Today on the Charlie Kirk Show: Should Juneteenth be a federal holiday? How should we think about the day that freed the slaves in the Civil War, July 4th, is a day where you don t care about black or white, but red, white and blue.
00:01:08.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
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00:01:29.000When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature is God entitle them.
00:01:41.000A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
00:01:48.000We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:01:57.000That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
00:02:04.000I'm reading, of course, our birth certificate, July 4th, 1776.
00:02:12.000The founding of America on July 4th, 1776 is a profound and meaningful day.
00:02:18.000You see, America did not stumble into existence.
00:02:23.000It was a moral claim written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by these incredible men, from Roger Sherman to William Williams to John Hancock, that men deserve the ability to govern themselves.
00:03:35.000Let's look below the surface and see precisely what is happening and what is being pushed by the people at the top levels of elite society.
00:03:47.000Having Juneteenth as a federal holiday is a direct attempt to create a summertime competitor, a racially focused Independence Day, a new Independence Day, to compete against July 4th, 1776.
00:04:03.000It's a day where you don't care about black or white, but red, white, and blue.
00:04:07.000I just read the Declaration's beginning, and nowhere is skin color mentioned.
00:04:12.000It is a moral claim that regardless of background, regardless of how you look, the melanin content in your skin, that it says when in the course of human events, it means at all times.
00:04:25.000The founding fathers believed in a natural law.
00:04:31.000But unfortunately, the people, the top levels of our society now, the people running our country, they have been successful in creating a new national holiday, something that we pushed back against.
00:04:43.000Now, we didn't push back against, obviously, what Juneteenth means if you read it word for word for word for word.
00:04:50.000But no, instead, we push back against some of the claims that are embedded in the propaganda campaign the media is pushing right now when it comes to Juneteenth.
00:05:00.000One of them being that somehow July 4th, 1776 was insufficient.
00:05:08.000July 4th, 1776, well, it was really July 2nd, but that's a different issue.
00:05:14.000We'll talk more about that actually on our July 4th special week because they actually signed it on July 2nd and 3rd and it wasn't publicized until July 4th.
00:05:22.000However, the culmination of those couple days was a step forward in the revolution of self-government, the separation of the colonies and their ability to have constitutional government and the British Empire with tyrannical and autocratic rule.
00:05:43.000But now we have people in the media saying we have a new Independence Day.
00:05:48.000Despite the fact that the abolitionist slavery was triggered by the Declaration of Independence, Vermont abolished slavery in 1777 inspired by the Declaration.
00:05:58.000Despite the fact that nine out of 13 colonies had independently abolished slavery by the time the Constitution was ratified in 1787, despite the fact that the Northwest Ordinance, the first act of the Continental Congress post-war, one of the first acts, I should say, in Article 6, said that all new territory in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa would be free of slavery, a reflection of the values of the nation.
00:06:22.000As George Washington privately mused, it's not a matter of if we will get rid of slavery.
00:06:28.000It's a matter of how and when we'll get rid of slavery.
00:06:32.000All of us as human beings have something in common.
00:06:34.000We are born into a world we did not create.
00:06:38.000And by the time the founding fathers were passing away in the 1820s and 1830s, they were leaving a world where slavery was less common, was questioned, and was on the way out.
00:06:50.000These are people that are worthy of examination and praise.
00:06:53.000Abraham Lincoln knew that our founding as a nation was four score and seven years ago, 1776.
00:07:08.000Today in the United States, we celebrate Juneteenth.
00:07:11.000For decades, Black Americans have marked June 19th as their true Independence Day.
00:07:17.000And this weekend, all across the country, there will be public parades and private family barbecues.
00:07:24.000And of course, now that it is a federal holiday, plenty of corporate and political statements attempting to latch on to the holiday's symbolic meaning.
00:07:32.000CNN article, Juneteenth is America's true birthday.
00:07:38.000This is by Peneil E. Joseph, the Barbara Gordon Chair in Ethics and Political Values and the founding director of the study of race and democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
00:07:49.000So for any of you out there that say, oh, Charlie, what's possibly wrong with talking about Juneteenth?
00:07:55.000How could you possibly be against the federal holiday?
00:08:41.000And the continuing legislative efforts to halt or disrupt the teaching of the very history of Juneteenth.
00:08:47.000Now, I would be all for that if they actually taught the accurate history of Juneteenth, that a Republican president Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, but that's not what they're talking about, is it?
