Editor’s note: Our audience responded to Jarrett Stepman’s commentary on Americans’ weakening grasp on their history. Some of that feedback leads off this week’s collection of comments. Write us at [email protected].—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: Excellent wake-up moment, Jarrett Stepman (“Americans Have Almost Entirely Forgotten Their History”). Now how do we correct this disparity?

I agree that education reform is a necessary starting point to help future voting generations become more informed in civics and history. However, this will not help the current voting population overcome their current biases.

I wonder if it would help to enact a voter registration test that would be required every four years and be comprised of the national citizenship test. It certainly would help with cleaning the voter registration rolls.

There must be some repercussions for ignoring the responsibilities of citizenship in the greatest country on earth. Sure, you have the right to remain ignorant, but why should you have the right to place an uninformed vote?—Derek Dubasik

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Unfortunately, Jarrett Stepman in his commentary is just as guilty of disseminating a falsehood as so many of our politicians who have already caused our schools to no longer teach the truth or reality.

Our system of government was never intended to be a democracy, as you and so many others incessantly insist it is. Please take the time to read the U.S. Constitution, specifically Article 4, Section 4, where the union is promised a republican (representative) form of government.

Then you need to read Federalist No. 10, which was published to educate the voters of New York as to what the Constitution being presented for ratification was and what it would do, as well as why. James Madison very eloquently discusses how democracy is basically evil and has always failed to perform as a system of government.—Donald Mullikin

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It would have been an easy and helpful thing to add a link to the citizenship test you reference, and it wasn’t included in the study by Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation either. What gives?—Teresa Ott

Editor’s note: Forgive the oversight. Here’s the study guide for the test.

In junior and senior high school in the early 1980s, I had to take an entire year on the Constitution (“Civics”), take U.S. history every year (the real one), and memorize the Gettysburg Address and write it down verbatim as a quiz.

Many students at that time were already feeling the indoctrination. It has been a long process.—Joey Smith

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I am 80 years of age. I take the citizenship test every several years. I took it two weeks ago and aced it. My family has been here since revolutionary times. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.—Mildred L. Merritt

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Our schools teach how good socialism is, and they have sterling examples in Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and so forth. They only point out the negative things about this country.

I feel certain that if I hated this country as bad as some of these teachers, professors, and students, I would move to my favorite socialist country. They need to be careful what they wish for, they just might get it. Trouble is, they will take everyone else down with them.—Jim Parker

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Kids these days are being trained as worker bees to create wealth for someone else. The difference is that the “someone else” is the people who are on welfare and shouldn’t be, who the federal government and leftist state governments support with our taxes.—Erica Fry

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A nation without a history becomes subject to a tyrannical government. Our schools are deliberately not teaching American history or civics in an effort to dumb down our population to facilitate a leftist takeover.

Our Department of Education should require the teaching of those subjects along with the three Rs, or lose federal funding. The only sensitive spot on a liberal is his wallet. It will result in much noise, but it is necessary to preserve our nation.—Randy Leyendecker, Kerrville,Texas

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You can thank the communist Democrats for ruining our education system. Do not send your kids to public school. Home school or charter school only.—Phil Esposito

https://twitter.com/hgcady/status/1049667050589835264

Our national identity and that of Britain go back thousands of years. But there has been a concerted effort to keep us in the dark past, only one or two generations. We have a rich heritage, which we are being trained to ignore.

Powerful nations and empires that have forgotten their roots have never lasted much longer than a single generation. Hint: Much of our national identity can be discovered in detail in the Holy Bible itself.—Joseph O. Morrow

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Republicans need to stop defending the racist Democrat Confederacy (flag, statues, etc.). The Confederacy was a Democrat enterprise. The Republican Party was born in opposition to it. Republicans moved to the South for economic opportunity.—Bruce Welt

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Some schools still teach a little about the Boston Tea Party. They teach it was like a celebration after a football game. Then the acts of King George and the British army are barely mentioned.

