Make History—Don’t Repeat It!

US history repeats itself constantly. But it doesn’t have to.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. --H.L. Mencken

Make History—Don’t Repeat It!

by C.A. Matthews

I have to stifle my giggles whenever an acquaintance goes on about how “Trump is the worse president ever! He’s supporting a genocide in Gaza! He’s taking away our freedom of speech! He’s trying to steal Greenland! No other president has ever done such horrible things!”

(Yes, I know that Biden also supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza among other horrendous things, but to these poor dears, Joe Biden is a kindly old man who likes licking ice cream cones and playing with little girls’ hair. He’s some sort of saint apparently in Dem circles. No kidding.)

The reason I want to giggle—actually I want to laugh out loud in their faces—is because it’s just too obvious how well our government’s propaganda works. These people are clueless! Any US history classes they may have taken in high school or college were woefully inadequate. Their instructors obviously never went into depth on certain topics, and the textbooks used in those classes didn’t waste much print on those topics, either.

It’s as if American powers-that-be don’t want to air our dirty laundry to the working masses. If American workers really learned about their country’s actual history, they might get ideas. Bad ideas. Ideas and examples of how Americans stood up against oppression, intolerance, bigotry, and outright theft of land, labor, and resources in the past.

In A People’s History of the United States, historian Howard Zinn doesn’t beat around the bush. He tells things straightforwardly, without the narrative spin that always seems to make the wealthy, white, occasionally slave-owning male elites the heroes in your average US history book. From now on, whenever somebody says a silly thing like Trump is the “only president to support a genocide,” I will point them to Zinn’s classic tome.

Here’s what Zinn has to say in the seventh chapter of A People’s History about one particular incident of genocide that was not only supported by the United States government, it was actually committed by the US government against several groups of indigenous people:

[President Andrew] Jackson’s 1829 message to Congress made his position clear: “I informed the Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama that their attempt to establish an independent government would not be countenanced by the Executive of the United States, and advised them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or submit to the laws of those states.” Congress moved quickly to pass a removal bill…

In late 1831, thirteen thousand Choctaws began the long journey west to a land and climate totally different from what they knew. “Marshaled by guards, hustled by agents, harried by contractors, they were being herded on the way to an unknown and unwelcome destination like a flock of sick sheep.”… Everything was disorganized. Food disappeared. Hunger came. (…) People began to die of pneumonia. In the summer, a major cholera epidemic hit… Choctaws died by the hundreds. (…)

Cherokees...faced a set of laws passed by Georgia: their lands were taken, their government abolished, all meetings prohibited. Cherokees advising others not to migrate were to be imprisoned. Cherokees could not testify in court against any white. Cherokees could not dig for gold recently discovered on their land. (...)

[In 1838 President] Martin Van Buren ordered Major General Winfield Scott into Cherokee territory to use whatever military force was required to move the Cherokees west. Five regiments of regulars and four thousand militia and volunteers began pouring into Cherokee country. (…) [A] leading authority on Indian removal estimates that during confinement in the stockade or on the march westward four thousands Cherokees died.

...Van Buren spoke to Congress:

“It affords sincere pleasure to apprise the Congress of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session have had the happiest effects.”

You read that right—The Cherokee were living on top of a gold mine, literally. Congress eagerly cooperated with the removal of the tribes, and it had the “happiest effects” for the very wealthy white men who grabbed those lands after the natives had been forcibly removed. So, the current sitting Congress isn’t the only one to approve of such a horrible injustice against an indigenous people by voting for more money and arms to be given in the cause of their “removal” or genocide. Trump and Biden were not the first presidents to condone such immoral activities. Jackson and Van Buren beat them to it.

What is really sad is that the Cherokee by the 1830s had integrated themselves quite well into white society, living on farms, becoming tradesmen, learning to read and write in both their own language and in English. Some wealthy Cherokee were even slave owners. But none of their cooperation with the white man came to any good when it came to Presidents Jackson and Van Buren and Congress grabbing the gold and their lands for greedy white slave-owning plantation owners. What few rights the Cherokees thought they possessed evaporated. The Cherokee were marched off their lands along what became known as The Trail of Tears. Thousands died along the way.

