Rewriting history
History is sometimes (re)written by the losers
In 1989 the Danish Justice Minister Erik Ninn-Hansen resigned as the result of a scandal where he was found to be ultimately responsible for an illegal practice regarding refugees from Sri Lanka. As the scandal broke, he reportedly commented (in my translation): “There’ll be a queue at the sink now”, meaning people would be busy washing their hands of the whole affair.
History may be written by the victors, but it is often rewritten by the losers when they get the opportunity.
Right wing revisionist will say that the US Civil War was not about slavery, but about “states’ rights”. This is a whitewash. Read the documents written to justify secession, and slavery is the clear reason for the southern states to secede.
In the days after January 6 even Republican politicians denounced the insurrection, and some laid the blame squarely at the feet of Donald Trump. Later, those same politicians would downplay the seriousness of the events. Some (colleagues, but not the same individuals) would call Jan 6th a “sightseeing” and “peaceful” without being contradicted by their Republican colleagues.
I think we will see the same again the day Donald Trump leaves office. DJT is deeply unpopular and increasingly struggling to do his job (at least it appears so from his public appearances). He may not make it to the end of his term.
I am willing to bet that the day he leaves, many will embark on a campaign to rewrite their personal history.
Some will try to distance themselves from Trump. They will turn him into a non-person, not mention him and pretend they have never heard of him, the same way “I haven’t seen it” became the way to not get involved with DJT’s latest insane tweets.
Others will hope for a rehabilitation of the Trump brand. They will find ways to assign credit to him for anything good and deflect blame everywhere else.
It will be interesting to watch historical revisionism in real time. Hopefully someone will make a detailed record.