Architect Of Biden’s Anti MAGA Speech Sits On UT’s Civics Institute Board
Image Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
We recently reported that UT System President Randy Boyd appointed two former Tennessee Governors, Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam, to sit on the board for the university’s Institute for American Civics.
Boyd said in a press release that he wants the board and the Institute to be a “beacon of light for civil discourse, viewpoint diversity and civic engagement.”
However, with at least one of the board’s other members, there may be a significant conflict of interest.
One of the appointees, Jon Meacham, who is a visiting professor and co-chair of Vanderbilt University’s Project on Unity and American Democracy, is also one of the architects behind President Joe Biden’s speech that labeled MAGA Republicans as being a “threat” to America.
As reported by Brietbart, an article authored by three Politico reporters stated that Meacham helped frame the speech over its development over a period of three weeks.
Meacham previously worked with Biden on speeches, including the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, as reported by the New York Times.
Biden’s speech made references to the “soul” of the United States which coincidentally was the theme of a book by Meacham entitled The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, which was published in 2018.
Meacham, a Presidential Historian, has given significant praise to Biden and the agendas supported by far-left Democrats. Recently, he has heaped praise upon the $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan that Biden signed into law in November, stating that it would be Biden’s legacy in much the same way as the 1956 Federal Highway Act was for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
He has also asserted that the nation’s Founding Fathers had a desire for radical concepts like the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory to be a part of the national conversation.
Following the banning of Critical Race Theory by the Tennessee legislature, Meacham said, “In 1925, we decided to not teach another theory called evolution, and that didn’t work out very well in the long run. So whenever the Tennessee legislature gets into trying to ban free speech and the exploration of new ideas, we should be very wary.”
He went on to state that the prevailing conversation has been “out of whack” for more than two-and-a-half centuries with the “prevailing white narrative.”
UT’s new program with the stated purpose of strengthening “civic engagement and combating political polarization in our state and nation” appears to be very one-sided in its approach in looking at many of the appointed board members.
Former Democrat Governor, Phil Bredesen served as Tennessee Governor from 2003 to 2011. Most recently, he has started a renewable energy startup.
Billionaire Republican Haslam followed Bredesen as governor from 2011 to 2019. He has since worked as a part-time professor of political science at liberal Vanderbilt University.
With a few exceptions, the board seems to be very slanted in its makeup. The remaining members include:
- A.B. Culvahouse, Jr. – Baker Center Board Member; U.S. Ambassador to Australia under former President Donald Trump
- Marianne Wanamaker – Executive Director of the Baker Center; associate professor of economics
- Danielle Allen – Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University
- Arthur Brooks – Professor of public leadership and business management at Harvard University
- Amy Elias – Director of UT Knoxville’s Humanities Center; English professor
- Daniel Diermeir – Chancellor of Vanderbilt University
- Robert George – Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University
- Claudia Williamson Kramer – Probasco Chair of free enterprise at UT Chattanooga
- Glenn Reynolds – Law professor at UT Knoxville
- Paul Stumb – President of Cumberland University
A national search is underway for the director of the board. After a list of finalists is developed, UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman will select a director from that list.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
What scaredy cat Boyd is
Why is it that CAROL SWAIN is not this board
What posers u are
Tennessee is red on the outside and blue on the inside. What a joke.
Once again we must not let outsiders determine our state’s soul!! Meacham is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who sits in a privileged position with some levels of authority. His attitudes do not reflect or represent the majority of Tennesseans therefore Meacham should be removed from any TN public positions!!
I don’t think he is trying to cover up the wolf any longer.
Remove HIM NOW! Many of us are “MAGA Supporters – in which he called us a “Threat to America?”
This Socialist racist should be fired and run out of Tenn. We do not need nor want a Anti- American trash like this.
Why is it that the more “educated” some of these people get, the more they become disassociated with the real world. Why hasn’t it dawned on the fool that if he succeeds in driving out Conservatives and helps put more power in the hands of the elite, and believe me, he isn’t one, the web of dictatorship gets tighter. Before the bloodbath is over, he’ll be squashed like the rest of us because there’s only room for the chosen few at the top.
If TNGOP was ANY good whatsoever, they’d be protesting this.
They are WAAY worse’n useless!
DON’T support them!
The speech was nothing more than a hate speech. It was the worst speech I have ever heard and reminded me of a guy in Germany in the 1930’s. I graduated from The University of Tennessee Knoxville and have contributed ever since but I might have to quit my support to a school that has this hate writer of speeches on their board.
Randy Boyd should demand this radical leftist resign for this hate speech and we should all write our state reps and senators to demand that funding to UT be put on the line if Mr. Boyd does not react immediately. Hate speech shouldn’t be condemned on one hand and coddled on the other, but that is EXACTLY what is happening here. GROW A SPINE RANDY BOYD!
USC50-S841 and S842 and the statutes under them state clearly what must be done with these successors of communism. They do not belong in any representative post, no teaching post, no union post because of their anti American positions