The “removal” (via military force) of the Choctaw, the Chickasaws, the Cherokee, the Creeks, and the Seminole from their homelands in the Southeastern US to less fertile lands west of the Mississippi River was genocide plain and simple. It was ordered by the president and executed by the US government via its army and private contractors/land agents. As President Van Buren said to Congress, they were “happy” to have done such a horrible deed in order to profit richly from its results.

Netanyahu, Biden and Trump alike have acted quite “happy” about stealing the Palestinians’ lands and building a casino on what was once Gaza—as well as drilling right off shore for natural gas. These genocidaires have expressed no qualms in killing Palestinians by military force, starvation and disease. Trump is even now talking about marching the remaining Palestinians out of their homeland of Gaza in a very similar fashion to what happened to the indigenous tribes along the Trail of Tears.

Note also how Jackson and Van Buren were fine with “free speech” being abrogated in order to keep the Cherokee from discussing the unfairness of being forcibly removed from their lands. Whites who spoke up for Native Americans were also punished for their speech. Trump isn’t the first president then to take freedom of speech away from both citizens and “non-citizens” alike—and Native Americans were considered “non-citizens” until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

“But Trump is trying to take over Canada—and Greenland!” I hear the neoliberals crying. “We’ve never done anything like that before!” And yet… it’s all too obvious that Americans have taken lands that weren’t theirs. Doesn’t the removal of the southeastern tribes from their homelands prove this?

The United States bought the Louisiana Purchase from France (that stole it from its native inhabitants, of course) in 1803. And sorry to break this to you, but yes, the US government has forced other countries into giving over their lands at gunpoint. Zinn describes how the US became a coast-to-coast nation in the eighth chapter of his book:

James Polk, a Democrat, an expansionist... on the night of his inauguration, confided to his Secretary of the Navy that one of his main objectives was the acquisition of California. His order to General Taylor to move troops to the Rio Grande was a challenge to the Mexicans. (…) Ordering troops to the Rio Grande, into territory inhabited by Mexicans, was clearly a provocation. (…)

All that was needed in the spring of 1846 was a military incident to begin the war that Polk wanted. It came in April...[Taylor] sent a dispatch to Polk: “Hostilities may now be considered commenced.”

In case you’re scratching your head and wondering what was going on in the 1840s between the US and the fairly new nation of Mexico, please read A People’s History of the United States, and take a good look at a map of North America. All of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah were a part of Mexico at that time. The US military slaughtered thousands of innocent Mexican villagers, soldiers, and Native Americans. The US Army forced the Mexican government into capitulating and “selling” their northern lands—more than half their territory—to the US for a mere pittance. The mainstream media, called “newspapers” at the time of the war, were all for stealing Mexico’s northern provinces, too, even if some notable Americans, such as Henry David Thoreau, weren’t.

So, stealing Greenland from Denmark and even occupying Canada isn’t a new concept for the US government. Donald Trump is no James Polk, but with our nuclear weapons and bloated military budget in the year 2025, he doesn’t have to have a conniving General Taylor to come up with an excuse to invade and take over anyone’s land. He’s good at making up excuses all by himself. (And the mainstream media will play along, too.)

US history repeats itself constantly, but it doesn’t have to. Now that you realize that the US doesn’t have a shiny clean track record when it comes to committing genocide and land grabs, make a vow to never let these terrible things happen ever again.

Instead of repeating history, let’s make history. Americans can stop the destructive cycle of capitalist-imperialist expansionism by refusing to cooperate with military moves made against other countries.

But how? First off, we can keep our young people out of the military and, if a draft is instituted, help them avoid it. We can also boycott, strike, and protest against the military-industrial complex and the billionaires who are profiting from genocide, war, and land grabs. Hit them where it really hurts—their bank accounts.

For example, if War Machine factory workers all walked out and refused to build weapons, bullets, bombs, fighter jets, and tanks, then the military will be deprived the tools it needs to start and expand needless and immoral wars. We could then re-tool these factories to build useful things that promote peace—such as converting aircraft carriers over into hospital ships.

