Many of history’s great movers and shakers exploited resentment to build a power base.
Lenin and Hitler fall in this category. Each drove a revolution that overthrew an existing order, albeit one weakened by events they didn’t precipitate or control. But their revolutions, tied as they were to past resentments grown out of past events, couldn’t free themselves from the past and took their societies backwards.
Similarly, Trump’s MAGA movement is built on resentment. Its base is people who feel left behind as American society evolves. MAGA is a revolution, but one that’s backward looking; it is fundamentally anti-progress.
Think of a snail climbing a pole. It climbs up three feet, then slides back two feet; up three feet, back two feet. The snail eventually will reach the top of the pole, but in three times the time you expected. History is like that; a process of moving forward and backsliding, rather than a smooth straight path forward. MAGA is the backsliding phase of the process.
When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) calls for a “national divorce” and says, “We need to separate by red states and blue states” (see story here), she’s trying to reopen a chapter which closed over 150 years ago. That’s backsliding, not progress toward a stronger society.
The lessons of history are clear that backsliders don’t produce progress beneficial to societies. They are a drag on efforts to improve our condition. Voting for a Trump or Greene is voting to be governed by resentment, tethered to the dark side of past history, and to deny the possibility of improvement. Backsliding doesn’t get you to the top of the pole; it moves you farther from it.
America’s great cities, skyscrapers, bridges, and industries were built with a “can do” spirit and a belief in progress. Nothing will be gained from the politics of going backwards and seeking to reinstate elements of the past we’re trying to escape from.