After listening to the podcast and reading the latest chapter of A Peoples History of the United States, I am reminded how much history continues to repeat itself. People think much of what’s happening has never happened before and that our country has never faced problems like today, but we have. The narrative of the history is simply changed to be an easier tale to tell. I especially noticed this when Zinn was talking about the Reagan and Bush elections and how they were both “overwhelming victory.” This was not actually the case and in fact if people looked closer at the actual voting numbers it was not too far off, this is much different than what the electoral map showed obviously. Additionally, there were a large portion of Americans who just simply didn’t vote because they wanted neither candidate.
Ezra Klein also talked about how things are not portrayed how they actually are when discussing how voters think things are majorly polarized and that there are some huge differences between the parties when actually its not that huge. Zinn seemed to agree with this assessment saying that the parties are not too different, they both mainly work for the rich.
I could not agree with you more on the fact that history repeats itself. That theme is one of the biggest take aways I will have from the readings in this class.
History is definitely always repeating itself, and all of our readings have made that very clear. I think it’s important to remember to learn from our mistakes and improve. I also completely agree that there are so many times when I think what’s happening now is so new and nothing like it has ever happened before, but that is just not true.
I agree that the media fuels the idea that the two main political parties are drastically different, when in fact they have more similarities than differences, as people vote in their own self-interest rather than directly for a party.
I agree one of your first points, history is almost on a loop it seems. I find it interesting that our country can’t seem to learn from its past. In addition, your comment about the two political parties and voting is very relevant now as we just went through an election. I wonder if we will ever get rid of the electoral system, as Zinn also points out its flaws.
I completely agree especially with the idea that history always repeats itself.