Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz “says” he wants to destroy America — not expressly; nonetheless with perfect clarity.

Walz’s mouthpiece and education guru, Brian Lozenski, actually did say it expressly. In the embedded video, Lozenski, whom Walz appointed to craft an “ethnic studies” curriculum for Minnesota children, calls for the overthrow of the United States. (Ethnic studies, despite its harmless-sounding name, is founded on critical race theory and, like CRT, is aimed at overthrowing America.)

This is a direct quote from Tim Walz’s education appointee in Minnesota:

“You can't be a critical race theorist and be pro-US…CRT is an anti-state theory that says the U.S. needs to be deconstructed.”

Now ask yourself who’s the threat to our democracy & vote accordingly. pic.twitter.com/0XFQkJMSzT

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) October 19, 2024

In the video (edited for clarity), Lozenski explains that:

The first tenet of critical race theory is that the United States as constructed is irreversibly racist. So if the nation-state as constructed is irreversibly racist, then it must be done with. It must be overthrown. And so we [proponents of critical race theory] can’t be like, “Oh no, critical race theory is just about telling our stories, and diversity. It’s not about that. It’s about overthrow. It’s insurgent. And we need to be, I think, more honest with that.

It’s funny that [critics] don’t understand critical race theory, but they actually tell some truth when they’re like, “Yeah, it is anti-state.” You can’t be a critical race theorist and be pro-U.S. It is a[n] anti-state theory that says the United States needs to be deconstructed, period.

This is the most important video of this election cycle because it shows clearly that there exists in America an enemy regime that wants to destroy us. Lozenski is not a marginal figure; he is a nationally known activist and academic, typical of the destructive left. Trump often says, correctly, that the enemy within is far more dangerous than the enemy without. Here, right in front of us, is the enemy within. 

Although Republican leaders certainly understand that there is today in America an unusually large divide, they do not seem to understand that it is much more than a divide; it is a fundamental, irreconcilable difference between two regimes with different understandings of what constitutes a just society. This makes it a war. The Lozenski video, which declares war on America, should wake up Republicans. Will it?

Lozenski’s video is unlikely to get traction unless leaders on the right make a big deal of it. It’s late in the day; still, given its significance, leading Republicans should with urgency bring this to the attention of voters. The video is a gift. Republicans must take advantage of it.

Lozenski, an associate professor of urban and multicultural education at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, was selected by Gov. Tim Walz’s Department of Education to help write the statewide “implementation framework” (like a curriculum) for Minnesota’s new “ethnic studies” standards, which will provide the foundation for ethnic studies for all public schools in Minnesota. Lozenski is the foremost authority on ethnic studies in Minnesota and the de facto leader of Walz’s ethnic studies initiative.

Education expert Stanley Kurtz writes:

Lozenski is no outlier. On the contrary, he has been the leading voice advocating the addition of a radical version of “ethnic studies” to Minnesota’s social-studies standards (citizenship and government, economics, geography, history, and now ethnic studies). Lozenski is also the key organizer and thought leader for the radical leftist advocacy groups that Governor Walz has effectively put in charge of rewriting Minnesota’s social-studies standards.

Ethnic studies (which is to say CRT) will be embedded in every required subject, including the sciences, in every grade from kindergarten to 12th grade. It is also taught as a standalone subject, required already of every graduate of St. Paul public schools. 

Katherine Kersten, a senior policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment in Minneapolis, gives us a flavor of the new standards:

• First graders must “identify examples of ethnicity, equality, liberation and systems of power” and “use those examples to construct meanings for those terms.”
• Fourth graders are required to “identify the processes and impacts of colonization and examine how discrimination and the oppression of various racial and ethnic groups have produced resistance movements.” 
• High schoolers must “develop an analysis of racial capitalism” and “anti-Blackness” and are instructed to see themselves as members of “racialized hierarchies” based on “dominant European beauty standards.”

These standards are intended to lead students to disdain America and join in the overthrow of their country. In the revolution of which Walz is an important part, students are taught that their country is “irreversibly” racist. As Lozenski says in the video, such a charge is necessarily a call to overthrow America. 

