A new report from the White House Domestic Policy Council has a dire warning about the Smithsonian Institution. According to the White House, the National Museum of American History has become home to “a radical, activist cohort dedicated to reframing the American story to serve its ideological ends.” Accordingly, its authors write, President Donald Trump “has a duty and obligation to seek reforms of the Smithsonian” and restore the museum to its aims of being a beacon of patriotism.
This overwrought declaration spells out just how impossible Trump’s cohort finds it to imagine a world in which thoughtful criticism of America’s past could foster love of this country. But it’s only through examination of the unvarnished truth of where we’ve come from that we can truly appreciate where we are — and develop a vision of what we want America to become.
It’s only through examination of the unvarnished truth of where we’ve come from that we can truly appreciate where we are — and develop a vision of what we want America to become.
The council’s conclusions in the 162-page report, titled “Saving America’s Story,” are as unnerving as they are dramatic: “As it stands today, it would benefit most Americans, especially parents bringing their children for a tour, if the Smithsonian’s flagship history museum had a label at every entrance that reads: ‘Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don’t want you to love your country.’”
The American History Museum “should tell the truth, including of the Nation’s mistakes and injustices,” according to the White House. But as The New York Times wrote Monday, the truth that was on display when White House staffers reviewed the museum’s current and former exhibits was a little too, well, icky:
The report criticizes the museum for viewing “traditional patriotic narratives” with suspicion or contempt. It says the museum endorses illegal immigration and advocates transgender issues, while it focuses on Christianity as “an instrument of conquest, exclusion or cultural erasure,” rather than its “constructive role” in “shaping the nation and its freedoms.” …
The story the museum tells, the report says, “is not one of ‘the victory of freedom and genius of our country’ but one of regret, tragedy and shame.”
There is a willful blindness required to look at exhibits and educational materials that teach about the migrant experience in America, or merely acknowledge that trans people have always been here, and not see how clearly they meet the desire for “an account of a people striving, often imperfectly but more often nobly, to live up to our founding principles of liberty and equality under a republican form of government.” Instead, in the apparent view of the report’s authors, there has been simply too much room made at the table for anyone who doesn’t fit their view of who counts as an American.
The conclusion I must draw is that these White House authors don’t want history on display at the American History Museum. Instead, they want a temple to an idealized, sanitized version of America. The White House has become a real-life Tumblr page devoted to a toxic fandom, one that has appointed itself the protectors of Columbia’s virtue against anyone who would deny her innocence.
Most fandoms simply share a joy in their chosen fictional media properties and franchises, but there are almost always pockets of obsession throughout. The resulting noxious atmosphere always finds some outlet for outrage, which can be turned toward outsiders, creators or even one another. The most common offenses in these spaces include daring to criticize a favorite character or actor or besmirching whatever headcanon they’ve developed about the fictional world and has now become their orthodoxy. In either case, these supposed fans see themselves as the true arbiters of what a franchise should be, based often only on vibes and parasocial relationships.
Similarly, the Trump administration is made up of a group of stans who will accept nothing but clear support of their favorites. Moral complexity and mentions of problematic behavior must be purged. Why have exhibits prompting reflection on the role slavery played in our nation’s earliest days when we could just have fancams of the Founding Fathers and fan fiction about the Pilgrims?
The White House has become a real-life Tumblr page devoted to a toxic fandom, one that has appointed itself the protectors of Columbia’s virtue against anyone who would deny her innocence.
Because for “make America great again” to resonate, there must be a time when the United States was unequivocally great that listeners can cling to for hope. Restoring that fictional America is at the center of every regressive policy that has animated the MAGA movement’s base. The American History Museum has, so far, refused to pretend that such a country existed anywhere outside of the imaginations of later generations.
Trump and his followers have indicated that these attacks on the Smithsonian and its museums and galleries are an act of love. I’m reminded though of a post I saw on Twitter years ago: “A crush is just a lack of information.” It’s easy to have a crush, to paint a version of reality onto an object of desire, regardless of what imperfections they have hidden or problems they have had in the past. It’s a feeling that by its very nature lacks depth.
The same goes for the shallow patriotism that the White House would rather attendees at the National Museum of American History feel. But to really love something is to see it in all its fullness, its failures and triumphs alike, and decide that it is still worth loving. This is what historians who have dedicated their lives to telling the fullest story of America possible have done.
In truth, the proposed signs on the front of the American History Museum should rather read: “Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who want you to love your country — even through all of its mistakes.”
The post This White House doesn’t understand how to love America. The Smithsonian does. appeared first on MS NOW.
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