I want you and your readers to know that everything is very much not okay right now. Many of you might feel that already and many of you might know that already. And for many, you may have not even noticed or thought about the current moment and its precariousness. But as a historian of US history and a faculty member who takes very seriously our mission to “educate global citizens to live responsibly in an interdependent world,” I am here to tell you that things are not normal or stable or tenable.
Since taking office, the Trump Administration has continued and expanded its attacks on our most exploitable communities, including targeting and attacking migrant groups and stripping federal protections for the trans community. Attacks have come in the form of ICE raids throughout the United States–where we have already seen American citizens captured for speaking Spanish in public and in the cruelest of twists, indigenous Americans having their status as Americans doubted. History gives us some lessons here as mass expulsion campaigns have often also targeted American citizens, including the forced deportation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression.
Attacks have come in the form of executive orders targeting the trans community, ranging from guidelines to ban individuals from having their gender identity recognized on federal documents such as passports and statements setting the stage for banning trans people from openly serving in the military.
The President–whose role is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”–signed an Executive Order denying the Fourteenth Amendment, the established right of birthright citizenship. The federal judge who temporarily blocked this order–a judge appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan–referred to the attempt as “blatantly unconstitutional” and explained that he had “difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order.” The Fourteenth Amendment is vital to our history as it ended race-based qualifications for citizenship for those born in the United States and is as important if not more important a moment in our history as the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights. And the president wants this to end. This is really not normal or ok.
The federal government is being broken with coordinated attacks led by Elon Musk–who spent the inauguration flashing Nazi salutes to smiling, gathered supporters. As a Jewish-American this moment hit particularly hard and only felt worse two weeks later as I saw a middle schooler walking home from school flashing the same salute as his friends laughed but tried to pull his arm down, knowing exactly what was going on. Public Nazi salutes are not normal.
Musk and his cronies have already stopped the flow of federal funds to vital programs including USAID which works tirelessly for humanitarian causes worldwide, and has interrupted federal funding for programs ranging from the National Institutes of Health, to refugee resettlement, and housing. To be clear–this is all illegal and unconstitutional, and so far federal judges have agreed that these are clear violations of the rule of law and constitutional order. Congress by definition controls federal spending and sets budgets. Yet the attacks on our system continue.
But of course, that is the point. Upon entering office Trump pardoned violent insurrectionists–an insurrection that he encouraged–who now walk the streets free of their crimes of trying to overthrow a free and fair election, an unbroken tradition our country has enjoyed from George Washington forward. The people who proudly beat Capitol police and flew the stars-and-bars of white supremacy in the halls of our nation’s capital now walk the streets unpunished and encouraged to continue their particular violent form of white supremacy. Some of these people even were on stage at Trump rallies after being freed.
None of this is normal. And none of this is ok.
History teaches us that open, democratic systems die not from cartoonishly evil villains who wield uncontrollable power, but from power hungry megalomaniacs whose desire for dominance and control is either tacitly or passively approved by culture at large. I will not be counted amongst those who watch idly. To our communities on campus who are currently feeling threatened or unsafe or uncared for: please know that you are loved, cared for, seen and valued. Trans students, immigrant students, queer students, students of color–you are a vital part of what makes Marywood great and you are a vital part of what makes America great. Not wealthy billionaires whose riches came through apartheid in South Africa. And not bigots who deny your existence. You are what makes America great.
Adam D. Shprintzen, PhD
Associate Professor, History
Marywood University
