[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 23 (Monday, February 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S561-S562]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, 
which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Denis Richard McDonough, 
of Maryland, to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                            1776 Commission

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, in his inaugural address, President 
Biden said his ``whole soul'' was in the cause of ``Bringing America 
together. Uniting our people. And uniting our Nation''--very worthy 
things to speak and especially in an inaugural address.
  He also recognized that Americans have serious disagreements. 
Everyone knows that our country is deeply divided politically. I know 
from his time in the Senate that President Biden understands that 
people of good will can have honest disagreements about policy.
  So he knows that unity does not mean dropping deeply held beliefs and 
accepting his own policy agenda. As he said--and I have two quotes 
here--``Every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause of total war'' 
and ``Disagreement must not lead to disunion.'' Real unity requires 
rediscovering what binds us together as Americans even when we have 
strongly disagreed politically.
  As I have often said, our Nation is unique in human history in that 
it was founded not on the basis of common ethnic identity or loyalty 
to, let's say, a Monarch but on certain enduring principles. Those 
principles are best articulated in the simple but elegant words of the 
Declaration of Independence. And you all read these regularly, I am 
sure.

       We 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.

  It is a common commitment to this ideal that has bound us together as 
Americans from the beginning. Our patriot forefathers concluded that 
these principles were worth fighting for and took up arms in an 
improbable quest to defeat the largest and best trained military at 
that particular time. This included many Black patriots who fought for 
American independence--a unifying fact that I believe deserves a 
monument on the National Mall, something that I have been working 
toward for years.
  I want to quote Margaret Thatcher. She once observed this. It is a 
fairly long quote, so bear with me.

       Americans and Europeans alike sometimes forget how unique 
     is the United States of America. No other nation has been 
     created so swiftly and successfully. No other nation has been 
     built upon an idea--the idea of liberty. No other nation has 
     so successfully combined people of different races and 
     nations within a single culture. Both the founding fathers of 
     the United States and successive waves of immigrants to your 
     country were determined to create a new identity. Whether in 
     flight from persecution or from poverty, the huddled masses 
     have, with few exceptions, welcomed American values, the 
     American way of life and American opportunities. And America 
     herself has bound them to her with powerful bonds of 
     patriotism and pride. The European nations are not and can 
     never be like this. They are the product of history and not 
     of philosophy.

  End of Thatcher's quote.
  This quote from a British leader is one of the best summaries that I 
have read about American exceptionalism. The term ``American 
exceptionalism'' is often misunderstood, perhaps due to

[[Page S562]]

a quirk of the English language. Merriam-Webster's dictionary gives 
three definitions of ``exceptional": one, ``forming an exception,'' as 
they give an example: ``RARE, an exceptional number of rainy days''; 
or, two, ``better than average: SUPERIOR, exceptional skill'' are the 
words they expand on ``average''; ``deviating from the norm, such as 
having above or below average intelligence'' or physical disability.
  Many people here and abroad assume that those who talk about American 
exceptionalism are just using the second definition and simply 
asserting that the United States is better than any other country, and 
that is a wrong interpretation
  American exceptionalism is an assertion of the plain fact that 
America's foundation is very different from that of most other nations. 
However, our foundation is increasingly under attack from both the 
right and the left. Both the 1619 Project and White nationalists assert 
that America's founding principles are alive and that the United States 
was founded along ethnic lines.
  Oddly enough, this was a position taken by John C. Calhoun in the 
U.S. Senate when he articulated an alternative to the founding 
principles intended to justify maintaining slavery in perpetuity. 
Fortunately, Abraham Lincoln, who revered the Declaration of 
Independence, prevailed.
  The notion that our founding principles are a lie isn't just bad 
history; it breaks the bonds that unite Americans of all backgrounds.
  The 1776 Commission was established specifically to ``enable a rising 
generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of 
the United States in 1776 and to strive to perform a more perfect 
Union.''
  The introduction to ``The 1776 Report'' states that ``a rediscovery 
of our shared identity rooted in our founding principles is the path to 
a renewed American unity and a confident American future.''
  I could not agree more. That is why I was disappointed to see 
President Biden terminate this commission the same day he took office 
after making his call for unity. The call to unity is exactly what the 
President asked for in his inaugural address.
  What specifically in that 1776 Commission document does President 
Biden disagree with? Yes, the report is critical of far-left efforts to 
denigrate our founding principles, but it is also an important 
corrective to the alt-right effort to import European-style ethno-
nationalism, which is also deeply un-American in every sense.
  ``The 1776 Report'' calls for ``a restoration of American education, 
which can only be grounded on a history of those principles that is 
`accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling.' ''
  By contrast, California has proposed an ethnic study curriculum that 
is rooted in the fundamental divisive tenants of critical race theory, 
with its focus on separate groups of Americans into different degrees 
of oppressor and oppressed.
  Interestingly, despite the California curriculum's focus on victims 
of prejudice, discussion of anti-Semitism is omitted in favor of 
criticism of Israel. This curriculum also totally skips over the life 
and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Remember his dream? I quote 
that statement that he made:

       It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a 
     dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the 
     true meaning of its creed: ``We hold these truths to be self-
     evident, that all men are created equal.''

  Now, that is a very unifying statement. I encourage all Americans to 
read ``The 1776 Report'' for yourself. See if you don't agree with the 
central message that shared attachment to our timeless founding 
principles is what binds us as a nation. It is no longer available on 
the main White House website, but it can still be found on the Trump 
administration's archived website. It is also available on the 
Hillsdale College website.