'We're not a perfect country, we're just the greatest country': Jim Jordan on his new book and American resilience

Congressman Jim Jordan has a new book coming out, called Do What You Said You Would Do, and as a conservative representative for Ohio's 4th Congressional District since 2007, he has endeavored to do just that. The book, charting the beginning of the House Freedom Caucus, of which he was co-founder, speaks to the integrity of the American spirit, the problems with Democrats becoming a single-issue party on the basis of hating Trump, and gives a message as to where the country can go from here.

The book describes the nitty-gritty of how the US House works, voting procedure, and how things happen behind the scenes, and it's an intriguing look at how the sausage was made by the diligent members of the House Freedom Caucus. Jordan spoke at TPUSA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, about the need to stand up for America, which he does in the book as well.

The Post Millennial spoke to Mr. Jordan about the book, what happened to liberals, the nature of the American national identity, and what Republicans will do first if they win a majority in the House in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.

"If in fact, the people put us back in power next November, the first investigation that needs to happen," Jordan said, noting that a House majority would not facilitate legislation as much as it would the power to investigate, "is an investigation into Dr. Fauci, gain-of-function, the Chinese, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

He tracked through the concerns he has about Fauci, and the timeline of his statements on the lab-leak theory of the virus, as well as potential culpability as regards the gain-of-function research that may have been undertaken at that Wuhan lab. In late June, there was a "quasi-hearing" that Republicans had that walked through a bit of the timeline of what Fauci knew, what he said, and when.

"I walked through the first couple days of when we started to know about this virus. January 31, 2020: Dr. Fauci gets an email from Kristian Andersen, one of these virologists he's been given your tax dollars to. And Kristian Andersen says in that email, January 31, it's like at 10 o'clock at night. The email says the virus looks engineered, the virus is not consistent with evolutionary theory. That is a fancy way of saying this thing came from the lab. So Dr. Fauci is on notice from the get-go, this thing likely came from a lab," Jordan said.

He tracked through the early days of the pandemic, and the communication between Fauci and his team. It was right after that email from Andersen that Fauci had his assistant, Hugh Auchincloss, NIAID Principal Deputy Director, organize a conference call with virologists internationally.

"Four days later," Jordan said, "Kristian Andersen changes his story: Nope, didn't come from a lab. That came from a bat to a pangolin. As I always say," he joked, "a bat to a pangolin to a hippopotamus to Joe Rogan."

The next investigation Jordan wants to conduct is into the Department of Justice's investigation into concerned parents on behalf of the National School Boards Association. He doesn't think that was a simple missive from school boards administrators to the Biden administration, but has reason to believe that it was a much more coordinated undertaking. Jordan walked through the timeline.

In September, a letter was written from the National School Boards Association to the Biden administration's Department of Justice, asking the DOJ to look into reports of aggressive parents attending school board meetings who were, in essence, trying to hold their local elected officials to account. Shortly thereafter, an investigation was launched by the DOJ into parents, who the NSBA said should be investigated in the same way domestic terrorists are investigated. This caused quite a national stir.

"The letter gets written on the 29th of September," Jordan said, tracking through the events. "On October 1, two days later, Viola Garcia, one of the signers of the letter, gets this plum board position at the Department of Education. Three days later, Tim Lang and the head of FBI counterterrorism are already in conversations with the DOJ about how to implement what the letter suggests be done to the White House.

"And then five days after the letter sent Merrick Garland does the memo to all the US Attorney's, all the Judicial Districts around the country, saying put these task forces together," Jordan outlined. Shortly after that, there was a press conference where the supposed national security threat of these parents was discussed along with the potential need for "implementing counterterrorism measures." A whistleblower came out who talked about the "threat tag" on the letter.

"So all that happens in five days: 29th a letter sent, 1 days later Viola Garcia gets a position in the Department of Education, 3 days later they're already working on implementing what the letter suggests," Jordan said, noting that the conversations happened over a weekend, and that on October 5, Garland sends his memo about taking action. "When have you ever seen the government move that fast?" Jordan said.

"I think the Biden administration wanted to go after parents," he said. "They saw this effort to stop the critical race theory happening in our schools and they saw parents speak out" and wanted to "chill this, to stop conservatives and concerned parents from speaking." To that end, Jordan believes that the Biden administration was in league with the National School Boards Association to create a "pretext" to do what they already knew they wanted to do: come down on parents.

"So I think it's because you gotta remember the pattern these guys have and this is frightening, frankly," Jordan said.

