Americans don’t study history. They relive the last news cycle.
Americans don’t study history. They relive the last news cycle.
Every generation declares the current president “the worst in history” as if the previous 240 years never happened. People who couldn’t pass a high school U.S. history exam will confidently tell you exactly where Trump ranks among 46 presidents.
Do I think Trump is unfit for the office? Often, yes.
Do I think he’s vulgar, impulsive, and frequently wrong? Absolutely.
Do I think that automatically makes him the worst president America has ever had? No. Because history is bigger than my feelings.
The presidency didn’t begin in 2017.
James Buchanan stood by while the country drifted toward civil war.
Andrew Johnson gutted Reconstruction and fought civil rights for formerly enslaved Americans.
Franklin Pierce accelerated the country’s collapse over slavery.
Warren Harding’s administration became synonymous with corruption.
Herbert Hoover’s failures during the Great Depression helped leave millions of Americans destitute and culminated in the Army forcefully driving protesting World War I veterans out of Washington. Two were shot and killed.
Those presidents didn’t just make people angry.
Their decisions changed the course of American history.
Trump deserves criticism and plenty of it. His attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his conduct surrounding January 6, and his constant attacks on democratic norms will define how historians evaluate him.
But we’re also living through his story.
Historians usually wait decades before reaching a consensus because history is measured in consequences, not headlines.
What’s exhausting isn’t disagreement. It’s the certainty.
Everything is unprecedented.
Every election is “the most important election ever.”
Every opponent is Hitler.
Every policy is the end of democracy.
Every four years Americans suddenly become constitutional scholars until the election ends.
Social media has convinced millions of people that watching political content is the same thing as understanding politics. Reading a thread isn’t the same as reading history. Sharing a meme isn’t civic engagement. A TikTok isn’t a substitute for primary sources.
The loudest people are often the least informed, yet somehow the most certain.
I’m politically moderate because I refuse to outsource my opinions to cable news, influencers, partisan commentators, or algorithm-driven outrage. I’d rather be wrong after researching something than right because my side handed me the talking points.
That apparently makes me suspicious.
Today, if you criticize Trump, Republicans think you’re brainwashed.
If you acknowledge that not every criticism of Trump is equally valid, Democrats think you’re a fascist sympathizer.
That’s not political discourse.
Research is warranted. Alarmism is not.
The irony is that the people who talk most about democracy often have no interest in disagreement. They don’t want debate. They want affirmation.
History isn’t written by whoever tweets the loudest.
And time has a habit of humbling people who mistake certainty for wisdom.
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