The formation of the Minutemen, Concord and Lexington, and the reasons for the American  Revolution are not taught, nor the linkages to the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and how it all rolled into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Textbooks are edited to delete or change, sometimes completely, the actual history. The current politics about the Second Amendment is rooted in such ignorance or deception.

As a side note, in Europe in the 1700s and 1800s, game was the property of the king and hunting was a privilege. In the USA, hunting is a right because the game belongs to the people and not the government or a king.—Jim Macklin

Ignorance About What Stalin’s Russia Did 

Dear Daily Signal: The subject of Jarrett Stepman’s commentary is  horrible to read, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is an unimpeachable source when it comes to what happened in Russia (“The History Russians and Communists Want Us to Forget”). I don’t know what will be worse for the world, communism or radical Islam.

The world is in far more peril today due to ignorance that it was at the end of World War II. Thank you to Solzhenitsyn and Stepman for trying to spread the truth.—Mark Zanghetti, Groton, Conn.

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I think FDR thought the Soviet experiment was a good idea and was happy to give Eastern Europe to Stalin as guinea pigs.—Anita Gummer

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Adding to the duplicity of Russia under Stalin, don’t forget that they had a nonaggression pact with Japan throughout World War III until the very end,when it was clear that the U.S. would beat Japan.

This did serve a purpose of allowing unescorted Russian merchants from the U.S. to supply Russia with material to defeat the German army. Stalin refused to open a front against Japan or help China against the brutal Japanese army that occupied China.—David Critchley

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The leftists do write the history books (that they don’t try to burn). Even today there are historians who try to provide honest assessment of the past, though they are not well received or well treated in colleges.—Bill Leach

Jack Phillips Sues Colorado Agency That Went After Him

Dear Daily Signal: Thomas Jipping’s commentary on  baker Jack Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission describes what happens when the government oversteps its bounds and decides it knows best how you should run your life (“Christian Cake Baker Turns the Tables, Sues Colorado for Anti-Religious Bias”).

If Phillips chooses not to make a custom cake for someone, he is forgoing a monetary reward to uphold his beliefs. And depending on how he handles it, it can lead to bad publicity for his business, so he is bringing himself possible misfortune in order to hold his beliefs.

What exactly are those who are demanding he make them a custom cake risking? How are they possibly going to suffer any harm? How can they expect that the cake they force him to make will be good and not far worse than what they could buy from someone else?

The whole idea of government’s forcing someone to do something against his or her beliefs is silly and stupid from the get-go. It serves no purpose other than to punish those out of political favor.

How would it be treated if government someday decided that someone who is LGBT-whatever had to do something against their beliefs?

That is the funny thing about the left. They never stop to consider how they will respond when the power they create over others is eventually used over them. A loss of rights is a loss for everyone, not just the Christian.—Chuck Sammet

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Perhaps all the emails and phone records of members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission should be subpoenaed to see if there was any bias or hostility toward Jack Phillips expressing his religious rights.

It seems that the commission has essentially become a law enforcement agency, but is it enforcing the laws in a fair and unbiased manner or is it enforcing the law in a prejudiced manner?—Steven Robert

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Maybe the case of Jack Phillips will prompt the taxpayers of Colorado to vote these politicians out of office. But then again, these are the same people who voted for the politicians who legalized recreational marijuana.

If that’s what the taxpayers want, let them sit back and fire up a J. Maybe the tax increases won’t even be noticeable.

I hope this guy sues Colorado for millions and wins.—Drew Page

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The USA is ruled by laws and not religious dogma. Persons who want to put their religion before the law must face the legal consequences.

Polygamy, child marriage, satanic rituals, animal sacrifice, and racial supremacy are all deeply held religious beliefs by some people. The common phrase is: You do the crime, you serve the time. Or even better, get out of the kitchen if you cannot take the heat.

I respect the right of Jack Phillips to hold to his beliefs, but not to put them on others or discriminate against those he and I feel are morally on the wrong side of our values, so long as they do not harm me or my family. Insisting that no one can insult my deeply held beliefs is back to a road toward blasphemy laws.

