Dem
47
GOP
53
This administration is a big fan of certain policies right out of Soviet Russia. For example, government ownership of the means of production—Joseph Stalin would certainly have approved of the various deals wherein the federal government took control of portions of various tech companies. Similarly, there is an old Soviet joke that goes, "The future is certain, it is only the past that is unpredictable." That, of course, is a reference to the tendency of each Soviet leader to re-write the history books to make their premiership look better, and their predecessors' premierships look worse. Trump is a big fan of this practice, too.
The National Park Service is, of course, part of the executive branch. That means that if Trump or one of his underlings says a change has to be made at any of the sites run by that agency, then a change has to be made. A couple of weeks ago, because MAGA fee-fees are hurt by the thought that maybe, just maybe, the United States once benefited from slave labor, the administration ordered that a display in Independence National Historical Park, which talked about the role of enslaved people in the construction of the buildings there, be removed. Now, all you see is empty bolt holes and darkened spots on the wall where the exhibits once stood.
The statement this makes, with the exhibits obviously missing, may be a different one than the administration intends. Recall that the reason that Malcolm Little changed his name to Malcolm X was to make clear that his real last name is unknown, because his culture and his history had been erased by the white man. The current situation at Independence National Historical Park makes an awfully similar statement. In any case, the city of Philadelphia has sued to try to bring the exhibits back.
Yesterday, the administration made a somewhat similar move. Among the many properties that Park Service administers is the Stonewall National Monument, which pays tribute to the Stonewall Inn, and thus to the start of the modern gay rights movement. As you might imagine, there are some rainbow gay pride flags flying there. Or, at least there were. As of yesterday, they were taken down on orders from the White House.
One might think that a White House that thinks it is entitled to, for example, rename the Kennedy Center on a whim would decide that it is also empowered to shut down sites like the Stonewall National Monument. But just removing the flags? That's a pretty feeble move (actually, the phrase that first came to mind is "pencil di**," but this is a family-friendly blog). Meanwhile, Stonewall is right in the middle of one of the bluest parts of New York City (Greenwich Village). We suspect that if you went there yesterday, and counted the number of rainbow flags you could see, and that if you went there next week, and counted again, the total would double, or maybe even triple. After all, Trump can't order private citizens to take down whatever flags they choose to display on their residences and their businesses. Well, he can issue an order to them to do so, only they won't obey.
Moving along, Christopher Columbus was once among America's greatest heroes. That is why the national capital is named for him and George Washington. He was arguably an even greater hero in 1892 when, at the tail end of the "Manifest Destiny" era, the U.S. celebrated him and itself at the World's Columbian Exposition. Since then, his star has fallen pretty far, pretty fast. Not only did he initiate the Age of Exploration, which was disastrous for the Native Americans, he was also an incredibly cruel man who enslaved, killed and maimed countless Natives without a second thought. And it is not just modern sensibilities that are offended by his actions; even many of Columbus' contemporaries thought he went way too far, which is why he eventually lost his job as Governor of the Indies.
Anyhow, Trump doesn't like slavery, and he doesn't like gay pride, but apparently he is just fine and dandy with enslavers, including violent ones. It is also worth noting that Columbus suborned rape, and participated in sex trafficking, so maybe that was the clincher. Whatever the case may be, Trump announced that a statue of Columbus will be installed at the White House. It is, in fact, the same statue that used to be on display in Baltimore, and then was smashed up and dumped into the harbor during the George Floyd protests. The President claimed that he hopes this will attract Italian-American voters to the GOP banner.
[Sidebar: On Wednesday of last week, (Z) lectured in his California history class about how Christopher Columbus was once a great American hero, but that people don't build statues of him anymore because he's now seen as a racist, and an imperialist and an enslaver. And, on that same day, in his U.S. history class, he lectured about the dehumanization of Black Americans as an aspect of the slave system, and how it was common back then to depict Black people as animals, but that it's not done anymore because it's seen as racist. That night, Trump announced the Columbus statue. The next day, he posted the video with the Obamas as apes. Could somebody be listening in on (Z)'s classes?]
Our last rewriting-the-past news item, for today, involves Vice President J.D. Vance. One of these days, we will write an item on Vance's principles—if he ever decides to adopt any. Vance is on an international trip, and as part of that, paid a 2-day visit to Armenia. He took a tour of the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial, and then someone posted a message to his Twitter account that read, in part, that his visit was meant to "honor the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide."
Nobody seriously doubts that the Armenian genocide took place. It is as much a historical certainty as, well, slavery. Still, in the same way that acknowledging slavery hurts the fee-fees of some Americans, acknowledging the Armenian genocide hurts the fee-fees of some Turks. That includes the Turkish government, whose official position is that the Armenian Genocide never happened. So, despite the fact that the United States officially recognizes the Armenian genocide (though it took until Joe Biden's presidency for that to happen), Vance meekly deleted the tweet.
Presumably, MAGA voters (or Turkish politicians) hear about these things, and are pleased that Trump is prioritizing the story of straight, white men and is pushing everything else back into the shadows. All (Z) knows for sure is that it makes his job a lot easier. All of a sudden this goes from "people who died hundreds of years ago" to "forbidden historical knowledge." It's like a historical version of the Streisand effect. So, in a strange way, Trump's almost an ally to history educators. (Z)