Enemies Within

Will the Senate GOP Confirm an Unqualified Radical to Run Library of Congress? by Daniel Horowitz,  6/22/16  

Politics is downstream from culture. Liberals have successfully transformed the body politic of this country because they have polluted all cultural institutions with their post-constitutional values of political correctness, multiculturalism, radical egalitarianism, and socialism. The Library of Congress stands as one of the great cultural and historical institutions of the United States. It also serves as the ultimate research arm for Congress. It is for this reason why Republicans should block Obama from appointing Carla Hayden, an unqualified liberal, to run the Library of Congress. 

In an unprecedented move, the White House produced a slick video promoting Carla Hayden, his nominee to be the 14^th Librarian of Congress. With a message that reveals an administration trying way too hard to fill a low-profile position, the video touts Ms. Hayden’s lifelong work as a librarian in Chicago and Baltimore and, of course, the fact that she would be the first female and African American Librarian of Congress. Hayden herself asserts her belief that a library should be a community and opportunity center – a safe place to gather and look for jobs or find a Harry Potter book. Hayden’s mentality is best encapsulated in a glowing article in Nation magazine that contends “Hayden advanced the notion of librarians as activists, and of libraries as vital community institutions, not just repositories for books.”

That Obama is so enthusiastically promoting this unusual choice demonstrates that it is more about promoting his transformative agenda than ensuring proper stewardship of this institution.

There is one problem with all of this: the Library of Congress is not an inner-city community center. Not to diminish Ms. Hayden’s work as a community activist and a librarian, the Library of Congress, despite its nomenclature, is not really a library in the contemporary sense. It is a world-class research and scholarship center that is relied upon, most importantly, by members of Congress for major political, policy, historical, and legal research. While Hayden, a former head of the American Library Association, is undoubtedly a bright and accomplished individual, her nomination is a total air ball. Her only scholarship is editing one book, which was titled, Venture into Cultures: A Resource Book of Multicultural Materials and Programs. Typically, a renowned historian and scholar is chosen to run the Library of Congress. Take a look at the career of the last confirmed Librarian of Congress, James Billington, and the contrast in credentials is self-evident. That Obama is so enthusiastically promoting this unusual choice demonstrates that it is more about promoting his transformative agenda than ensuring proper stewardship of this institution. In Obama’s own words, it was important that Hayden is the first female and African American to be nominated – “both of which are long overdue.”

As Hans Von Spakovsky warned at PJ Media, “President Obama made it clear that race and gender were at the core of this appointment.” He further observed Hayden’s message in the promotional video:  

Being the first female, and the first African-American, really brings together two aspects of, of course, my life that make this even more significant I think in terms of how people view the future of libraries, and what a national library can be. It’s inclusive, it can be part of everyone’s story.

Once again, the Library of Congress is not about identity, social work, or expressing one’s story, it is about research, facts, history, and scholarship. It’s a place of “just the facts, ma’am.”

Sadly, it is precisely the places intended for fact-based scholarship that liberals have successfully corrupted and co-opted into their regressive-progressive agenda over the years.  Look no further than the recent fight over the parlance related to illegal aliens, for example.  In March, The Library of Congress, at the behest of the American Library Association, of which Hayden served as president last decade, announced its intention to scrub the term “illegal alien” from its literature. This is exactly the sort of corrupting influence Hayden would have on such an organization. This is an individual who, as president of the American Library Association, spearheaded the effort to overturn bipartisan legislation requiring all libraries that received federal funds to use internet filters in order to block children from viewing porn on taxpayer-funded computers.    

Nation magazine put it best in their headline “This Radical Librarian May Soon Run the World’s Largest Library…Unless Senate Republicans stand in her way.”  Indeed, it is all up to Senate Republicans. The Library has been operating without a director since last September. There is no reason for Obama to be given yet another confirmation. Frankly, there is no reason the president should be appointing the director of a legislative branch office anyway. Yet, Senate Rules and Administration Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) shepherded her nomination through committee and confirmed her unanimously (Cruz was not in attendance). Unless a group of conservatives stand up and block her nomination it will be fast-tracked to the Senate floor as early as this week. 

In the scheme of things, with Obama allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to control our counter-terrorism, his war on our military, and destructive open borders policies, this is not the most salient issue of our time. But it is a gratuitous capitulation to the Marxist culture warriors and is reflective of why we are losing on the bigger issues as well.        

https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/06/will-the-senate-gop-confirm-an-unqualified-radical-to-run-library-of-congress