The General US Politics Thread

HOW can any rational person still make this dumbass argument?!

But the public’s love for political stories belies a crisis in the profession. American political history as a field of study has cratered. Fewer scholars build careers on studying the political process, in part because few universities make space for them. Fewer courses are available, and fewer students are exposed to it. What was once a central part of the historical profession, a vital part of this country’s continuing democratic discussion, is disappearing.

This wasn’t always the case. Political history — a specialization in elections and elected officials, policy and policy making, parties and party politics — was once a dominant, if not the dominant, pursuit of American historians. Many of them, in turn, made vital contributions to the political process itself, whether it was Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s role in the Kennedy White House or C. Vann Woodward’s “The Strange Career of Jim Crow,” which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the “bible of the civil rights movement.”

But somewhere along the way, such work fell out of favor with history departments. According to the American Historical Association’s listing of academic departments, three-quarters of colleges and universities now lack full-time researchers and teachers in the subject.

There appears to be little effort to fill the void. A search of the leading website advertising academic jobs in history, H-Net, yielded just 15 advertisements in the last 10 years specifically seeking a tenure-track, junior historian specializing in American political history. That’s right: just 15 new jobs in the last decade.

As a result, the study of America’s political past is being marginalized. Many college catalogs list precious few specialized courses on the subject, and survey courses often give scant attention to political topics. The pipelines for new Ph.D.s in the subject, and therefore new faculty, are drying up, and in many graduate programs one can earn a doctorate in American history with little exposure to politics.

How did it come to this? The trend began in the 1960s. America’s misadventure in Vietnam led to broad questioning of elite decision making and conventional politics, and by extension those historical narratives that merely recounted the doings of powerful men. Likewise, the movements of the 1960s and 1970s by African-Americans, Latinos, women, homosexuals and environmental activists brought a new emphasis on history from the bottom up, spotlighting the role of social movements in shaping the nation’s past.

The long overdue diversification of the academy also fostered changing perspectives. As a field once dominated by middle-class white males opened its doors to women, minorities and people from working-class backgrounds, recovering the lost experiences of these groups understandably became priority No. 1.

These transformations enriched the national story. But they also carried costs. Perceived “traditional” types of history that examined the doings of governing elites fell into disfavor, and political history suffered the effects (as did its cousins, diplomatic and military history).

The ramifications extend well beyond higher education. The drying up of scholarly expertise affects universities’ ability to educate teachers — as well as aspiring lawyers, politicians, journalists and business leaders — who will enter their professions having learned too little about the nation’s political history. Not least, in this age of extreme partisanship, they’ll be insufficiently aware of the importance that compromise has played in America’s past, of the vital role of mutual give-and-take in the democratic process.

Change will not be easy, and will not come from history departments facing tight budgets and competing demands. What is needed, to begin with, is for university administrators to identify political history as a priority, for students and families to lobby their schools, for benefactors to endow professorships and graduate fellowships and for lawmakers and school boards to enact policies that bolster its teaching — and without politicizing the enterprise.

This matters. Knowledge of our political past is important because it can serve as an antidote to the misuse of history by our leaders and save us from being bamboozled by analogies, by the easy “lessons of the past.” It can make us less egocentric by showing us how other politicians and governments in other times have responded to division and challenge. And it can help us better understand the likely effects of our actions, a vital step in the acquisition of insight and maturity.

Judging by the state of our political discourse during this dismal campaign season, the change can’t come soon enough.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem in each of the team's three preseason games and said he plans to continue to do so until he sees real change when it comes to racial oppression in the United States.

"Yes, I'll continue to sit," Kaepernick said. "I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."

On Sunday afternoon, Kaepernick spent nearly 20 minutes addressing reporters for the first time since he was spotted sitting between two Gatorade jugs during the national anthem before Friday's game against the Green Bay Packers.

Clearly aware of the backlash he's received since his stance became public, Kaepernick made it a point to clarify that he has nothing against the military.

"I do think that the talk has been more about me, more about I know a lot of people's initial reactions thought it was bashing the military, which it wasn't," Kaepernick said. "That wasn't my intention at all. I think now that we have those things cleared up, we can get to the root of what I was saying and really address those issues."

During the extensive interview, Kaepernick covered a variety of subjects, ranging from his reasoning behind sitting to whether he'll fear for his safety on the road this year to the presidential election.

Kaepernick said his decision to make his stance has been a long time coming and was born of years of both witnessing and being a part of racial oppression.

"It's something that I've seen, I've felt, wasn't quite sure how to deal with originally," Kaepernick said. "And it is something that's evolved. It's something that as I've gained more knowledge about, what's gone on in this country in the past, what's going on currently. These aren't new situations. This isn't new ground. There are things that have gone on in this country for years and years and have never been addressed, and they need to be."

Asked to offer some specifics, Kaepernick cited police brutality in a number of cities that have resulted in the deaths of black men.

Kaepernick recounted a story of one of his college roommates moving out of their house, and because he and his roommates were the only black people in the neighborhood, the police came and drew guns on them.

"I have experienced this," Kaepernick said. "People close to me have experienced this. This isn't something that's a one-off case here or a one-off case there. This has become habitual. This has become a habit. So this is something that needs to be addressed."

Kaepernick said his decision to sit also wasn't made spur of the moment. He cited conversations with other players and influential people, such as Dr. Harry Edwards, as taking place in the time before taking action.

Dr. Edwards, who was instrumental in the protest by U.S. Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, is a 49ers team consultant and shared a hug and brief conversation with Kaepernick before Sunday's practice.

Kaepernick also addressed the team at a players-only meeting that took place Sunday morning.

"They asked me to talk and just explain why I did what I did," Kaepernick said. "And why I felt the way I felt. I had an open conversation with them. I told them why I felt that way and looked at things the way I do. A lot of it has to do with the history of the country and where we're currently at. I opened it up to all my teammates. Come talk to me if you have any questions. If you want to understand what I'm thinking further, come talk to me. It shouldn't be something that should be hidden. These conversations need to happen and can bring everybody closer."

Kaepernick said he has no plans to try to get other players to join him in his protest, citing the attention that goes with making such a move.

"This isn't something I'm going to ask other people to put their necks out for what I'm doing," Kaepernick said. "If they agree with me and feel strongly about it, then by all means I hope they stand with me. But I'm not going to go and try to recruit people and be like 'Hey, come do this with me' because I know the consequences that come with that, and they need to make that decision for themselves."

As for the timing of the protest, Kaepernick said he didn't choose now simply because it's an election year, but he did voice his displeasure with the two presidential candidates.

"You have Hillary [Clinton], who has called black teens or black kids superpredators," Kaepernick said. "You have Donald Trump, who is openly racist. We have a presidential candidate [Clinton] who has deleted emails and done things illegally and is a presidential candidate. That doesn't make sense to me. If that was any other person, you'd be in prison. So what is this country really standing for?"

From a football perspective, Kaepernick said he wants the team focus to be on winning games, but that there's also a time to discuss social issues. Asked whether he thought he could be cut for taking this stance, Kaepernick didn't seem concerned.

"I don't know," Kaepernick said. "But if I do, I know I did what's right. And I can live with that at the end of the day."

Kaepernick also said he has no concerns about potential backlash when he plays in road games this year.

"At the end of the day, if something happens, that's only proving my point," Kaepernick said.

As to where he goes from here, while Kaepernick continues to sit during the anthem, he says there are also plans to do more than symbolically protest.

"There are things that I have in the works right now that I'm working on to put together in the future and have come to fruition soon," Kaepernick said. "Those are things that I'll talk about as we get closer to those days."