I just did a quick search to brush up on why Andrew Jackson is a bad president, and I found a lot of similarities about corruption, ruling for personal gain or spite, authoritarianism, distrusting professional merit-based employees and replacing with personal loyalty-based amateurs , etc. Jackson starts with a lead as a war hero, but then again Trump didn’t try to destroy native Americans
He did try to get a native casino in Connecticut closed in 1993. Part of his testimony to Congress was “You’re saying only Indians can have the reservations, only Indians can have the gaming. So why aren’t you approving it for everybody? Why are you being discriminatory? Why is it that the Indians don’t pay tax, but everybody else does? I do.”
but then again Trump didn’t try to destroy native Americans
He was quite happy for millions of Americans (regardless of ethnicity) to die rather than do the minimum amount of work to get Covid recognised as an actual problem, not to mention actively peddling bullshit theories that probably made things even worse.
I’m not an historian, but from what I know about Jackson, you could make the argument “he was an asshole, but he was of his time”, whereas Trump is an asshole regardless of what decade it is.
I conditionally disagree. It’s fine to judge the past by today’s standards, that’s how we know we’ve changed and are doing better.
However you must also judge them framed in their own time. Was the dude impaling his conquered opponents on spikes normal for the time or did neighboring kingdoms go “WTF, dude?!” If normal, he was NTA then, but definitely the asshole by today’s standards.
Understanding correctly framed history is not whitewashing. Changing, minimizing for gain, or cherry-picking history to meet today’s standards is.
This country was built on human slavery and genocide. Do not minimize or turn away from those evils
Can you stop with this shit? Nobody here is denying anything. We are discussing how we frame history from a modern perspective and whether or not the general population (not some minority) in Jackson’s time viewed his actions as unacceptable. If you don’t want to have that discussion, go wear your sandwich boards and earplugs elsewhere.
“We” are actually discussing how this country was built on slavery and genocide. Turning away from that fact because it makes you uncomfy won’t bring back those who were murdered by the United States
Jackson also blatantly committed the high crime of ignoring a lawful court order from the supreme court. But congress knew it was political suicide to censure him for the trail of tears(which was absurdly popular) so he wasn’t impeached for it.
Trump is pretty bad. But he didn’t order a genocide and flout checks and balances to do it. Not that he isntr trying.
I think successful genocide is worse bc we know he went through with it. It’s theoretically possible that trump wouldn’t even though I’m 99 percent sure he would.
I just did a quick search to brush up on why Andrew Jackson is a bad president, and I found a lot of similarities about corruption, ruling for personal gain or spite, authoritarianism, distrusting professional merit-based employees and replacing with personal loyalty-based amateurs , etc. Jackson starts with a lead as a war hero, but then again Trump didn’t try to destroy native Americans
He did try to get a native casino in Connecticut closed in 1993. Part of his testimony to Congress was “You’re saying only Indians can have the reservations, only Indians can have the gaming. So why aren’t you approving it for everybody? Why are you being discriminatory? Why is it that the Indians don’t pay tax, but everybody else does? I do.”
Also in 2000 Trump paid over $1 million on a smear campaign managed by Roger Stone against the St. Regis Mohawks in protest of their opening of a casino in the Catskills.
So nothing while president, but still not a great track record when dealing with native Americans.
Let’s not trivialize an actual genocide by comparing it to racist business dealings.
He was quite happy for millions of Americans (regardless of ethnicity) to die rather than do the minimum amount of work to get Covid recognised as an actual problem, not to mention actively peddling bullshit theories that probably made things even worse.
I’m not an historian, but from what I know about Jackson, you could make the argument “he was an asshole, but he was of his time”, whereas Trump is an asshole regardless of what decade it is.
Jackson was not an asshole of his time, he was drastically worse. Do not whitewash the trail of tears
I conditionally disagree. It’s fine to judge the past by today’s standards, that’s how we know we’ve changed and are doing better.
However you must also judge them framed in their own time. Was the dude impaling his conquered opponents on spikes normal for the time or did neighboring kingdoms go “WTF, dude?!” If normal, he was NTA then, but definitely the asshole by today’s standards.
Understanding correctly framed history is not whitewashing. Changing, minimizing for gain, or cherry-picking history to meet today’s standards is.
You’re acting like people in the 1830s just didn’t know that ethnic cleansing and genocide of Native Americans was wrong.
They did know. And some, including SCOTUS, tried to stop Jackson. They failed. And Native Americans paid the price.
This country was built on human slavery and genocide. Do not minimize or turn away from those evils
Can you stop with this shit? Nobody here is denying anything. We are discussing how we frame history from a modern perspective and whether or not the general population (not some minority) in Jackson’s time viewed his actions as unacceptable. If you don’t want to have that discussion, go wear your sandwich boards and earplugs elsewhere.
“We” are actually discussing how this country was built on slavery and genocide. Turning away from that fact because it makes you uncomfy won’t bring back those who were murdered by the United States
Holding New Orleans against the British to preserve southern slavery for another half-century is hardly something to brag about.
Jackson also blatantly committed the high crime of ignoring a lawful court order from the supreme court. But congress knew it was political suicide to censure him for the trail of tears(which was absurdly popular) so he wasn’t impeached for it.
Trump is pretty bad. But he didn’t order a genocide and flout checks and balances to do it. Not that he isntr trying.
I think attempted genocide still counts, tbh.
I think successful genocide is worse bc we know he went through with it. It’s theoretically possible that trump wouldn’t even though I’m 99 percent sure he would.