https://x.com/Tim_Walz/status/1038078197211045888
Vice President Kamala Harris has announced Governor Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
Walz was a high school Social Studies teacher before becoming a politician (elected to the U.S. House of Representatives five times before he was elected governor of Minnesota).
Social Studies is exactly the right field for this country right now. It basically includes all the areas radical conservatives are trying to twist into apologies for white Christian nationalism. Right-wingers throughout the country are trying to eliminate the broad range of the subjects Social Studies includes, especially the histories of many ethnicities and the struggles for equality and human rights, women’s and LGBTQI rights in order to advance their political and social agenda.
White Christian nationalism is commonly defined as the idea that America was founded by Anglo-Saxon Christians who modeled its laws and institutions after Protestant ideals with a mission to spread the religion and those ideals in the face of threats from non-whites, non-Christians, and immigrants.
As a theologian, I would add that white Christian nationalism includes the conviction that white Christians are uniquely favored by God and that God intervenes in human history to assist them. Trumpians push the idea that “God gave us Trump” and that his “divine mandate” means he is above the law and should be dictator for life.
That’s not democracy. It is the very rule by divine fiat that the Declaration of Independence condemns so roundly. The Declaration devotes considerable text to condemning the abusive use of the power of divine fiat by King George III. The Declaration rejects King George III's establishment of a tyrannical authority in the colonies in place of representative government. The foundation of representative government, according to the framers of the Declaration, is the power of the people to make laws for the public good.
You may read it here: Declaration of Independence.
I believe it is common for students taking Social Studies to read the Declaration of Independence. That’s where I first read it. Social Studies includes government and citizenship education including civics, political science, local, state, tribal and US government, international relations, and even law and legal studies.
In short, Walz taught democracy.
How are you doing in that subject these days, America?