“Trump and History: Ignorance and Denial,” by GLC Director David Blight

May 25, 2017

Ever since Donald Trump became President I have believed his greatest threat to our society and to our democracy is not necessarily his authoritarianism, but his essential ignorance - of history, of policy, of political process, of the Constitution. Saying that if Andrew Jackson had been around we might not have had the Civil War is like saying that one strong, aggressive leader can shape, prevent, or move history however he wishes well into the future. Leadership does matter in crises.  It truly mattered that Abraham Lincoln was President in 1861 and not Stephen Douglas or John C. Breckinridge.  It truly mattered that Franklin Roosevelt won the election of 1932 and at least had a new plan to help the country fight its way out of the Great Depression. It truly mattered that John Kennedy and a small group around him were determined to act short of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Those three Presidents and the advisors around them were students of history in their own ways.  Presidents adrift without historical knowledge are dangerous.

Read the full article at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center