It's democratic values, Charlie Brown

The problem with believing the things about America and democracy that we were taught in school is that a huge chunk of it was untrue, so it's just as easy for the current crop of fashy oligarch bootlickers to say they're the ones pushing American Values. And I can't really enjoy hearing liberals or even progressives say "this is not what America is about," because it is. But the fun thing is, conservatives have always been talking about "getting back to American Virtues" — and people like George Wallace, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump have justified segregation, child labor, and family separation using that kind of language.

Maybe they're more right. After all, conservatism is by its nature status quo at best, regressive at worst, and if you go all the way back to the beginning you get a pretty explicitly white supremacist, patriarchal America where a good chunk of the voting populace are religious extremists.

But then you see something that reminds you that there have always been people trying to push forward and make us our best. And that almost gives me a sense of pride.

No, I don't mean John Brown. Here's some inspiration from the great Charles Schulz. He's a man who fought hard to get a Black character included in Peanuts (even if that character wasn't too distinctive). He espoused Christian values that actually seemed kind of Jesus-y. And he has a nice little inspirational civics lesson for a kid who asked him "What makes a good citizen?" during the Nixon years.

(Via Open Culture)