As Donald Trump and his Kool-Aid intoxicated minions led by Elon Musk rip apart the progressive democratic values of the last 90 years, it would be instructional to ponder the values of the prior 90 years, from 1843-1933, and how they serve as a template for events in 2025.
Twin original sins darkened our history: slavery and the near annihilation of Indigenous Peoples, their culture and their major sustenance, buffalo. Even after the Civil War “freed” Blacks slaves, Jim Crow laws kept them segregated and deprived of basic rights enjoyed by White Americans. Meanwhile, treaties that protected Indigenous Peoples were ignored, their land usurped, their relocation forced.
Discrimination was not confined to African-Americans and Indigenous Peoples. Each successive wave of destitute immigrants seeking a better life than in their homelands—the Irish, Italian, Chinese, southern and eastern Europeans, and Jews—faced bias in housing, employment, education and the ability to attain citizenship.
The forceful taking of land extended beyond the legal acquisition of the Louisiana Territory from France, Florida from Spain, Alaska from Russia, the Virgin Islands from Denmark, the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico. Texas violently broke away from Mexico and was later annexed by the United States. The Mexican-American War ended with the U.S. gaining territory that included all of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming.
The 19th century was a period of industrialization brought about by the rapid expansion of the railroad, communication through the telegraph and telephone, and electricity. It was an age of Robber Barons accumulating wealth beyond the dreams of the masses who worked at the pleasure of their employer, with no minimum wage, no union protecting them, no safety standards and no funds set aside for their retirement.
Pollution of the air, waterways and land, few if any public health standards, little compulsory education, and no national parks until Teddy Roosevelt was president at the turn of the 20th century, characterized the era.
Trump is aggressively wiping away the legacies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and subsequent legislation passed by Democratic and even Republican administrations to safeguard our planet and its inhabitants. Under Trump, America no longer will be the champion of good versus evil, philanthropy versus selfishness and greed, democracy versus autocracy and oligarchy, community versus isolation.
We have two 90-year eras showcasing a dichotomy of bygone values. Despite Trump’s actions, which era we will live under for the next 90 years has not yet been decided.
