We cannot change history, but we can insist on ‘alternative facts’ or merely forget the facts that do not fit with our version of events. The Governor of Florida and ex-presidential-candidate, Ron DeSantis, declared that America is not a racist country. The former Governor of South Carolina and soon-to-be-ex-presidential-candidate, Nikki Haley, declared that the United States has never been a racist country. These assertions would be amusing if these politicians were auditioning for leading roles in the latest remake of Dumb and Dumber, but they allegedly hoped to be the President of the United States.
The former President has demonstrated no cognitive superiority over these two candidates. Most recently, he confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi in recounting his version of events on January 6, 2021, and repeatedly confused President Biden with President Obama in discussing his own Presidency. The former President has yet to comment in depth on America’s brutal history of race relations and ethnic conflicts, but he did insist that he and he alone was responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade and making abortion largely inaccessible in much of America. Many Americans thought the Supreme Court was responsible for that reversal of a privacy decision. Yet another ‘alternative fact’ has been born in this year of campaign claims.
Nikki Haley noted that she was not even in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, but those who believe the former President won “re-election by a landslide” will undoubtedly believe that Governor Haley simply forgot that she was in the Capitol and in charge of congressional security during the insurrection on January 6. Memory lapses also appear to be a contagious problem among the Senators and Congresspeople who denounced the former President during the week after the attack on the Capitol building but who now endorse him, even as he insists that he will visit “retribution” upon those who opposed him and hopes to wield the power of a “dictator” for at least a day.
Memory problems in Washington, D.C. are so pervasive that we should check the water supply for viruses that cause dementia. High lead levels or widespread iodine deficiencies are alternative explanations for the sudden explosion of alternative facts. Amnesia has become a national problem. Millions of voters have dismissed the January 6 insurrection as nothing more than an enthusiastic crowd voicing their support for the former President. The apparent violence on January 6, these millions insist, was not a concerted effort to frustrate the peaceful transfer of power at the highest level of the American government.
Denying racism in America is an especially worrisome strategy. It may appease the consciences of the perpetrators of hate crimes and of their descendants, but it does not rid our nation of a festering evil. Who amongst us has not seen unapologetic efforts to diminish the opportunities offered to, decrease the resources available for, or amplify the penalties imposed upon people of a specific color, religion, or national origin? Racism is and always has been a problem in the United States. Any leader or aspiring politician who denies this reality risks catapulting our republic back in time to an era of increasing violence and chaos.
One might jest that the Governors of Southern states do not realize that America has a history of racism because so many books that might upset their white constituents have been banned. But this is no joke. If the future chief executive of our country does not realize or remember that racial inequality and injustice antedated the Declaration of Independence and survived the Civil War [Yes, Nikki, it was about slavery], that President will face consequences similar to those experienced by James Buchanan, the President in 1860 who insisted that racial injustice was not a problem. South Carolina, the state for which Nikki Haley was Governor, announced to President Buchanan that there was trouble in the Palmetto state by firing on Fort Sumter and seceding from the Union.
Do our candidates need remedial history classes? Must we relive the chaos of the 1960s or the state sponsored apartheid from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to remind them of what lynchings, red-lining, race-based gerrymandering, voter exclusion, prisoner rentals, etc. are?
Our national leaders have a long history of memory challenges. Thomas Jefferson described slavery as a “moral depravity” and a “hideous blot” on our nation. Nonetheless, he held hundreds of people as slaves throughout his life. He gave new meaning to “Founding Father” by impregnating Sally Hemings, his daughter’s companion and his slave, when she was just fourteen years old. Despite providing Jefferson with six children, four of whom survived to adulthood, Sally remained a slave even after Jefferson died.
Despite the memory problems evident in the candidates seeking high office, many of us will vote for change in November, 2024. There is an inextinguishable hope in America that changing the people in elected offices will improve the lives of the voters. Unfortunately, our leaders are reluctant to lead. They often seek election and re-election by following the mandates and preferences of their most powerful or wealthy supporters. By the time they have the political backing to seek national office, they have often forgotten what their objectives were when they entered the competition, unless, of course, their objective always was to garner wealth, prestige, and power.
Dr. Lechtenberg is an Easton resident who graduated from Tufts University and Tufts Medical School in Massachusetts and subsequently trained at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He worked as a neurologist at several New York Hospitals, including Kings County and The Long Island College Hospital, while maintaining a private practice, teaching at SUNY Downstate Medical School, and publishing 15 books on a variety of medical topics. He worked in drug development in the U.S., as well as in England, Germany, and France.
