Jonathan Butcher is the Will Skillman Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation. He is the author of Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth (Post Hill/Bombardier Books, April 2022). He co-edited and wrote chapters in The Critical Classroom (The Heritage Foundation, 2022), discussing the racial prejudice that comes from the application of critical race theory in K-12 schools. Jonathan co-edited and wrote chapters in the book The Not-So-Great Society (Heritage Foundation, 2019), which provides conservative solutions to the problems created by the ever-expanding federal footprint in preschool, K-12, and higher education. In 2021, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster nominated Jonathan to serve on the board of the South Carolina Public Charter School District, a statewide charter school authorizer.
Americans are certainly divided about some important political issues. But as Jonathan Butcher shows in this powerful and illuminating book, some of the most heated and familiar controversies of our time don’t actually divide the public; they just divide a sliver of progressive elites from a broad and bipartisan public consensus. This is an essential read for understanding the dynamics of our politics. -Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant Before we Americans talk ourselves into a national nervous breakdown, brought on by a fear that our divisions are pushing us toward social breakdown and an inevitable civil war, we should stop, take a deep breath or two, and then take up Jonathan Butcher’s clear, crisp, and encouraging book. It offers a powerful case, making careful and intelligent use of survey data, that we are not nearly so polarized as our anointed experts and professional activists keep trying to convince us that we are. Wilfred M. McClay, Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History, Hillsdale College