“We want to make this a national monument to the ‘Invisible Founders,’” said the Rev. Larry Walker, a trustee at Montpelier, the home of James Madison, father of the Constitution, in announcing plans to build a national slavery monument right on the grounds of Madison’s home. The Montpelier board is planning on a massive scale: “Our memorialization project is not going to be limited to a bench and a plaque,” Walker declared, as the board compared the projected monument to the Lincoln Memorial. If this thing is built, future visitors to Montpelier will come away with one overwhelming message: James Madison was an evil man who enslaved other human beings.
American policy makers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies often rely on U.S.-based think tanks for research and policy recommendations. While many institutions produce academic products with intellectual sovereignty and moral integrity, too many receive undisclosed foreign funding from countries hostile to the United States and our interests.