When this shameful era in American history is over, there will be many on the wrong side who will deny culpability.
We see this every time fascism takes root. After it is defeated, most people will not own up to their mistakes.
There will be precious few who will have the courage to say:
“I was a fool. I was taken in. I believe him and I was wrong.”
“I thought he was exaggerating, or even if he meant what he was saying, I thought someone would stop him.”
“I never would have voted for him if I thought he was going to do what he did.”
Most of his supporters will deny supporting him.
They will say:
“I never trusted him.”
“I always criticized him. I told everybody that he was bad for our country.”
“I knew when he criticized that disabled person that he wouldn’t make a good president.”
Only a precious few will tell their truth:
“He wasn’t as bad as people make him out to be. You had to be there at the time to see how bad things were. You would have supported him. He made some mistakes, but he was trying to do the right thing.”
“He could have some things differently, but I agreed with a lot of the things he said. I still agree with him. He was right about a lot of things.”
“History will vindicate him. People will realize he was the best president we ever had. He loved America and tried to save it.”
If you want to know the truth about where people stood, ask them the following questions:
· Who did you vote for in 2016, 2020, and 2024?
· What was your opinion about January 6?
· What did you think when he said that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville march and riot?
· How did you feel about Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky? How did you feel about (insert name) rape convictions? Did you have an issue with the affair, but not the convictions?
· Didn’t it seem contradictory he said he was a Christian, but didn’t act like a Christian and never attended church?
· Did his second term cabinet nominations seem reasonable to you?
· Why didn’t you believe him when he said he would do certain things?
· If you knew then what you know now, would you vote for him again?
When you and others talk about what happened, remember William Faulkner’s famous quote from Requiem for a Nun:
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”