To Trump, nothing is sacred
These 433 treasures — along with our rich diversity of
national museums and historical sites — each have their own stories to tell.
But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, for together they express
America’s egalitarian spirit and “little-d” democratic possibilities, urging us
to keep pushing for economic fairness and social justice for all.
And that’s exactly why Trump and his cabal of moneyed elites
and right-wing extremists are out to purge, erase, and officially censor the
parks’ historical presentations. After all, it’s hard to impose plutocratic
autocracy if such tangible examples of historic truth and democratic rebellion
are openly displayed!
Thus, as dictated by the GOP’s secretive anti-democracy
clique, Project 2025, Trump’s ideological Thought Police have set themselves up
as an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” to sanitize and Disney-fy the telling of
our people’s real history.
This is an actual ad posted by ICE showing their
keen grasp of American history
For example, Trump complains that parks and museums hurt America’s self-image by telling “how bad slavery was.”
Donald, that’s not an image — its reality. It’s as central to our national character as our historic commitment to equality. And the explosive conflict between ugly repression and flowering egalitarianism is ever present today.Consider the push by Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) and others
in the GOP’s Christian Nationalist movement to deny
the unifying principle that “all men are created equal.”
There’s not enough whitewash in the world to cover up the deep ugliness of slavery, and it’s self-destructive for the government to try. The fundamental purpose of recording our shared history is to learn from it.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio
commentator, writer, and public speaker. This op-ed was distributed by
OtherWords.org.
