This has happened before
There is an old adage that goes:
"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
For most of my life, I considered this to mean simply that people could avoid mistakes by learning from the past, and would naturally do so, because who wouldn't?
Boy, was I wrong.
What younger, naive me failed to realize, is that you cannot simply be passively aware of the big beats of history, no; you must actively seek to understand causes and effects, and act accordingly to prevent mistakes from reoccurring. This is all well and good on a personal level (though I still fail at it sometimes), but what about as a society?
Well, you don't have to look too far back to recognize what is happening in the United States today.
I am an avid reader of Letters from an American, the nightly newsletter by Heather Cox Richardson, author and professor of History at Boston College. She connects the dots in current events, tying them to similar points in our history as a nation. A fequent topic of comparison to this moment of strife and upheaval is the American Civil War of the 1860's.
At that time, southern enslaver states chose, as a last resort, to secede from the union to preserve their hierarchial view of the world, and their convenient place atop it. In contrast to today's commonly repeated lie that the Civil War was a battle over nebulous "States Rights", confederate leaders at the time openly stated their belief in a racial hierarchy with the white man on top. Alexander Stevens, vice president of the Confederacy laid out plainly the goal of secession in an 1861 speech in Savannah, Georgia:
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
Of course, to most of us, this should be obvious to most of us, and yet, only 56% of Americans correctly identify 'Slavery' as the primary issue over which the Civil War was fought. This is, needless to say, a problem.
Why is this the case? Why are so many of us uninformed, or misinformed on a simple matter of history?
That '56%' is a pretty familiar figure to, to those of you who keep up with polling in general (not a hobby I reccomend, for mental health reasons).
Here's some recent poll numbers:
- US Adult Citizens who are 'Very proud' to be American - 56% (yougov, July 2, 2024)
- Registered Voters who say 'Presidents should not have legal immunity for actions taken as President' - 60% (yougov, May 3rd, 2024)
- Americans with an 'unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump' - 53.6% (FiveThirtyEight aggregation for July 3rd, 2024)
In a number of similar polls discussing US democracy, our two political parties and their candidates, similar numbers crop up, with divides usually between 60-40 and 50-50 on things that should have an extremely clear answer. Take this poll from the Washington Post that made the rounds on social media:
Assuming I've just read that right, 44% of voters in key Swing states this year believe that Donald Trump, the guy who started an Insurrection to overturn his 2020 loss, would do a better job of defending democracy than current President Joe Biden.
What. The. Fuck.
I take it back, this isn't a problem. It's a disaster. Misinformation and propaganda affects us all, and I will absolutely admit to sharing a sensational article or post around that turned out to not be true. Critical thinking is hard, and we have to be extremely vigilant not to get caught up in the moment. But, holy shit. It's clear that somwhere between 40-45% of Americans simply reject either objective reality, or the basic premise upon which the United States was founded.
Just under two and a half centuries ago, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Indendendence, proclaiming:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
This was, at the time, a radical notion. But the idea, the promise that a person, no matter their birth, should have all the same rights as any monarch, and noble, proved to be a powerful one. It is true that we have never fully lived up to this promise -- Racial inequality, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, and other forms of bigotry have been written in laws and enforced to our detriment for much of our history. But the current of justice flowed towards delivering on that promise of equality, when those brave enough to fight for it were tested and stood up.
Now is another time of testing. Across the country we face a dire threat. Decades of gerrymandering, stacked courts, and other ratfuckery has handed the openly facist party a significant portion of power, with little legal recourse to reclaim it.
Something I hear from conservatives in response to criticisms of the United States is "Do you hate America?" or a similar assertion that seems fine-tuned to discredit any discussion as "Anti-American."
Well, it may not change any minds -- people have to want to change, after all -- but I have my response. Perhaps it will help you too, should you be asked "Do you hate America?"
Do I hate America? No, I am merely holding it accountable to live up to its promises. Why aren't you?
Happy Idependence Day.