her latest column. Read the full commentary.

Reopening Schools Doesn’t Require National Consensus
Parents looking for a national consensus on whether schools should open in the fall won’t find one. But that’s OK. We don’t need one, according to Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Jonathan Butcher in his latest commentary. As soon as President Donald Trump announced his support for reopening schools this fall, teacher unions said he was “brazenly making these decisions.” The same unions that criticize the opening of schools, however, have hijacked the issue to advance leftist policies that have nothing to do with education, as explained by Lindsey Burke, director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy, in her recent television interview on “Fox & Friends.” But beyond that, the reopening of schools isn’t a federal issue anyway. “Washington should not force schools to reopen. But national officials can remind state lawmakers and parents there are alternatives. Short of a consensus on opening schools in August, that is the best news for everyone,” Butcher writes. Read his full commentary to find out what those alternatives are.

Cancel Culture Tries to Cow Goya Foods’ Bob Unanue
It looks like Bob Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, may be the first American corporate leader to stand up to cancel culture and tell the mob he’s not scared. But he has fulfilled an even more important role. Liberal politicians and celebrities’ ridiculous attack on Unanue for praising the president during his visit to the White House shows once again that ethnic identity groups were created to advance leftist policies in America, according to Heritage’s Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum fellow. “Identity politics is either cruel, or a threat to national cohesion, or so absurd as to be farcical. The message for our leaders is that they should go back to what was the ideal in America for centuries: All citizens should be seen as Americans in the eyes of the law, no matter where they or their ancestors came from, and America’s leaders will work for all Americans no matter where they came from,” Gonzalez writes in his latest commentary. Continue reading to learn more about how Unanue’s stand reveals the true leftist agenda behind identity politics.

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Heritage Foundation experts advocated a move recently authorized by President Donald Trump. It allows the use of sanctions against employees of the International Criminal Court involved in an investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Learn more about our impact.

WEDNESDAY at 11 a.m., Heritage will host a webinar reviewing the rulings of the Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 term. Featured speakers include Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent at The New York Times; Jess Bravin, Supreme Court correspondent at the Wall Street Journal; Jeffrey Harris, partner at Consovoy McCarthy PLLC; and Eric Olson, Colorado’s solicitor general. Register for the event. 

THURSDAY at 2 p.m., Heritage will host a conversation on gender identity and life issues in school. The webinar is the third part of Heritage’s “Education in America” series. Featured speakers include Lindsey M. Burke, director of Heritage’s Center for Education Policy; Abigail Shrier, journalist and author of "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters"; Ryan T. Anderson, Heritage’s William E. Simon senior research fellow; and Brittany Vessely, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference. Register for the event.

Here are highlights from Heritage experts on TV. This week they talked about defunding teachers unions, voter fraud, the coronavirus shutdown and more. Watch the clips.