Officials would see Trump as a threat to the US 2:23
EDITOR'S NOTE: Julian Zelizer, CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the book, "Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party ”, coming out soon. Follow him on Twitter: @julianzelizer. The opinions expressed in this comment are yours. See more opinion at CNNe.com/opinion.
(CNN) - Friday night in South Dakota, President Donald Trump delivered his July 4 weekend speech on the monuments. Standing before the presidents carved on Mount Rushmore, Trump criticized the "radical assault" on the American way of life that, according to him, comes from the left. His opponents have launched, he said, a "ruthless campaign to erase our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."
The argument itself has very little weight. Trump is wrong if he thinks that engaging seriously in the complex realities of our nation's past is an act to erase our history. The people who deny that racism is embedded in the evolution of our democracy are the ones who are erasing our history.
- Trump's failure to manage the pandemic is now directly affecting his reelection campaign
Loving and understanding this country means dealing with the nuances of our former leaders, our policies, and our culture. President Abraham Lincoln, who saw the nation literally torn apart by the institution of slavery, would be the first to admit the need to account for our national failures (by the way, its impact on this country is also under scrutiny due to his policies. detrimental to Native Americans).
There is a reason why President Trump is focusing on the controversy surrounding the monuments of important historical figures who supported slavery or racism. It is his latest effort to use culture wars as a means of bridging the huge gap between his administration's economic policies and the basic needs of middle-class Americans.
Since Ronald Reagan, Republican presidents have had to reconcile their own economic policies, which largely benefit businesses and the wealthy, with the growing populist rhetoric to which their base responds.
In their new book, "Let Them Eat Tweets," political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson cunningly narrate the ways in which the Republican Party has attempted to navigate this fundamental contradiction. While some conservatives in other countries have moved conciliatory towards the center and agreed to raise taxes to support a social safety net, the Republican Party has denied this strategy in favor of dividing the electorate through incendiary social rhetoric to rally supporters who would otherwise find Democrats' economic policies more attractive.
According to Bolton, Trump asked Xi for help for re-election 1:28President Trump has mastered this political approach. Since taking office, he has not pushed for many policies aimed at improving the economic circumstances of struggling middle-class Americans. Its recipe for supply-side tax cuts and deregulation continues a decades-long trend that has helped fuel economic division and middle-class insecurity.
Your response to the pandemic has also put millions of working Americans at risk. By ignoring public health experts, putting their weight behind quick reopens, taunting the use of face masks, and minimizing the need for social distancing, we are now facing an increase in covid-19 cases and looking at the possibility. very real of another national emergency shutdown.
The long-term economic effects would be devastating. Companies that survived the first round may not go through another shutdown. And then there are the front-line workers who will be forced to continue working in dangerous conditions. Many of her children, who need education to make financial progress, could be left behind if schools don't reopen in the fall. If the President had taken active steps to contain the coronavirus and had achieved a slow and cautious reopening, we could have joined the list of nations that are currently on the path to economic recovery.
Fanning the monuments controversy is the latest rhetorical polemic from a president whose economic policies are failing working-class and middle-class Americans. In doing so, President Trump revealed his 2020 campaign strategy: He will do everything possible to exploit cultural tensions in an attempt to overcome the fact that so many Americans would answer Reagan's famous question: “Are you better than you were four? years?" with a resounding "no".
Donald Trump reelection
