If you start from a false premise, you’ll inevitably come to a false conclusion.
Unfortunately, we live in an era where historical and intellectual honesty has gone the way of the dodo, an extinct, flightless bird. The banality of far-right Republican lies would be laughable if they didn’t wield real-world political power.
For example, on Sept. 2, at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt demonstrated the degree to which he is willing to throw historical and intellectual honesty out the window.
Schmitt—a career politician who gained Donald Trump’s favor by challenging the outcome of the 2020 election and was elected to the Senate in 2022—noted at that conference that the “West” was locked in a “cultural war” against immigrants and immigration.
He said national conservatism was in “revolt” against a “post-American ruling class,” the “elites who rule everywhere but are not truly from anywhere.” (If you can make heads or tails of this conspiracy-laden word salad, let me know. I’ll give you a hint, though: Check out the white supremacist “Great Replacement Theory.”)
Echoing Trump, Schmitt wants to exclude most immigrants, though, he added, “we do have an interest in attracting the truly exceptional few, the very best and brightest….” He didn’t, however, define who “we” are, how “we” attract the “exceptional,” what “we” mean by “exceptional,” or why the “exceptional” would want to come to an increasingly theocratic, authoritarian country.
In a nod to part of the Republican MAGA base—that part of the base with legitimate economic grievances founded in the collapse of the neoliberal order, the offshoring of jobs, and the decimation of living standards—Schmitt correctly noted that “trade agreements kneecapped blue-collar workers.” However, he blamed “cheaper and more compliant” immigrant workers, not the capitalists—like Donald Trump—who bankrolled his ascendance into national politics.
At the heart of Schmitt’s—albeit disjointed—argument is this question: What is a real American?
According to Schmitt, it’s the MAGA loyalists “who wrapped themselves in our flag and drove hours to hear a real-estate tycoon from New York speak—because they knew he was speaking for them.” They are the descendants of “the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith.”
Absent from Schmitt’s narrative are millions of Native Americans who originally occupied this land, or the tens of millions of enslaved Africans brought here as “property,” or the indentured servants from Europe who came in the chains of debt bondage. These people, and the tortures they endured, just don’t fit into Schmitt’s glorified retelling of history.
Further, “America, in all its glory…belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny.” Again, behind Schmitt’s subjective ahistoricism, “us” simply means white Christians. Basically, Schmitt is saying the Nazi part out loud!
Near the end of the Senator’s speech, we get to the substance behind the far-right phrase mongering. Schmitt says, “The people who built our country were not villains. They were heroes. We can no longer apologize for who we are.”
By “we” does Schmitt mean the slave catchers? If they are the “heroes,” I would hate to see the villains. Perhaps “we” are the people who perpetrated the genocide of the Native Americans? Or is it the robber barons and industrialists who broke unions and killed workers? Are they the “heroes” who don’t need to “apologize?” Schmitt’s retelling of history is devoid of context and depth. It’s grade school history for the morally bankrupt and intellectually lazy, the racist charlatan.
Maybe in Schmitt’s mind, these people are the “heroes.” Maybe that’s why he worships Trump. Of course, when Schmitt uses the word “hero,” he means white Christian property owners. He means people like him. Everybody else is foreign, other, and undeserving of the promise of Americanism.
Referring to the construction of Mount Rushmore, Schmitt adds, “There was no practical need for any of it. It’s just who we were…. We did it because we could.” This is an apt analogy for Schmitt’s—and Trump’s—worldview, the destruction of Native peoples and lands as a metaphor for unchecked power.
He concludes, “To transform a nation, you have to transform the way it understands itself.” After all the bloviating, we finally get to the point: This is the goal of national conservatism, to transform how we see ourselves. Behind all the bluster, behind all the false premises is a diabolical scheme to rewrite history.
It’s a goal not that dissimilar from Hitler’s. In fact, whether it’s the whitewashing of genocide or slavery or the MAGA influencers “rehabilitating Hitler,” as The Atlantic recently put it, Schmitt has company. He’s part of a growing segment of the MAGA movement who are willing to push the envelope and openly promote their fascist and white supremacist ideology.
Their premise is demonstrably false. It will undoubtedly lead to false conclusions. However, since their goal isn’t historical or intellectual honesty, they really don’t care.
Their goal is power. And to keep power, they have to subvert facts. They have to “transform” the national narrative.
However, like the dodo, Schmitt’s racist, ahistorical speech just doesn’t fly. And one day—hopefully, in the not-too-distant future—he and his ilk will become extinct, too.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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