Faulty reasoning signals

• Biased Writer Voice - 16.6%
• Hasty Generalization - 13.2%
• Straw Man - 7%

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I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry while reading the White House report entitled Saving America’s Story , wherein the current leadership of the Smithsonian Institution stands accused of ignoring the glories of the founding fathers and “abandoning historical scholarship for political activism.” Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Here are the first four examples of alleged political advocacy in the 162-page report’s indictment: 1. Advocacy for extending citizenship to illegal aliens; 2. Partnership with illegal alien activists who campaigned to oust a North Carolina Sheriff from office; 3. Indoctrinat(ing) middle and high school students into opposing the enforcement of federal immigration law; 4. Created a video highlighting protestors demanding to “abolish ICE.” Indeed, nearly half the 28 examples of alleged political activism lodged against the Smithsonian involved alleged support for “illegal immigration” and “illegal aliens.” The remainder included “rejecting biological reality, “anti-woman activism,” “turn(ing) America’s youth into anti-gun activists,” and transforming its museums “into anti-white institutions.” In other words, this White House wants an American history purged of all references to its diversity, its proud immigrant tradition (of which most of us owe our citizenship), and any references to the equity promised in the original Declaration of Independence. They would rewrite that document to say all white men are created equal, which is what the original Constitution guaranteed since most states placed property restrictions on the right to vote in the early years of the Republic. One of the alleged incidents of anti-white bias involved the Smithsonian forming a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which the report claimed was “found to be manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” The footnote “proving” this allegation cited an April 2026 Justice Department press release from acting attorney general Todd Blanche and FBI director Kash Patel, which touted their grand jury indictment in Alabama accusing the SPLC of encouraging the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the American Nazi Party and the other hate groups to engage in violate acts in order to facilitate fundraising. The paragraph started by accurately stating it was an indictment. But then used language that claimed they had already been “found” guilty. For the record, SPLC pled not guilty in May. Its interim CEO Bryan Fair said: “The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law. Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups.” It appears innocent until proven guilty (the Fifth Amendment) is no longer operative in Donald Trump’s Washington. However, there are exceptions. For instance, the anti-vaccine organization previously run by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remains steadfast in its willingness to use this bedrock American legal principle to maintain its pre-existing beliefs. The New York Times reported this morning that an Idaho mother of twin toddlers who were found dead in their beds over a year ago was indicted for murder last week. The alleged crime was “either premeditated or taken in the course of aggravated battery.” Three days after their deaths, in an interview with Children’s Health Defense, RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine non-profit, the mother, 23-year-old Andrea Renee Shaw, claimed childhood vaccines were responsible for her kids’ deaths. Shaw went on to become the group’s lead plaintiff in its lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics, which alleges the doctors’ group lied when it endorsed FDA findings that the vaccines were safe. Where’s Franklin? But let’s move on to another example of whitewashing American history that hasn’t made news. Ironically enough, it comes from different arm of the Smithsonian Institution. My shrink-wrapped copy of the summer edition of Smithsonian magazine, appropriately entitled “Celebrating America at 250,” arrived in the family mailbox two weeks ago. I didn’t get around to opening it until this week. Its 144 pages appropriately celebrated the many achievements of American scientists, technologists (including Benjamin Franklin), writers, artists, civil rights activists and more. Its opening essay by Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III focused, as did many of its more than three dozen essays, on America’s innovative spirit. The nation’s greatest presidents weren’t ignored. They included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Neither of the thumbnail sketches of the first two founding fathers mentioned slavery. Lincoln was touted as the only president to have earned a patent for conceiving “a nifty way of freeing boats when they ran aground.” No mention of his role before and during the Civil War. McKinley earned recognition for being the first to use campaign buttons while running for office, not for launching U.S. imperialism with the Spanish-American War. The editors bestowed the longest single profile of an American president on Woodrow Wilson, whose first-term legislative record “reflects the progressive agenda at flood tide.” Achievements mentioned included the creation of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the curtailment of child labor, and the introduction of the eight-hour day for railroad workers. His negatives, also mentioned, included segregation of the federal workforce, the gross violations of civil liberties during WWI, and his “stubborn refusal to compromise with Senate critics” that kept the U.S. out of his own brainchild, the League of Nations. What most amazed me about this hagiographic edition was its total omission of the achievements of the only president to have served more than two terms. Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected four times to the White House, gets mentioned exactly once — in the Wilson profile that notes that the president’s achievements foreshadowed the New Deal (without giving FDR credit for that political slogan). Why would there be no mention of America’s longest-serving president, clearly the greatest political leader of the 20th century? You’d think a Trumpified Smithsonian might worship the ground he rolled on. After all, he was a rich white man with substantial legislative achievements. Let us recount a few of them: The 1935 Wagner Act enabled a third of the workforce to become unionized, and the same year created Social Security. Both set the stage for the creation of the largest middle class the world has ever known. He ended the depression and led the U.S. during its war against fascism. He banned racial discrimination in defense industries. And his socially empathetic and activist wife, Eleanor, redefined what it meant to be a First Lady. A balanced profile could also have emphasized FDR’s downsides: How he rigorously enforced the nation’s 1924 anti-immigration law that prevented millions of Jews, desperate to leave Europe, from entering the country. Or, how his maintenance of a rigidly segregated military engendered the anger among returning black GIs; how many majority black occupations were excluded from labor rights protections and black communities excluded from housing subsidies; and how those indignities led the postwar generation of African Americans to launch a world-shaking civil rights movement that would secure equal rights for all. The FDR Memorial in Roosevelt, N.J. I grew up in a town named after FDR, one of the few in the U.S. It was built during the 1930s as a model community containing 200 single-family homes for unemployed garment workers. Its curving streets and pleasant cul-de-sacs surrounded a school in the center of town—its only public building. The farm and factory failed, but the spirit of that tiny central New Jersey village lived on in the hearts of its 1,000 or so inhabitants and the millions of Americans who still venerate the achievements of FDR’s New Deal. So, I, too, am upset with the Smithsonian for leaving out the history of white Americans—in this case, the president who helped more Americans achieve middle-class status than any other, and whose achievements the oligarchy that now rules our country is destroying bit by bit, day by day. The post Whitewashing History appeared first on Washington Monthly .