00:08:56.000No, instead, it is an opportunity for them to hyper-racialize the American conversation, say that we are still in a systemic racist moment.
00:09:05.000As the nation prepares in only four short years from now to celebrate 250 years of independence, it is worth remembering that Juneteenth, as much as 4th of July, represents American democracy's true birthday.
00:09:18.000No stable country can have two Independence Days.
00:09:22.000What makes our Independence Day so special, July 4th, 1776, is that it was intentional.
00:09:30.000We did not back into it and kind of stumble over it and say, oh, well, America exists now.
00:09:35.000No, as the Declaration beautifully ends, ends on a universal note.
00:09:40.000It ends with, and for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
00:09:53.000Juneteenth, by its opening argument, says that July 4th, 1776 is insufficient and that we need a new Independence Day, one that focuses on race, not on character.
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00:11:15.000Despite the Emancipation Proclamation being on September 22nd, 1862, today is the day that the media and the academics say that we celebrate the freeing of slaves.
00:11:27.000Understandably, this is a Texas tradition.
00:11:28.000The news hit Texas that slavery was abolished.
00:11:36.000But let's go a level deeper because if we've learned anything throughout the last couple years, it is not what the media tells us, it's what's actually going on.
00:12:23.000Before we start celebrating, can we at least agree that Juneteenth, one of the most legendary days in American history, is way more important than Columbus Day and should be a national holiday already.
00:12:34.000Now, I know some of you are scratching your heads right now, trying to figure out exactly what Juneteenth is.
00:12:43.000Is it A, the Black Fourth of July, B, the day that slavery ended in the United States, C, African American Independence Day, or D, all of the above?
00:12:53.000For everyone who literally picked any of those choices, respect.
00:13:06.000As if somehow blacks were excluded from the promise of the Declaration of Independence.
00:13:11.000Our true founding as a country sparked the movement of freedom that gave birth to the freedom of slaves.
00:13:20.000You know, in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson admonished King George for bringing slaves to the United States?
00:13:28.000Do you know the first ever anti-slavery convention was hosted by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1775?
00:13:35.000John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, intentionally re-ran for Congress despite not wanting to do so, inspired by his faith, inspired by the courage of the founding generation, he was the second generation to go and abolish, to go fight for the abolitionist slavery in Congress.
00:13:53.000Do you know there's more slaves today on planet Earth than there were back in colonial times?
00:14:24.000I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Afro-American people.
00:14:29.000Under God, I will protect freedom, seek peace, honor our ancestors, and encourage and support the development and prosperity of people of African descent.
00:15:02.000And for the naive Republicans that voted for this to become a federal holiday, as somehow this would lessen racial tensions, this increases racial tensions.
00:15:11.000You have given BLM a national holiday to be able to write these ridiculous op-eds in CNN.
00:15:27.000You see, they look at that as a starting point.
00:15:29.000You validate their racial disharmony agenda.
00:15:35.000You platform and recognize and give power to the very same people that burned and looted the entire country for weeks and months.
00:15:47.000Somehow we're now the very same academics that said that looting is acceptable, that the proper way to honor George Floyd is to blow off a little steam.
00:16:02.000This is what is called the movement of a million steps.
00:16:06.000They start with Juneteenth, but they're not done.
00:16:09.000Now they're saying, are reparations next?
00:16:13.000And Republicans' unwillingness to fight on what July 4th actually is, and instead say, well, yeah, sure, this seems innocent enough, goes to show how naive our own side is in dealing with the arsonist left.
00:16:30.000I'm sure a lot of you are wondering how you can learn about things that are good, true, and beautiful.
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00:18:00.000I want to read one paragraph here that I found to just be phenomenal.
00:18:05.000Juneteenth, in truth, marks the dead of the old American nation and the birth of a new one, clawing out from the chest of the Republic in a nightmarish vision that would make Ridley Scott squirm.
00:18:18.000The new holiday emerged from the mists of June with feeble opposition from Republicans who spent months railing about the evils of anti-white critical race theory and the New York Times 1619 project, only to turn around and inaugurate a national holiday and honor and validate the basic narrative underlying those things.
00:18:57.000Well, Charlie, thanks for having me back.
00:18:59.000So, Juneteenth, as a regional thing, as a minor regional event, had meaning, real meaning for a particular group of people in Texas in reference to a particular time in a particular place.
