Do Conservatives Actually Believe In “Patriotic Education”?

During his first term, one of Donald Trump’s final actions as President was to establish the “1776 Commission” in September 2020, which then released The 1776 Report on 1/18/2021. The 2024 Republican Platform specifically called for the reestablishment of the commission and the continuation of its goal of “patriotic education,” and Trump went on to create something rather similar to the old program through an Executive Order on 1/29/2025.

I think the question of what “patriotic education” even is needs to be answered before we can go forward. According to the aforementioned Executive Order, it is defined through the following terms:

(i) an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles;
(ii) a clear examination of how the United States has admirably grown closer to its noble principles throughout its history;
(iii) the concept that commitment to America’s aspirations is beneficial and justified; and
(iv) the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.

To answer the question in the headline of this article: If that is what “patriotic education” is, conservatives are not fans of that. In reality, they actually define “patriotic” to mean something which confirms the conservative understanding of…