TRUMP’S RISE IS A TEACHABLE MOMENT
In at least a couple of lunch spots Friday afternoon, the crowds didn’t seem too pumped up about watching a reality television show star ascend to the highest office in the land.
At the Applebee’s restaurant on Sycamore View Road, diners seemed more engrossed in business and work conversations than in watching Donald Trump’s inauguration on any of the four television screens that were showing it.
And at the Applebee’s on Union Avenue, the only channels being watched were the sports channels.
Yet as this history was being shrugged off by some, it was being dissected, cheered and lamented by others.
This was all happening at the University of Memphis, where history professors Scott Marler and Andrew Daily decided that Trump’s inauguration was a good time to have a teach-in about whether his election mirrored past descents into fascism and authoritarianism.
Actually, the students decided for them, Marler said,
“After the election, some students were upset and confused, and wanted to know more context, and gain the expertise to learn more,” Marler told me.
So on the day of Trump’s inauguration, around 20 students came to Mitchell Hall to gain that context through learning about historical parallels to the rise of Trump.
Things like the anti-Semitism that accompanied Mussolini’s rise and the current wave of threats toward Jewish institutions and Jewish journalists since the rise of Trump.
Things like how Trump’s rise reflects similar strains of misogyny and xenophobia that the nation saw in the 1920s and 1930s, and how much of it started with crises in capitalism; of people believing the system wasn’t working for them and looking for others to blame.
“Fascist movements broke through in the 1930s, even in countries with strong democratic traditions,” Daily said.
“Which makes the current moment concerning to me.” It was also concerning to Brittany Batcheler. “I’m 19 years old, and coming into this election and paying attention to what they’re saying, it’s something that I’m scared of, because this level of ferocity is affecting the whole world,” she said.
“Seeing all this happen, in a country where I want to be successful in, it’s scary.
“It’s very scary because that’s not what I want to grow up into. I don’t want to grow up into a place where everyone is breaking each other down.”
Blake Cauble, however, wasn’t scared at all.
Cauble, who proudly wore his “Make America Great Again” cap, and a T-shirt extolling Ronald Reagan, said he believed the nationalism that Trump inspired will bolster competition and strengthen capitalism.
He also said that he was excited about Trump’s presidency because, among other things, the end of the Affordable Care Act would mean less restrictions on small business.
“I’m excited because I won’t have to subsidize people on Obamacare,” said Cauble, 22.
When asked what he would do if he ever needed it, he said: “I believe in nature. If I die and I don’t have Obamacare, then that’s nature.” Wow. But to other students, the factors that led to Trump’s rise were eerily close to factors that led to repressive governments in the past. And that worries them. “I’m nervous,” Katie Hanna, 22, said. “As a history student, I see a lot of disturbing parallels, and they all worry me.”
Gabriel Monske, 27, said he worried that Russia, which has been influencing authoritarianism around the world, could possibly influence Trump in the same way.
“They are professional politicians who have been doing this for a long time, and they know how to puppeteer,” said Monske, who is from Russia.
It was interesting, to say the least, seeing the contrasts in reactions to Trump’s inauguration. I remember back in 2008, when
be successful in, it’s scary.”
Barack Obama was inaugurated, restaurants had lots of people watching. Washington, D.C., was filled with celebrants, not protesters.
And most conversations about Obama’s ascendency were about hope and not dread. But not with Trump. That’s why it will continue to be important to have conversations such as the one that Marler and Daily led.
Because even if everyone doesn’t agree, being able to put it all into an historical context can in many ways, alleviate the fears.
That’s because history holds lessons that people don’t have to repeat.
And the more people — and especially young people — understand what those lessons are, the less chance of that happening.
And the more chance of people being mobilized to not let it happen.