“History Will Not Be Kind.”
Winston Churchill once said, “history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” Now, Churchill was a pretty good (amateur) historian, and he did write a lot history (as well as making it), but history has nonetheless not been kind to him.
I am pretty sure that Adam Schiff had Churchill in mind when he told the Senate this afternoon that “History will not be kind to Donald Trump” (you have to scroll down a bit). Of course Schiff doesn’t think the Great Orange Shitgibbon is any kind of writer (see The Art of the Deal), much less a historian, but it’s Churchill’s hubris that’s the point. And he also warned the Senators that history is watching them, too.
“If you find that the House has proved its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history,” Schiff said. “But if you find the courage to stand up to him … your place will be among the Davids who took on Goliath.”
The GOP and the GOS are counting on control of the media, the power of Fox News, and the willful blindness and deafness of their followers, to keep history from having its say. It’s up to us to make sure they don’t get away with it.
As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m doing some intensive study of the history of religion. One of the things I’ve come to realize is just how much of religion is founded on denial of reality. For almost 2000 years, Christians persecuted Jews largely because Jews, by our continued existence, refute the claims of the New Testament. I see some of that same denial — and threatened persecution — happening here. It is no accident that many of Trump’s backers are religious fundamentalists who are willing to deny the reality of Trump’s immorality and how his actions run contrary to their founder’s admonishments in order to gain and keep power for themselves. The Party of Trump has many of the stigmata of religious fundamentalism.
History will triumph. I just don’t want it taking so long this time.
