Thread by @tzimmer_history

“History will not be kind…” - “History will judge…” - “History will…” Stop.

What “history” will have to say about today’s Republican Party depends to a large degree on what happens here, now. “History” is not coming to the rescue of American democracy. That’s up to us.

https://twitter.com/repadamschiff/status/1447999566301761541

I know why people keep saying this: “History will be our judge.” As a rhetorical device, it lends more weight to the message. And I understand the longing for some form of higher justice and the hope that “history” might be able to deliver it.

But that’s not how it works. What we refer to as “history” is a never-ending struggle, an always-raging debate on the past, informed, shaped, and fueled by ever-changing sensibilities and conflicts in the present.

A certain narrative about the past may gain the upper hand for a while, and certain people will hopefully get the criticism they deserve. But that’s not at all guaranteed. Don’t look to “history” to provide some form of eternal moral truth.

The “history” that emerges victorious might just be a version of the past that best serves the interests of those on power. Until very recently, “history” - at least as it was remembered by a broader public - judged Robert E. Lee as a noble man and a valiant defender of his home.

Oh yes, things have begun to change, and eventually many people - “history,” perhaps - have come to judge Lee differently, as a traitor who chose to betray his country in order to defend the right to enslave human beings.

But it took about 150 years for that to happen, and historical “justice,” if we want to call it that, didn’t come naturally - it was the result of a long and arduous struggle, the result of which was never preordained and might not last.

Whatever “history” will have to say about the present won’t be the result of some higher power making a moral judgement. There is always a chance that the “history” future generations will teach might differ significantly from the judgment we desire.

There is a version of the future in which “history” presents Ashli Babbitt as a martyr. If the ongoing authoritarian assault on American democracy succeeds, the insurrectionists of January 6 will absolutely become heroes and role models.

You think that sounds far-fetched? I don’t think it does. We live in a country that just celebrated “Columbus Day,” after all - a country in which white nationalists in position of political power demand we revere Columbus as an “American hero.”

https://twitter.com/TheTattooedProf/status/1447679618748755968

So, no: Don’t count on history to “judge,” and certainly don’t wait for it to deliver justice. That’s on us, now. No one is coming to our rescue, certainly not “history.” Once democracy is gone, it’s gone. It is up to us to protect and preserve it. Right here, right now.