On the difference between the new conservatism and the old, establishment GOP, Jordan said that where the party is now is "where it should have always been."

"In my judgment," he said, "a populist party, but rooted in conservative principles. And that is the party of America First, that's the Republican Party, that's the party of President Trump."

That party, Jordan said, is "rooted in conservative principles that are in the Constitution and in lower taxes, the kinds of things that Republicans have historically been for."

As the Democrats have changed and shifted further left, the division between the two parties, Jordan believes, has grown. "Yes," he said in answer to The Post Millennial's question, "there's a bigger divide between where the moderate Republican Party is and the Democrat Party, and that is because the left now dominates and controls the Democrat Party, the radical left."

"One of the biggest issues with the radical left is their opposition to the first amendment. "The radical left is actually against the first amendment," Jordan said. "So I think that's the big divide. Even 10 years ago, the left was supporting the first amendment. But today, the left says if you don't agree with me, you're not allowed to speak. You're not allowed to talk. 'And if you try, we're going to call you racist. And we're going to try to cancel you.'"

It's not just speech, though that's a major part of it. Jordan said that the left is essentially trying to remake the country, attempting to make radical changes to the norms and standards the country is accustomed to. These changes are not welcomed by a large part of the population, and those folks are tired of being called names simply because they love our country.

The methods of remaking the nation can be seen, Jordan said, in how Democrats handled having a man in office, Trump, that they didn't agree with on many issues. They didn't give any of his policies any real consideration because they opposed the man, and as such, they opposed the office of the presidency, and the conservative right.

Among those changes, are that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allows members of the US House to vote by proxy, meaning that they "don't have to show up for work."

"Democrats are trying to end the filibuster. Democrats are trying to pack the court. Democrats are trying to make DC a state so that they get new US senators. Democrats do impeachment proceedings in secret based on a so-called whistleblower who remains anonymous. And there's no due process for the for the person being charged, i.e. President Trump. They do hearings, depositions, in a bunker in a basement of the Capitol," he said.

"So these are things that have never happened in American history. And they're all happening here at once because the left dominates and controls the party," Jordan said.

"The anti-first amendment element is in control of that party. That's the scary thing."

As for the conservatives and those in the House Freedom Caucus, they believe he said, "we're not perfect, but we're the greatest country ever. We love this nation and we want to stand up for the principles and values that make America special."

"That's it. That's the divide."

Much of this became heightened with the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the executive office. "It certainly accelerated," Jordan said, "they were marching in this direction. But now it's an accelerated march to communism that the left is on."

The IRS, FISA, the FBI, were all weaponized under Trump, Jordan said. Democrats attacked Trump before he came into office, while he was there, and after he left. It's unprecedented in modern history.

What really strikes Jordan about Trump is that as president he did what he said he would do. "He did more of what he said he would do than any president in history," he said, "and he did it with everyone against him. That Democrat Party was against him. Everyone in the mainstream press was against him. Everyone in the bureaucracy was against him, which is really important. I mean, that's as tough a fight as there is in the swamp, frankly. And then a bunch of Republicans were against him. And he's still got more done than anybody."

This included putting the US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, which facilitated the Abraham Accords, which was a diplomatic triumph that Trump gets little credit for in the mainstream press.

One key thing that needs to happen, Jordan believes, is that we need to instill the values of our nation in the next generation, and to that, he suggests a thorough critique of critical race theory, "which is racist," and to start teaching American history. Stories in his book are a great place to start. Understanding the legacy of the Wright Brothers, and how quickly the US took their discovery of flight turned it into a space program, setting a man on the moon.

Of Americans, "you can have a dream and work hard," Jordan said. "You can make it happen and you don't need the government's help. You just need the government to not hinder you. That's been the history of the country."

To his critics, he said that "the left doesn't believe that. The left wants to end that phenomena that's always been there in the country. And that to me, is what's really at stake."

The movement against critical race theory has been touted by advocates of that ideology as being anti-history, or racist, or part of an effort to not teach slavery. But that's far from the truth, and Jordan knows that the difficult past has as much a place at the forefront of education as any of the rest.

"There's some parts of our history that we're gonna have to teach. There were bad things that happened. We're not a perfect country," he said, "We're just the greatest country. There's a difference."

"We had to fight a Civil War to keep the country together and get rid of this evil called slavery. But we got through it, and we ended the evil of slavery," he said.

"No one is saying America is perfect, but we are the greatest country ever," Jordan said.