Millions of people suffer from religious dogma worldwide. Tolerance and kindness are not violations or religious beliefs. Christ died on the cross rather than fight persecution.

Baking a cake is an act my 5-year-old can do without any need to check the motivation of the person who wants it. Grow up and be kind and tolerant or get out of the business.—Robert Townsend

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I hope Jack Phillips wins. I have nothing against the gay community, but they’ve gotten awfully pushy in recent years. Seems to me they wear their sexuality like some kind of badge of honor. To my mind, sex is neither an honor nor a failing, it’s just sex. Get over it.—Martha Fuller

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Oddly enough, I wonder if Colorado would be so offended if a Muslim baker decided that making a cake in support of same-sex marriage was against his religious beliefs?—Bruce A. Forshee

Virginia and the States’ Climate Change Bandwagon

Dear Daily Signal: This situation that Kevin Mooney reports is happening because the Virginia Republican Party’s leadership is totally made up of RINOs and Never-Trumpers (“Virginia Governor Set to Bypass Legislature to Join State-Based Climate Agreement”).

This is standard operating procedure for the elitists who run the state’s Republican Party. These elites will not support any conservative or conservative policy. They side with the Democrats on issues like illegal immigration, spending, and climate change.

They are the reason that once solid-red Virginia has now become permanent blue Virginia. They refused to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and caved in on voter fraud. Once squeaky-clean Virginia has elections as corrupt as the big blue Democrat states like Illinois and New York.

Illegal alien and green card noncitizen voting, mostly in Democrat-run Northern Virginia, has been the primary determinant in recent statewide elections, as perhaps tens of thousands of fraudulent votes are cast in Democrat-dominated Fairfax, Arlington, and Alexandria. And the elite Republicans don’t do a thing to stop it.—Al Linski

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The anti-science of the left is appallingly destructive of both human and ecological welfare.—Bob Armstrong

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The states in liberal New England will destroy their own economies and then cry for Uncle Sam to dig them out of that grave. Disgraceful—Randy Leyendecker, Kerrville, Texas

Helping Ukraine Resist Russia’s Designs 

Dear Daily Signal: Somewhere in this mix described by Nolan Peterson’s reporting most of us have to realize that the Crimea has been part of mother Russia for centuries and was gifted to Ukraine as an ally (“With US and British Support, Ukraine Pushes Back on Russian Aggression in the Sea of Azov”).

However, with the insistence of the West to include every country west of Russia in NATO, in disagreement with a treaty, it should be easily assumed that Russia considers itself being surrounded by those who would create a coup in Ukraine.

If Russian supplies have to move by road through Ukraine to reach Crimea, a bridge seems like a good idea. Russia will never give up a warm water port, either. Is anyone willing to fight a big war over all this?

As I remember, the U.S. didn’t like the USSR filling up Cuba in 1962 with military missiles, only defensive of course.—Larry Martin

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This is a joke, isn’t it? What will these tubs do if the Russians actually respond to the provocation?

Is it fair to the Ukrainian sailors who will be put in harm’s way when they would have no real chance of survival?—Frederick Colbourne

This and That 

Dear Daily Signal: Obamacare is a scam, is my thought in reading DOug Badger’s commentary, “Congress Can Slash the Cost of Health Care Premiums by as Much as a Third. Here’s How.” Obamacare is not affordable. It provided monthly premium support with high deductibles. If you can’t pay a monthly premium, you most assuredly don’t have the $2,000 for the deductible.

All Obamacare did was expand Medicaid, which once again costs all taxpayers. Just more giveaways to people who do not produce but take. Requiring what every plan must cover made everyone’s insurance more expensive and crappier. Those of us with employer-”paid” insurance saw our costs rise for less coverage.

Everyone must pay for maternity coverage. I have pediatric vision coverage, which I pay for not for me, but for children I don’t have. I want to be able to pick the coverage I need.

And as to pre-existing conditions, Obamacare allowed people to wait to buy insurance until they got sick. That is BS. If you change plans often—as a contract worker, my insurance coverage changed with contracting companies, or I purchased it on my own—then your pre-existing conditions should be covered. But not otherwise.

