OPINION: Won’t Know Much About History?

Someone said a broken clock is right twice a day, but they hadn’t heard Donald Trump’s continuous stream of lies, nonsense and hate speech.

That’s why I was surprised recently to hear him utter some ageless wisdom on an “Apprentice” episode that first aired in November 2005.

‘In life, you have to look at past events,” Trump said. “And that’s called history. Too many countries, too many businesses, have been destroyed by not studying history.”

He made that remark to justify eliminating a contestant who’d been antagonizing everyone for weeks, but it was jarring to hear it two decades later, when he and his administration are busy rewriting or ignoring history as they destroy our country. 

(For example, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is making a mockery of its name by proposing to strip itself of the power to curb climate change, despite all the destruction that’s caused in recent decades.)

Trump telegraphed his intention to paper over the ugly parts of America’s past at Mount Rushmore on July 3, 2020.

A masterpiece of MAGA propaganda masquerading as patriotism, his speech was presumably written by a team headed by Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump 1.0 crackdown on immigrants of color. (As a Trump 2.0 deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser, he’s increased the cruelty by orders of magnitude.)

 “Manifest Destiny,” the 19th-century notion that white Americans were divinely inspired to take the land – and lives – of Native Americans, cropped up in the Mount Rushmore speech. Otherwise, though, the writers kept white nationalism to a minimum and even praised some Black historical figures.

They reserved Trump’s rage for liberals, specifically those who’ve told the truth about slavery; genocide; and oppression of women, the poor and minority groups.

Interestingly, he accused the left of much of what he’s doing now:

* “Driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.” (He purged government employees who didn’t pass his loyalty test. And ordered corporations, universities and media companies to adopt his bigoted ways and show him the deference he demands.)

* “Destroy(ing) the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.” (His administration has denied scientific evidence; attacked education, public health and the environment; and shredded safety nets.) 

* Mounting “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.” (He’s declared an all-out war on history and is firing shots wherever the subject is taught.)

In January, he signed an executive order threatening to withdraw federal funding from K-12 schools if they don’t replace “radical indoctrination” with MAGA-style “patriotic education.”  

“American education should focus on cultivating patriotic citizens ready for the workforce,” a fact sheet reads, “not political activists” (like advocates of rights and protections for women, workers and marginalized groups).

The order also revives Trump 1.0’s 1776 Commission, which President Joe Biden dismantled. Its January 2021 “patriotic education” blueprint also bashes progressive movements and lavishes praise on our nation’s founders while overlooking their exclusion of women and nonwhites.

“The authors call for a form of government indoctrination of American students, and in the process elevate ignorance about the past to a civic virtue,” a statement from the American Historical Association said. 

Equally chilling is Trump’s executive order to censor federal museums, national parks and monuments. 

The only acceptable message is a positive one, so anything that “inappropriately” disparages Americans, whether living or dead, must go. Transgender references and quotes from abolitionist Harriet Tubman are already gone, Alan Spears, the National Parks Conservation Association’s senior director of cultural resources, told CNN. 

The Interior Department is even asking the public to report potentially objectionable content, but Spears said the responses have been “10-1, 20-1, 30-1” in favor of the whole truth.

It’s up to us to keep Trump from driving our country into collective amnesia about past atrocities that bear more than a passing resemblance to his current bad acts.

“Great countries do not avoid their history,” Spears said. “We learn from it; we confront it when necessary. It gives us an opportunity to heal and come together.”

Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.

Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.

Want to be a columnist with Coal Region Canary? Contact us at newscanary@gmail.com.

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