00:19:13.000But by taking Juneteenth, out of its historical and regional context and nationalizing it, all it has been reduced to is just another element in this national tapestry of shame alongside things like the 1619 project, which serve only to remind us of how America is evil, how we must always be begging for forgiveness, groveling, hating our past and ourselves.
00:19:38.000So in other words, the original meaning, the good meaning that meant something to these people in Texas who have been quietly observing it for all this time is now gone.
00:19:47.000Instead of, for example, community fundraisers and things like that, right?
00:19:51.000These organizations of giving thanks that would occur in Texas.
00:19:56.000Now, instead of giving thanks, Juneteenth becomes the basis for ever more demands of diversity, equity, or inclusion, or as you noted out, reparations.
00:20:07.000The abstraction of Juneteenth into this national holiday has completely stripped all of the otherwise benign or good things that the holiday symbolized for a particular group of people.
00:20:20.000Yeah, and it's in some sense, it's almost a jumping off point, right?
00:20:24.000It's kind of a trampoline to be able to get to the next level of reparations, institutional CRT.
00:20:32.000It helps move the Overton window in their direction, as if racial politics is something necessary for us to continue to talk about.
00:20:40.000One thing that stood out for me in your piece, Pedro, and I am, you and I both are big promoters of his book, and we don't get royalties for it, but he deserves it, is Christopher Caldwell's book, The Age of Entitlement.
00:20:53.000You actually, your insistence for me to read this book largely prompted me to read it right after our week together with the Claremont.
00:21:00.000And so everyone just kept on talking about Caldwell.
00:21:02.000I was like, my goodness, you guys won't shut up about this.
00:21:04.000So I read it on the flight home and I was just blown away by it.
00:21:07.000You write here, in the age of entitlement, Christopher Caldwell similarly identifies the engine of this radical reconstruction as the rival constitution effectively created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
00:21:18.000As with Juneteenth now, the King holiday then, writes Caldwell, quote, mark not the end, but the beginning of shame of an official culture that casts their country's history as one of oppression and its ideals of liberty as hypocrisies.
00:21:33.000So again, we're talking about removing the original meaning from these things and then filling them with a different or a new set of symbols.
00:21:42.000And that is exactly what has happened originally with the MLK holiday.
00:21:45.000As Caldwell pointed out, MLK is a figure that I think most people would look at and say, okay, there's a lot of good things about this person.
00:21:54.000But taking him and turning him into kind of like the leading light of the American pantheon, it wasn't for a lot of people a kind of moment of relief.
00:22:02.000It was just a day that we would remember how bad America is.
00:22:05.000That's exactly what the MLK holiday has become.
00:22:08.000It's just a day to remind people how bad America is.
00:22:10.000And as part of that project, the Constitution, the original way of doing things of federalism, due process, and things like that, all of that stuff is an obstacle to the revolution, which things like the MLK holiday originally and now Juneteenth symbolize.
00:22:26.000That's all of the people that are the people that have been saying things like, this is the real Independence Day, they're the honest ones.
00:22:34.000They actually are telling the truth about the symbolism of Juneteenth, that basically it represents a new kind of nation.
00:22:42.000But if you're creating a new nation, that means the old one and all of the things that accompany it have to be discredited, deconstructed, and ultimately discarded and replaced.
00:22:52.000And you bring up a great point about federalism, which actually goes to your point about Juneteenth being a regional celebration, which is fine.
00:23:00.000But it's the hyper-federalization of this, which almost, which it actually creates more radicalism is what it does.
00:23:08.000Is that the whole idea of federalism is that people have different tastes and wants and interests and backgrounds.
00:23:13.000They literally have different geographies they have to deal with.
00:23:16.000And federalism says, okay, I'm going to kind of not agree with you on certain issues, but I'm going to live in a different state and so be it.
00:23:23.000And that was kind of the promise of live and let live.
00:23:26.000A lot of us were naive to believe that actually ever existed when in reality it was live and let them rule.
00:23:33.000So where does this go in the next couple of years?
00:23:35.000You know, you and I and a couple others, Candace Owens, Brandon Tatum, they deserve some credit, came out against Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday.
00:24:46.000They weren't necessarily opposed to it, but they didn't see the point of making this a federal holiday.
00:24:54.000I think that's significant, but because basically, when you look at all of the data, when you look at all the polls and surveys, the consensus among most Americans was we either don't care about this, we don't know about it, or we don't really want it to be a federal holiday because to your point, it seems to make things worse, right?
