-
Experts maintain that history will reject Donald Trump. But it can not be guaranteed.
-
American history often omits ugly truths and disinfects the powerful.
-
If we want history to say something, we must fight for it in the present.
-
This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
-
Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
I know you’ve heard this proclamation on network news for years and read it in columns.
“History will judge us.” “History will reject Donald Trump and the insurgents on January 6.” “History will see people like GOP Senator Mitt Romney as heroes to fight their own party.” “History will show that the Democrats were people who took a stand for our democracy and our values.”
It sounds good, but the idea exists that history will reveal the truth of our moment and sort out the good from the bad. Past events do not change, but telling the story is a conversation that lasts as long as we exist on this planet. In our own lifetime, Americans have discovered things they have forgotten and rehabilitated individuals in our history who were once maligned.
If we want history to tell the true story of Donald Trump’s violent presidency long after we die, we must actively and vigilantly reinforce that truth as we live. We can not guarantee that Americans will get the story right after we leave.
A history of holes
The past does not change, but we tell about it. Americans are known for hiding by default. It is only in the last year or two that there has been a widespread awareness of the Tulsa massacre of 1921, when racists destroyed “Black Wall Street” and killed the people who lived there in an organized rage.
It was just one of the genocides against black Americans in our country, but we are not talking about that. They are not pleasant and do not fit the narrative that America is the longest multiracial democracy in the world.
Just as it used to be easier for Americans to forget the importance of the Tulsa massacre, in the future it may be easier for Americans to forget the ugliness that led to the January 6 attack on The Capitol.
It is also possible that future Americans may manipulate the events surrounding January 6th. We already saw this happen immediately after the attack. Some right-wing media have tried to blame Antifa and polls suggest that half of Republicans now believe it. It is quite possible that future generations may believe this as well.
We already know that history changes when different people have the power to tell. Almost every president worth thinking about has been nominated and re-nominated. President Ulysses S. Grant has been accused for decades of being a corrupt drunkard, in part by Americans who wanted to reject the Reconstruction and its support for civil rights for black Americans.
It is only in the 21st century that historians are trying to restore his heroism, not only as a general but also as president. It’s not because he (naturally) changed, but because we did. As our society adopted racial equality, it became clear to historians that our account of Grant’s presidency was colored by white supremacy. It turns out that he may not even have been an alcoholic, but just from drinking (which of us?).
This is all to say that we assume that history will fix things if history has actually shown us that it often goes wrong. It very much depends on the people who write it, their power and how they want us to see ourselves in a great American story.
Look, this is
The ability of history to be influenced and written in real time is why you can not have a racist, a demagogue or an authoritarian in the White House – especially not someone who has the power of storytelling as well as Trump do not know. These leaders will have the opportunity to rewrite history and twist it with lies.
The Trump administration has tried to do this in big and small ways. It tried to slow down Harriet Tubman’s appearance on the $ 20 bill. It was both a way to preserve the importance of Tubman’s work in rescuing slaves and serving in the military as a spy, as well as a way to preserve the glorification of President Andrew Jackson, a racist.
And of course, there was the “1776 report” – an excellent example of what happens when a young man who spends too much time in racist chat rooms tries to write a dissertation after never being in class or reading. did not. This report, published on the White House website on January 18, was the Trump administration’s attempt at ‘patriotic education’, a story of our history that kept the importance and brutality of slavery to a minimum, and the American left demonized.
With the acceptance of the office, the Biden government immediately removed it. This is the kind of vigilance we need to maintain about telling what happened on January 6 and for the four years that it has passed. There are powerful, relentless forces in this country that want to hide it, or twist it to glorification. It is up to us, now and in the future, to make sure they do not have their say.
Read the original article on Business Insider