The uninsured and the insured are still getting their health care through emergency rooms. Why? Because they can’t afford the deductible.—Lynne Hallman

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What a ship of fools we Americans have on Capitol Hill, presenting themselves as national leaders. Instead of focusing on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial holdings and philosophies, these fools continued their rant on what the man wrote in his high school yearbook over a generation ago.

Nancy Pelosi now wants to impeach Kavanaugh. Perhaps so do Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine (Mad Max) Waters, Cory (high school groper) Booker, Dick (Vietnam combat veteran) Blumenthal, and Hawaii’s Maize (all men just shut up) Hirono.

The president, during his campaign, vowed to clean out this Washington, D.C., swamp/cesspool. But with these socialist types in power in both legislative chambers and federal bureaucracies,  aided and abetted by a left-wing media, it’s too late for any cleansing action.

In essence, this political corruption in Washington has gone far beyond the point of no return, in that all these these people crave is power. It doesn’t matter whose reputation or family who is permanently destroyed. It’s power, and nothing but. And to achieve it, all methodologies must be exacted along the lines that the ends justify the means.

In this context, nice try, Mr. President, and many thanks for your past and present efforts to conquer the impossible by routing out these rats from Washington’s political sewer system.—Earl Beal, Terre Haute, Ind. 

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About the commentary by Rachel Greszler and Julia Howe: Social Security savings was a good plan because so many wouldn’t think about saving it until it’s too late (“3 Examples of How Social Security Robs Americans of Greater Income Before, During Retirement”).

Originally, the plan was doing better than expected, earning a tremendous amount of interest. I remember getting a letter from a government representative about it. The government was thinking of lowering payments by younger workers because the Social Security fund was so rich.

When our government started allowing the General Fund to take money from other funds, it set a bad precedence. There would never be enough money for what the Social Security tax intended. It created the necessity to continually raise taxes, as the cost of living rose.—Bonnie McGuire

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I wish President Trump had not tried to explain his frustration with our intelligence agencies, because at the present stage they are more of a threat to him and our republic than the Russians. The Russians are a known enemy, but our higher-echelon intel officials are supposed to serve and protect our constitutional republic, not undermine our laws.

By literally going after the president and continuing to pursue his removal, they represent the greater threat—like something out of “1984.” Our greatest fear has been realized: Big Brother is watching.—Brannen Edwards, Savannah, Ga.

Image may contain: one or more peopleHow Are We Doing?

Dear Daily Signal: Yay! That wonderful Judge Brett Cavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court! I’m a 45-year-old female. I never believed these fake, disgusting, lying accusers backed by the deep, wicked state for one second.

Keep your real, honest news coming. May God bless you all. And thank you very much! Love you guys.—Linda Soroko, Tampa

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In Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, God showed up yet again. Great news to Americans with a conscience.—Thomas W. Hendrickson

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Stunning. Our man, Justice Brett Kavanaugh: We the people (smart people that is) are so proud of you. Congratulations and good luck.—Hilton Whittaker 

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I’m so grateful for The Daily Signal’s commentary and patriotism.  Thank you for your efforts.—Paula Skidmore, Findlay, Ohio

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Thank you for keeping us informed. We love The Daily Signal.—Martha Garcia

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What do we do as conservative women to counteract the noise from the left’s out-of-control crazies?—Fran Bergere

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I love reading what you put out there. It keeps me informed, especially when I don’t really want to watch Fox when about four Dems are on their shows.—Carol Marino

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Great job. Refreshing compared to TV news, a disgrace to the morals and beliefs our country was built on. Those morals and beliefs seem to be going away, and we have to be fighting for them.—Janice Smith

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Thank you for telling the truth of what’s happening in our country, and history as it really was, not how the liberals want it to be. God bless you all.—Debbie Keeling

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Keep up the great work. Your articles are a breath of fresh air.—Scott Antonelli

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Thank you.  Don’t stop now.—Art Ballif

Troy Worden helped to compile this edition of “We Hear You.” 

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