In 1955, the American columnist William F Buckley Jr declared that a conservative is someone “who stands athwart history, yelling ‘Stop’.” But today’s conservatives are not only trying to resist the advance of history, they are attempting to pull the train of history backwards and reopen the case on what constitutes a democratic society.
Last month, the Smithsonian’s secretary received a letter from the Trump administration announcing that all exhibits deemed “divisive” or “ideological” should be replaced with those labelled “historical” and “constructive”. Within days, a list of offending displays was published and, unsurprisingly, they overwhelmingly targeted artefacts that highlight Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ experiences in the American story.
