There’s a reason the Trump administration and its White Christian nationalist base are so intent upon replacing education–especially classes in history–with a wildly inaccurate, “White-washed” version. The substitution of their fanciful and phony nostalgia for the inconvenient facts of America’s history supports their fond belief that only White Christians are real Americans.
Today’s historical revisionists like to insist that those who can trace their ancestry to the people they want to believe settled the country and/or who fought in the Revolutionary War are the “real” Americans. Since the country’s actual history is rather different from that version, they are working to subvert accurate historical instruction.
A recent guest essay in the New York Times focused on the history of this country’s diversity–a diversity that has existed from the nation’s beginnings. Titled “The Right Wing Myth of American Heritage,” the essay began by recounting a fight–in 1764 Pennsylvania–between Irish settlers and English Quakers. When Benjamin Franklin’s diplomacy averted an all-out conflict, the battle devolved to a “war” of pamphlets giving voice to what the author called “the toxic stew of grievances held by the wide mix of ethnic and religious groups in the middle colonies.”
There were pamphlets that accused the Quakers of taking secret satisfaction in the slaughter of Irish and German settler families at the hands of the Indians, and that called for Quakerism to be “extirpated from the face of the whole earth.” In the reverse direction, Irish Ulster Presbyterians were described as “Ulceration” “Piss-brute-tarians.” Franklin himself referred to the Irish settlers as “Christian white savages” and Germans as “Palatine boors” who refused to assimilate or learn English.
This was the state of relations among European settlers on the brink of the American Revolution. It’s a history that is inconvenient to the latest ideological project of the nativist right.
Those nativists insist that to be a “true American,” one must be descended from a group of founders who–they imagine– were united by a shared system of values and folkways, founders who (in their fevered imaginations) were all English-speaking Protestants from Northwest Europe. Those with bloodlines going back to those settlers–considered by nativists to be America’s “founding ethnicity”– are more American than those who lack such bloodlines, and they argue that immigration has “diluted” that “pure” American stock.
The MAGA bigots who embrace this ahistorical story are thrilled by Trump’s efforts to favor White asylum seekers over non-white ones, and his proposal to counteract growing diversity in America, which the Trump administration regards as a destabilizing cultural force. “The documents submitted in connection with the proposals assert that increasing diversity, “has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity.”
The Times essay quoted Vice-President J.D. Vance’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, in which Vance disavowed the belief that the United States is a country built on a creed, and insisted that “America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history.” As the author notes, that mythology is historically delusional.
Americans have never been “a group of people with a shared history.” The founders were an assortment of people from different histories and backgrounds who coexisted — often just barely — because they didn’t have any other choice but to do so. This was true even within the British majority; Puritans and Quakers alike were banished from Anglican Virginia, Quakers were hanged in Massachusetts, and English colonists in New England and the Tidewater region sided with and in some cases fought for opposing sides of the English Civil War. America was a nation that emerged in spite of itself…
Mr. Vance, like other nativists, refuses to acknowledge that cultural diversity, with all of its prejudices and conflicts, is in fact the through line of American history. The United States isn’t exceptional because of our common cultural heritage; we’re exceptional because we’ve been able to cohere despite faiths, traditions and languages that set us apart, and sometimes against one another. The drafters of the Constitution tried to create that cohesion by building a government that could transcend our divisions.
As the essayist concludes, the achievement of the founders would have been far less remarkable had the colonists been a monoculture. It is the very rejection of the pretense that any one group deserves some kind of privileged status that has made us American.
This might apply to Trump’s delusional chat with Moran when he said, “The Declaration of Independence was about unity.” The best description of his answer was being called on by the teacher and having no idea what the answer is to the question, so you wing it (it is bullshit). LOL
Have you noticed that MAGA is all about being the chosen ones. They actually believe that their God chose them over all inhabitants. Even Bannon said that Trump is given to us by “Divine Providence.” By the way, did anybody notice the cover photo of Time magazine showed Trump’s right ear? It was very pronounced and in our face. However, there wasn’t even a hint of a scar from a rifle shot to his ear. That is God’s miracle! LOL
I had mentioned that one of Trump’s primary foreign policy goals was to focus on the Americas. We’ve seen this play out more as we withdraw in practice from Europe and focus on Canada, Greenland, and Latin America. I did not expect that Trump would be so belligerent about toppling governments that the neoconservatives want gone. The comments today in Sheila’s post align perfectly with some of MAGA’s leadership’s views on the occupants of the Americas. They are sharing propaganda about “The inferiority of the occupants in many of the countries and that we need to replace their leadership to make way for colonization by US citizens.”
