Historical Nostalgia Is Killing the United States
Let’s redefine the narrative before it’s too late
I think every politician has said something similar to Reagan’s quotation above that “America’s best days are yet to come.”
Obviously, “best days” can mean different things to different people depending on where they are on the political and cultural spectrum. Recently, however, when politicians do this, many do so by looking backward in time, such as “Make America Great Again.”
You can hear everyday people reference “the good old days” as well. Usually, these are older folks who look back on the past as a better time. They forget though, in their privilege, the downsides of past times, such as segregation, limited rights for women, and bigotry that openly targeted outside groups of the time, such as the LGBTQIA community. For example, the movie Elvis is out now and may have the older generation thinking that the 1950s was an easier time. However, they’re forgetting that schools were segregated and even married couples might not have had access to birth control.
A classic illustration of this comes from those who still look back fondly on the Confederacy and the displays of Confederate imagery that still haunt the United States.
Mostly, this personal nostalgia is harmless. It may generate agreement, an eye roll, or a soft chuckle, to maybe a pointed conversation from an African American co-worker who isn’t afraid to point out the segregation they would have grown up in.
In the end, these “wishes” don’t impact policy or other people’s lives. But nostalgia doesn’t limit itself to the microworld. Politicians with power and large parts of society cling to a nostalgia that is holding us back.
This is called historical nostalgia, defined as a yearning for a time in the past that you have not actually experienced.
This happens all the time. Two days ago, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted -
“The greatest problem we face as a nation is the dramatic economic shift of our grandparent’s generation to our children’s generation. It is the loss of the ability to live on one income, own a home, & raise a family without debt. This is the destruction of the American dream.”
And then, she included this image from a newspaper in 1955-
She doesn’t realize that this “destruction of the American Dream” has been going on for decades because of both political parties, that her party isn’t currently passing legislation to help, or that many Americans were never brought into this part of the American Dream because of redlining.
On October 19, 2021, Trump tweeted the following when he heard that a statue of Thomas Jefferson was being removed from a public space -
Well, it’s finally happened. The late, great Thomas Jefferson, one of our most important Founding Fathers, and a principal writer of the Constitution of the United States, is being “evicted” from the magnificent New York City Council Chamber. Who would have ever thought it was possible (I did and called it long ago!).”
Of course, the idiot didn’t know his history by claiming that Jefferson was a “principal” writer of the Constitution (he wasn’t). Remember this point for later.
There are literally millions of examples of politicians, pundits, and everyday people of all persuasions who tie modern-day events and decisions with a “What Would Our Founding Fathers Do?” mentality.
Worse is the Supreme Court and its adherents to “originalism,” which helps entrench this nostalgic belief system. For clarity, here is the definition of originalism-
Originalism is a theory of the interpretation of legal texts, including the text of the Constitution. Originalists believe that the constitutional text ought to be given the original public meaning that it would have had at the time that it became law. — The Constitution Center
For kicks, the Heritage Foundation loves this adding that 21st-century decisions should consider the text, history, and tradition, while other people think it’s an outdated, and often wrong, way to interpret the Constitution.
All of this I’m considering historical nostalgia, the clinging to a 19th-century mindset based on text, history, and tradition. Furthermore, doing this is destroying progress in the United States.
We need to abandon the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
First, 18th-century texts, or documents, are a horrible way to govern 21st-century life. These documents from the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the 1000s of lesser documents all come from a time when the historical context is meaningless today. Most of these documents were written by people who owned slaves, thought slavery was needed, felt women and others were second or third-class citizens, and held onto heated religious bigotry.
Why should we let those people’s thoughts on paper still dictate to us despite how much we have changed (and still need to change) as a society? Do we need advice on women’s rights from Alexander Hamilton and all the men from the time period? Are we obligated to check with Jefferson when we push for more Civil Rights?
No.
I’m not advocating erasing these men from the history books. I would just argue that we have had smarter and more diverse people come about in recent history.
Secondly, these documents aren’t black and white. They have been interpreted and reinterpreted so many times, that instead of being a roadmap, they’re more of a reflection of what people want them to mean. This may have partially been the point to start with, but now that it’s been 200+ years, it’s too ambiguous.
As a quick example, if the Constitution were so clear cut, why aren’t all court cases 9–0? That may be simplistic, but trust me, people debate all the time on the meaning of the words in the Constitution.
Furthermore, these texts from the 19th century do not discuss important values today like privacy or environmentalism; or worse, they send mixed messages to us on topics like equality and religious freedom.
All we are doing when going back to these documents is cherry-picking what we want, contextualizing 19th-century ideas to 21st-century ideologies, and fitting a modern-day square peg into an antiquated round hole.
Next, basing today’s needs on history is also problematic. Again, I’m not talking about erasing history. I’m arguing the opposite, actually. To only use the history of our founding era is problematic.