The members of the Minnesota Department of Education’s ethnic studies working group — now drafting an implementation framework — are, like Lozenski, activists. The committee that drafted Minnesota’s new social studies standards, which made ethnic studies mandatory, was likewise dominated by activists. This is not by accident. The Minnesota chapter of Education for Liberation — whose leader is Lozenski — proudly proclaims that “the decision was made to pack” the social studies standards drafting committee with its members and allies. Education for Liberation is, as its name suggests, a revolutionary organization committed to the overthrow of America.

To the extent Tim Walz consciously employs this group and Lozenski to effect their ends, Walz is a traitor. That he most probably could not be convicted in a court of law makes him no less so. 

Brian Lozenski strikes me as an ignorant child. I would guess he has not given 30 seconds thought to what would happen were his movement to succeed in destroying America. Nonetheless, he and his allies are working tirelessly to destroy the greatest country in the history of mankind. By dismissing or ignoring him and his allies, we on the right are allowing them to achieve their goal. Shame on us. We should make Lozenski the face of the “destructive left” which now controls the (destructive) Democrat Party.

Minnesota’s ethnic studies initiative did not bubble up from below. It was Tim Walz’s own brainchild. Kersten writes: 

Walz has used both legislation and administrative rulemaking to achieve … radical Ethnic Studies instruction in every grade and every required subject. Between 2021 and 2023, Walz proposed and pushed Ethnic Studies in a series of “governor’s policy and budget bills” at the Minnesota Legislature. He finally succeeded in 2023, after Democrats won a “trifecta” in the 2022 elections. 

Walz even tried to mandate ethnic studies for students being homeschooled or attending private religious schools. School boards across Minnesota are now required to review curricula and instructional materials in all required subjects to ensure they are “antiracist,” that is, compliant with ethnic studies-related ideology. In addition, the state’s Walz-appointed teaching standards board now requires aspiring teachers to understand how “white supremacy” undermines “pedagogical equity” and to utilize “tools to mitigate their own behavior to disrupt oppressive systems” to obtain a teaching license. 

Prominent education experts, Minnesota House Republicans, and 30,000 citizens have called on Walz to modify his ethnic studies curriculum. All these calls have been ignored. 

It is inconceivable and heart-breaking that Kamala Harris selected as her running mate a man who wants to destroy America. This too is Harris’ goal and the goal of the movement of which she is the (titular) head. Harris would, of course, strenuously deny that this is her goal, and yet her choice of the revolutionary Walz, along with much of what she does and says, makes this conclusion unavoidable. She chose Walz because she (or whoever is propping her up) supports his revolutionary ideology and policies. She “loves him,” as she said. 

Walz’s ethnic studies curriculum was supposed to have been released in time for public comment from Aug. 9 through Aug. 22. It has been delayed, however, until Oct. 31, no doubt to prevent it from becoming an issue in the presidential election.

Only Kurtz and the Center for the American Experiment have made any serious effort to expose Walz’s revolutionary education program. Perhaps this is because the subject is complicated (I have greatly simplified), the leftist jargon is unfamiliar to most people, and Walz has done his darndest to obfuscate and hide his intentions. It is way past time for the country to pay attention.

In a Harris-Walz administration, we can expect Walz to take the lead in matters of education, a subject in which Harris has expressed little interest. Undoubtedly, Walz would promote the destructive agenda that he is pursuing in Minnesota for schools across the nation.

Elsewhere, I have framed the election as a choice between a man who loves America and wants to improve America, and a woman who hates America and wants to destroy it. But there was no smoking gun. Now there is. The Lozenski video should become the defining moment of this election. Difficult to achieve, I know — but worth superhuman effort. 

The Center of the American Experiment has done by far the most thorough reporting on Walz’s ethnic studies initiative. For more information, call or email the center.

This article was originally published on the author’s website, TomKlingenstein.com.

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Tom Klingenstein is the chairman of the Claremont Institute, a public speaker, a writer, a philanthropist, and a playwright.