00:25:12.000And so a holiday that went from being an obscurity, a regional thing, is every year going to become more and more potent as a symbol of this new nation.
00:25:21.000And it's going to breed more and more resentment as time goes on.
00:25:23.000In other words, political power is changing the culture.
00:25:27.000That's the lesson I think of Juneteenth.
00:25:29.000But that wouldn't have been possible without the Republican Party because just 14 Republicans voted against making this thing a national holiday.
00:25:36.000Those Republicans actually used religious language here.
00:25:40.000Ted Cruz, I'll just use this as one example.
00:25:42.000Ted Cruz said that Juneteenth was a reminder of our original sin.
00:26:27.000So it'd be one thing if every founder was in unanimous agreement and they wrote extensively and they had books that said the case for slavery, that's not true.
00:26:35.000In fact, that didn't come until like the 1820s by people like John C. Calhoun and others post-CottonGen.
00:27:18.000I don't think it was, I'm not sure if it was yesterday, but yeah, they were twerking as this whole thing went down and the scene devolved into total chaos, which is actually, again, kind of symbolic of this entire debate that we're having.
00:27:30.000And I'm sorry, I think I misspoke earlier.
00:27:32.000Just 35% of Americans thought that it should be a federal holiday.
00:27:36.000Most people, again, didn't see the point in this.
00:27:39.000Did Juneteenth prevent that shooting from happening?
00:28:01.000Well, no, actually, we can't let it go because it's going to get worse as time goes on.
00:28:06.000Again, each subsequent generation will inherit this new, this myth of the American nation as irredeemably evil that everyone has to kind of get on their knees and apologize for something that they have nothing to do with.
00:28:19.000No one alive has anything to do with this mythical history that Juneteenth represents.
00:28:26.000Again, this narrative of America as evil from the start, evil today, and evil until we, I guess, hand over the keys of the kingdom to the most radical people in this country.
00:28:38.000I believe it's an intentional, they picked this date for a summertime competitor against July 4th.
00:28:46.000They could have picked January, which would have, for example, they could have picked Emancipation Day, where Abraham Lincoln signed the emancipation, but it was kind of they want it within a two-week window of July 4th to kind of create a contrast.
00:29:01.000And based on all the academics at the top levels of CNN and Princeton, they're writing openly that blacks should not celebrate July 4th and that local communities should go all in on Juneteenth.
00:29:16.000And so basically now we have two summertime independence days.
00:29:21.000And again, some people are saying that out loud that Juneteenth is the real Independence Day, that the other Independence Day is just for white people.
00:29:35.000Or there are people among us, especially among conservatives, who don't want to believe that, who are still kind of attached to, again, the previous, their regional benign meaning of the holiday.
00:29:46.000But I'm sorry, that's not what it stands for anymore.
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00:31:37.000But on the other hand, I think this is worse, is they actually believe in these things.
00:31:41.000And maybe some of these people change their mind or realize that they have to qualify their support for what they previously heralded as the best thing ever.
00:31:51.000And I think that's why it's incumbent on the base to aggressively hold these people accountable.
00:31:58.000I think it's insanely unacceptable that just 14 Republicans after the riots, of course, we can't forget the context in which this occurred, right?
00:32:07.000It was basically a concession to these BLM terrorists that, okay, you get a holiday.
00:32:13.000And there was even Republicans that talked about replacing Columbus Day, getting rid of Columbus Day, and instead establishing Juneteenth.
00:32:20.000We kept Columbus Day and we have Juneteenth.
00:32:22.000But just the fact that Republicans were floating that was absurd.
00:32:26.000And again, in the context of BLM, of national rioting that killed dozens of people and caused billions of dollars in damage, irreparably ruining communities.
00:32:37.000And we give this concession of a national holiday that is deliberately designed to reduce in stature the 4th of July and all of the things that that represents.
00:32:50.000I mean, sorry, that's a long answer to your short question, but it's a complicated one.
00:32:56.000And I think it's important to really cultivate this sense of anger and outrage at our own supposed allies.
00:33:04.000And I think, again, going back to the poll numbers and stuff like that, 7% of Republicans thought this was a good idea, Republican voters.
00:33:11.000But there was unanimity among not only the Republican political establishment, but also among, frankly, a lot of conservative pundits, especially in legacy magazines like National Review, kind of looking down at people like us, thinking that we're rubes for suspecting that there could be something more to Juneteenth than just a kind of national day of kumbaya, right?