Too many people, like Trump’s tweet from earlier, know very little about the basic facts of history, not to mention the context of that history. When I taught history, I would tell my students all the time that while they are only reading five paragraphs about this one topic, there are dozens or hundreds of books on this one topic.
It’s too easy to manipulate a historical fact to prove your point to the masses because of historical ignorance.
Not only are people ignorant of our history, but you also have a willful push by the Right to keep Americans uninformed by conflating history with Critical Race Theory (as one example) and weaponizing history in school board meetings, all in the hopes of keeping little white children from feeling bad.
Here is a recent example, Fox News had a guest on its show lamenting the fact that his tour of Monticello was dominated by slave life. Really?
Samual Alito’s recent opinion overturning Roe v. Wade uses a jurist from the 17th century to help make his case (a man who believed in marital rape and witches). Certainly, the history of women’s reproductive health of the 1950s and 1960s matters, too?
Another argument Alito uses for the history of abortion mixes in the text of the Constitution by claiming that abortion isn’t in the constitution-
Then, in 1973, this Court decided Roe v. Wade. Even though the Constitution makes no mention of abortion, the Court held that it confers a broad right to obtain one. — Page 9, Alito Opinion
Do you know what else isn’t written in the Constitution? Judicial Review! But I’m sure Alito doesn’t see inconvenient fact as writing himself out of a job, nor should it. Here are other things not in the Constitution: women, the Internet, birth control. What else is at stake?
Alito also writes:
The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions. On the contrary, an unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment persisted from the earliest days of the common law until 1973. — Page 33, Alito Opinion
Alito also uses the time period of the 14th Amendment as to what makes historical precedent. That’s 1868. 154 years ago.
There is nothing wrong with using historical precedent. But let’s not pretend history ended prior to the invention of the car.
To move forward as a nation, we can’t venerate the mythology of the United States above the needs of today. We need to make modern-day decisions knowing the full context of history, which includes what happened last week.
Lastly, traditions. But what does that even mean? Are we talking about things like Freedom of Speech which has been reinterpreted 1000 times or our once-held belief of the peaceful transition of power every 4 years?
Yes, in the 246 years since declaring independence, we have had many traditions. Some are good, and some are bad. Some are old, and yes, some are new. One tradition that the Heritage Foundation notes is “debating, persuading and deciding contentious issues directly or through their elected representatives.”
Great! That’s a good one. But again, are we just picking the ones we like? What about making modern decisions knowing ALL our traditions, which include: racism, religious intolerance, and school shootings?
Moving Forward
Let’s keep studying the past. We shouldn’t forget George Washington and the bunch, but we can’t do mental gymnastics anymore to divine what our Founding Fathers want us to do with online privacy, transgendered rights, or global warming.
I know this task is impossible. It would require rewriting our Constitution. Which ain’t happening. Even the idea of a new Amendment seems impossible.
Also, I’m not trying to prop up one person as a model for modern thought. It has to be an inclusive movement that seeks out diverse thoughts.
But there are historical examples that we can integrate into our national conversation.
Historical Examples
It’s doubtful that we can gather up a Constitutional Convention to make the necessary shift in thinking the USA needs to move forward. But, we can create movements that can replace our historical nostalgia.
In July of 1848, women from across the United States gathered for the Seneca Falls Convention with the goal to “discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” This helped launch the Women’s Rights Movement. They also updated the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson to state the goals they wanted in the mid-19th century.
The 1933 Ratifying Conventions of the states to adopt the 21st Amendment which would repeal the 18th Amendment. This is a constitutional provision for creating amendments and this has been the only time in US History that it’s been done.
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” was given and has remained a favorite for our woke 21st century Republicans.
A President with a backbone. Presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Truman didn’t create historic change without being willing to crack some eggs. But today’s polarized nature of congress makes this idea very unlikely. We’d need to undo gerrymandering, re-establish voting rights, and introduce new voting tools like ranked-choice voting to get that done.
The point is that we have had movements in the past that have initiated change and that we can start new movements today. We can hold conventions across the country, with a wide variety of beliefs, to come out with new ideas and demands that separate us from our Founding Fathers. Five years from now, we can be debating ideas from 2022 instead of 1789.
We can address specific modern issues like abortion, LGBTQIA rights, health care, global warming, and other social issues that divide us. We can address structural issues like voting rights, electoral processes, separation of church and state, campaign finance, and other similar topics that create the mass gridlock of progress that currently holds us back.
We are not just stagnant, we are moving backward as a nation. Are we becoming a real-world Gilead? I hope not.
I started this post with the idea that politicians plead for votes by saying that better days are ahead. In the book “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the Commander says in Chapter 32 -
“Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.”
With the promise of MAGA, I would reword this as —
Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for MOST.”
Let’s really move forward to make the United States better. To do that, we need to get past this harmful use of historical nostalgia.
