Trump, Vance raise puzzling question at the Smithsonian: What's 'improper ideology?

President Trump has signed an executive order that directs Vice President JD Vance to eliminate "divisive narratives" and "improper ideology" from Smithsonian museums, educational and research centers, and the National Zoo.

- Clarence Page

My immediate reaction? Surely, you jest, sir. There may not be any area of American discourse that is more divisive or conflict-ridden than the arena of race.

As I have witnessed many times in the past, race as a topic of conversation is a lot like sex: Everybody thinks they are expert at it, yet we Americans can be painfully reluctant to talk about it in mixed company or in front of our children.

Which might explain why Trump's executive order immediately handed the hypersensitive task of inspecting museum exhibits for ideology to his vice president.

And who determines what ideology is "proper?" I suspect that George Orwell would be dismayed by this development.

In Trump's executive order last month, titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," he denounced what he described as a "revisionist movement" across the country, one that "seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light."