Trump Wants to Define the US by Its Past. Americans Don’t
Only MAGA seeks a ‘Christian nation’ shielding whites from immigrants.
NOTE:
Join Zeteo’s John Harwood in a live conversation with historian Heather Cox Richardson TODAY at 3pm ET / 8pm GMT on Substack. They’ll discuss the continuing struggle to defend America from white nationalism.
Nearly 10 years ago, before Donald Trump hijacked American politics, I interviewed a leading Republican who viewed his party’s presidential front-runner with barely-concealed contempt.
House Speaker Paul Ryan mocked Trump’s pledge that Mexico would finance his border wall. More fundamentally, he contrasted the candidate’s noxious immigration message with America’s founding principle of equality, opportunity, and liberty for all.
“This is the first nation built on an idea, not on an identity,” Ryan told me. “Not on an identity on class, on race, on religion – on an idea … That’s what’s great about this country.”
Today’s Republican Party, reshaped by Trump, does not believe that. His radical presidency now tests whether the rest of America does.