A Lesson from the Past

Tales From the Front Lines of Life

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

–– George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905)

Was Santayana right? Yes and no. His aphorism is conditional, applying only to a subset of humanity, “those who cannot remember the past.” Santayana fails to account for those who remember the past and nonetheless attempt to repeat it. I have come to this conclusion: The only thing we learn from the past is that most people learn nothing from it.

In the United States, virtually all politicians in leadership roles studied U.S. history during their academic careers. It’s safe to assume most of them haven’t forgotten their education, though there are notable exceptions. Despite their cultural literacy, the current visionaries shaping America’s future are promoting toxic dogma, including nationalism, imperialism, and fascism. Their path to success is paved with immoral, illegal, and ill-fated policies that a vast majority of the nation opposes.

The party in power’s goal is not to leave their children a better world. It is to maintain the status quo, keeping the gilded bubbles they inhabit intact. When contemplating our nation in this moment, I’m reminded of General Omar Bradley’s words. In his 1948 Armistice Day address, the World War II hero said, “It is time that we steered by the stars, not by the lights of each passing ship.” Unfortunately, those navigating the ship of state today are drawn to shiny lights in gold-colored fixtures. The course they’ve charted is meant to earn the approval of our most dangerous adversaries, to create an ersatz legacy by rebranding cherished institutions, by ethnic cleansing, and by an existential need to distract the nation from the worst pedophilia scandal in American history.

November is our inflection point. What happens on November 3, 2026, will determine the course of the American Empire’s destiny. If our midterms are held fairly and freely, without federal intervention, the tide will turn. Over time, the ship of state will once again steer by the stars. We will begin the lengthy process of restoring the checks and balances that were designed to prevent the country from reaching this moment. We will rebuild our relationships with our closest allies and re-embrace the values upon which our once-great nation was founded.

If our elections are negated, our destiny will be no different from that of every other empire that has come before us, the death of a nation. Perhaps it will be a Civil War or a Revolutionary War. With the vacuum created by the end of the United States, a third World War seems almost inevitable, while our story will become another chapter in history books that many will read, but few will learn from.