I hate seeing the word “exceptionalism” used to define the USA. It should be phrased, “We think we are exceptional.” We are exceptional, like a bully thinks he should have all the kids’ lunch money on the playground.”
Under Trump, our history is becoming lies and his lies are becoming our history. Our military was created to protect Americans from outside interference and attack; we relaxed our vigil and 9/11 happened, we strengthened our military to protect us from those outside who would attack us using violence. We now must protect ourselves, peaceably, from our own military as he weakens our external protection abroad.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violence, lost and long forgotten, as we must be watchful for our own military’s armed possibility of attack as we grocery shop and many fear sending their children to school now. This is NOT history; this IS life today under Trump and MAGA rule; our military must decide to either follow Fascist orders, like good Germans, or uphold their oath to protect this nation and uphold the Constitution of the UNITED States of America.
It is the Trump/MAGA unity which has put them in control of our past, our present and undeniably our FUTURE. We need an internal Revolutionary War to survive as Americans and as America.
MAGA and zionism are so much alike.
Want some fun? If VOTE a word meme meaning Vote Out Trump … what does the “e” stand for?
Norris-that is a great question.
Norris….how about Eternally? Evermore? Enthusiastically?
I learned from “Finding Your Roots” that Angela Davis qualifies for DAR Membership. I really like knowing that.
Growing up in Southern Indiana, the “caste” system related to country of origin and religion was alive and well in our predominantly White population. Anyone who thinks that our history, even the history of small towns, where people look alike, means a shared history of values and opportunity, wishes for something that never existed.
In 1682, got that? 1682, Portuguese Jews established a cemetery in what is now lower Manhattan…I’ve seen it. You can google it.
MAGA is just the new name for Naziism…pure blood lines, God meant it that way, and other BS.
Angela Davis and DAR? wonderful!
Vance gives ignorant hillbillies a bad name.
Diversity in its full meaning describes the fact that no two of us are alike. Search for your doppelgänger, and you will never find them. We are 8B unique individuals, but we can be grouped, and race is one of the more obvious distinctions.
Why group at all, though? Because we have learned to fear sure others.
Here’s what extremists give up. They love to feel superior because those they fear must be inferior. That’s a comforting thought.
To feel good, they choose dysfunctional lives. They make the certainty of complete uniqueness into a mush of superior and inferior bloodlines.
That’s a choice.
I saw a clip of Vance at a TurningPoint extravaganza. A lady of Asian Indian decent asked how he could be married to a Hindu and promote that if you are not a Christian, you cannot be a citizen. How was he explaining that to his kids. I thought it was a very good question. He laughed, made a joke and didn’t answer the question. I’m tired of TV characters masquerading as political figures.
To add to Gil’s list how about emphatically?
There are the American ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the writings of the founding fathers and the Constitution they produced. Then there is the American reality with all the messiness and conflict Sheila describes above plus slavery, struggles for survival, and human flaws.
The challenge has always been, and will continue to be, to make progress toward those ideals. We have come a long way and have a long way to go. I support that progress. Maybe it is time for a new political party dedicated to progress toward those ideals. Or maybe it is time for the Democratic party to rededicate itself to those ideals in contrast to the Republican party which has entirely abandoned them.
Factual history does not go away because one doesn’t like it. One can ignore it, deny it, or try to say it was different. In Trump’s case, one can even make up your own. But the facts are the facts and history is what it was.
We are exceptionally racist and misogynist. Beyond that, I don’t see anything exceptional. I look at Pakistan, whose people elected Benazir Bhutto in 1988 ,and again in 1993. Pakistan is not considered a first world country. I realize she was assassinated in 2007, but she was elected not once, but twice. We had two very well qualified female candidates running against the least qualified man in history. Both, as we all know lost!
The extreme right todays new TORIES.
I QUALIFY as the perfect American…. but only if you look at one side of my lineage
VOTER = Vote Out Tyranny, Elect Reason
Someone suggested creatively to suggest a word meme by extending VOTE to VOTER …. As in “you and”. Take out a direct hit on politics and focus on outcome.
VOTER = Vote Out Tyranny, Elect Reason
One of your best, Sheila. My question is why are Native Americans not mentioned? It was THEIR country, and it was taken away from them. Hmm – wonder how you describe and justify that? My grandmother was a Quaker from Indiana – I don’t know of her ever being unkind about anyone. She had a Master’s degree from the U. of Indiana – 1897. Imagine that – she probably knew some things – not all kind, but maybe with an ability to see a big picture. Wish we had some people in the White House now who would qualify for that ability.
I agree with Gail. This is one of your best. It’s too bad J.D. Vance, Trump, Micah Beckwith, Todd Rokita, and so many others were not enrolled in your classes.