A Ringside Seat on American History
What narrative will be written about the 2016 presidential campaign after it is over? How will history remember the year 2016 in American politics?
Whatever happens in November, some pundits might say that the results were inevitable and predictable. So often, we look back on history and think that events were inevitable. Of course George Washington’s army beat the mighty British. Of course, Reagan beat Carter or Obama beat McCain. Looking back, we all saw that coming; only we really didn’t.
One of the most fascinating aspects of history is that nothing is inevitable. The people who lived through historic times did not know how things would eventually turn out. We are living through unprecedented, historic times right now. People not yet born will read books about and study the 2016 presidential campaign with great fascination.
What story will they read? One narrative is that Donald Trump, a bombastic business leader with no political experience, defied all predictions from establishment figures, and defeated two sitting U.S. senators among others to win the Republican nomination. Then, he went on to beat the epitome of an establishment candidate, the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The nation was not ready for a female president, certainly not one with Clinton’s baggage.
Trump used his celebrity and personality to start a movement to make American great again, and unified an angry electorate from coast to coast. He rode the momentum of that movement all the way to the White House, rewriting the playbook on how to win elections in the process.
The other narrative is that Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman elected president. Given her vast experience from working on social justice issues as a student to being First Lady, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State, she was more qualified than many men who had won the nation’s highest office. Her election was assured when the Republican Party made the egregious error of nominating Donald Trump, an egomaniac whose only true principle was his devotion to his own greatness.
Given the demographic changes in the electorate in 2008 and 2012 that helped elect Barack Obama, as more Latinos and African Americans joined with progressive whites to form a majority, Clinton’s win in 2016 was easy to predict. Trump’s attacks on women, minorities, immigrants, Muslims, and others helped Clinton coast to victory in November.
Only one of these narratives will come true. We will know which one in only eight months. We enjoy studying interesting times in history, but it is good to acknowledge that all of us are living through one of the most historic presidential elections in our lifetime.
One day in the near future, historians, pundits, journalists, political junkies and others will look back on the 2016 election and tell one of the narratives above. The result will appear inevitable in the retelling just as the history we learn today, like the Allied victory in World War II, looks inevitable in hindsight.
So now, when the result is uncertain, when we don’t know how the presidential election will end, when Democrats and a number of prominent Republicans can’t imagine a President Trump, when many Republicans believe Hillary Clinton’s election would be ruinous to the country, pull up a ringside seat and watch history in the making. The result is inevitable, right?
Brother Rogers works for the Stennis Center for Public Service and is a guest columnist.
Whatever happens in November, some pundits might say that the results were inevitable and predictable. So often, we look back on history and think that events were inevitable. Of course George Washington’s army beat the mighty British. Of course, Reagan beat Carter or Obama beat McCain. Looking back, we all saw that coming; only we really didn’t.
One of the most fascinating aspects of history is that nothing is inevitable. The people who lived through historic times did not know how things would eventually turn out. We are living through unprecedented, historic times right now. People not yet born will read books about and study the 2016 presidential campaign with great fascination.
What story will they read? One narrative is that Donald Trump, a bombastic business leader with no political experience, defied all predictions from establishment figures, and defeated two sitting U.S. senators among others to win the Republican nomination. Then, he went on to beat the epitome of an establishment candidate, the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The nation was not ready for a female president, certainly not one with Clinton’s baggage.
Trump used his celebrity and personality to start a movement to make American great again, and unified an angry electorate from coast to coast. He rode the momentum of that movement all the way to the White House, rewriting the playbook on how to win elections in the process.
The other narrative is that Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman elected president. Given her vast experience from working on social justice issues as a student to being First Lady, a U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State, she was more qualified than many men who had won the nation’s highest office. Her election was assured when the Republican Party made the egregious error of nominating Donald Trump, an egomaniac whose only true principle was his devotion to his own greatness.
Given the demographic changes in the electorate in 2008 and 2012 that helped elect Barack Obama, as more Latinos and African Americans joined with progressive whites to form a majority, Clinton’s win in 2016 was easy to predict. Trump’s attacks on women, minorities, immigrants, Muslims, and others helped Clinton coast to victory in November.
Only one of these narratives will come true. We will know which one in only eight months. We enjoy studying interesting times in history, but it is good to acknowledge that all of us are living through one of the most historic presidential elections in our lifetime.
One day in the near future, historians, pundits, journalists, political junkies and others will look back on the 2016 election and tell one of the narratives above. The result will appear inevitable in the retelling just as the history we learn today, like the Allied victory in World War II, looks inevitable in hindsight.
So now, when the result is uncertain, when we don’t know how the presidential election will end, when Democrats and a number of prominent Republicans can’t imagine a President Trump, when many Republicans believe Hillary Clinton’s election would be ruinous to the country, pull up a ringside seat and watch history in the making. The result is inevitable, right?
Brother Rogers works for the Stennis Center for Public Service and is a guest columnist.