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Experts continue to say history will reject Donald Trump. But that cannot be guaranteed.
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American history often leaves out ugly truths and purifies the powerful.
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If we want history to say anything, we have to fight for it in the present.
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This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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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 January 6 rioters.” “In history, people like GOP will see Senator Mitt Romney as heroes for their own party.” “History will show that the Democrats were people who took a stand for our democracy and our values.”
This sounds good, but there is a danger in the thought that history will reveal the truth of our moment and discern the good from the bad. Past events do not change, but history telling is a conversation that continues as long as we exist on this planet. In our own lives, Americans have discovered things they have forgotten, and have 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 are dead, we must actively and vigilantly reinforce that truth as we live. We can’t guarantee that Americans will get the story right away when we’re gone.
A history of holes
The past doesn’t change, but it does tell us about it. Americans are known for their concealment by omission. Only in the past two years has there been widespread awareness of the 1921 Tulsa massacre, for example when racists destroyed “Black Wall Street” and murdered the people who lived there in a fit of organized rage.
That was just one of the multiple genocides in our country against black Americans, but we don’t talk about that much. They’re not pleasant, and they don’t fit the story that America is the world’s longest-standing multiracial democracy.
Just as in the past it was easier for Americans to forget the importance of the Tulsa massacre, in the future it could 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 could manipulate the events surrounding January 6. We saw that happen immediately after the attack. Some right-wing media tried to blame Antifa, and polls now show what half of Republicans believe. It is quite possible that future generations could believe that too.
We already know that history changes when different people have the power to tell. Almost every president worth thinking about has been conceived and reimagined. President Ulysses S. Grant was vilified as a corrupt drunkard for decades, in part by Americans who wanted to reject reconstruction and his support for civil rights for black Americans.
Only in the 21st century have historians attempted to regain his heroism, not only as a general but also as president. That’s not because he changed (of course), but because we did. As our society embraced racial equality, it became clear to historians that our story of Grant’s presidency was colored by white supremacy. Turns out he might not even have been an alcoholic, he just liked to drink (which one of us?).
All of this is to say that we assume that history will make it right, when history has shown us that it often does things wrong. It relies heavily on the people writing it, their power, and how they want us to see ourselves in a great American story.
See it, be it
History’s ability to be influenced and written in real time is why you can’t have a racist, demagogue, or authoritarian in the White House – especially someone who knows the power of a story as much as Trump does. If they get the chance to rewrite history, leaders like this will grab it and twist it with lies.
The Trump administration tried to do that in ways big and small. It tried to delay Harriet Tubman’s performance on the $ 20 bill. That was both a way of concealing the importance of Tubman’s work of rescuing slaves and serving as a spy in the military, and a way of preserving the glorification of President Andrew Jackson, a racist.
And then, of course, there was the “1776 Report” – a shining example of what happens when a young man who spends too much time in racist chat rooms tries to write a history paper after never going to class or giving the lecture . This report, published on the White House website on Jan. 18, was the Trump administration’s attempt at “patriotic education,” a retelling of our history that minimized the importance and cruelty of slavery and demonized the American left.
Upon taking office, the Biden government immediately removed it. That’s the kind of vigilance we need to keep telling about what happened on January 6 and for the four years leading up to it. There are powerful, ruthless forces in this land who want to hide or twist it into glorification. It’s up to us, now and in the future, to make sure they don’t have anything to say.
Read the original Business Insider article