To preserve your free speech, simply don’t cave in and shut up whenever Trump and company attempt to take it away. Yes, you could very well be arrested and jailed. Do it anyway. Start class action civil lawsuits demanding our rights be respected. No matter what they threaten you with, keep protesting and speaking out boldly. Never stop fighting back.

Do all you can to protect our non-citizen residents who aren’t being given the same protections as citizens (as of this writing). Refuse to cooperate with ICE and their illegal raids. Video these unlawful abductions and write down every detail you can remember about them. Don’t let people forget what is happening.

Remember that the US Bill of Rights and due process before the law are for everyone, and they can just as easily be taken away from everyone—citizens included. Americans can’t afford to sit back and think they’re safe because of their race or social status. ICE is breaking the law now. No one is safe.

We the People are on the verge of making history. But we must act boldly and take back our country from the corrupt, greedy governmental elites and their billionaire backers. We must banish them across a metaphorical Mississippi, never to return. The world can’t wait. We’ve got to stop these monsters from repeating our sordid history!

History Making Articles and Other Interesting Links

March For Palestine April 5 in Washington DC https://marchforpalestine.org/

Download a PDF copy of Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource/from-dictatorship-to-democracy-a-conceptual-framework-for-liberation/

Download A People’s History of the United States https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf

A Letter From Palestinian Activist Mahmoud Khalil https://www.greensocialthought.org/thinking-politically/a-letter-from-palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil/

The US government is effectively kidnapping people for opposing genocide https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-trump-immigration-gaza

A Brief History of ‘The’ Freedom of Speech https://consortiumnews.com/2025/03/28/a-brief-history-of-the-freedom-of-speech/

"Free Gaza From Hamas" Really Means "Free Gaza From All Palestinians" https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/free-gaza-from-hamas-really-means

Let’s Be Honest: There Will Be No Ceasefire In Ukraine https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/lets-be-honest-there-will-be-no-ceasefire

ECHR Finds Ukraine Responsible for Odessa Massacre https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/echr-finds-ukraine-responsible-for

How Undocumented Immigrants Contribute to Our Economy & Pay Higher Tax Rates Than Many Major Corporations https://americansfortaxfairness.org/undocumented-immigrants-contribute-economy/

Why Trump & Musk Ignore The Largest Money-Laundering Scheme In Human History https://realleecamp.substack.com/p/why-trump-and-musk-ignore-the-largest

The "President Of Peace" Just Bombed Yemen 65 Times In 24 Hours https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-supporters-can-no-longer-say

Trump Supporters Can No Longer Say Trump Never Started A War https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/trump-supporters-can-no-longer-say

Bodies of Massacred First Responders Found Buried in Rafah https://truthout.org/articles/bodies-of-massacred-first-responders-found-buried-in-rafah/

The Word "Bombing" Means Different Things Depending On Where It Happened https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-word-bombing-means-different

ICE Abduction of Tufts Student Suggests a pro-Netanhyahu Spy Network Is Policing Students In the US https://stevendonziger.substack.com/p/ice-abduction-of-tufts-student-suggests

Tufts Grad Student Targeted by DHS Wrote Suspiciously Pro-Humanity Op-Ed https://fair.org/home/tufts-grad-student-targeted-by-dhs-wrote-suspiciously-pro-humanity-op-ed/

How To Avert The Imminent Collapse Of Social Security https://popularresistance.org/how-to-avert-the-imminent-collapse-of-social-security/

The complete idiot’s guide to world affairs https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/the-complete-idiots-guide-to-world

It's An Awkward Time To Be A Liberal Israel Supporter https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-an-awkward-time-to-be-a-liberal

‘No Other Land’ Co-Director Hamdan Ballal Freed, Says Yuval Abraham https://deadline.com/2025/03/no-other-land-director-hamdan-ballal-freed-yuval-abraham-1236348655/

Israel is gunning down children with Apache helicopters https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/israel-is-gunning-down-children-with

Thoughts On The Trump Team's Signal Chat About Bombing Yemen https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/thoughts-on-the-trump-teams-signal

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived; but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. —Maya Angelou

Censorship Violates The Rights Of The Speaker And Of The Hearer https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/censorship-violates-the-rights-of

Liberals Believe In Nothing And Remember Even Less https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/liberals-believe-in-nothing-and-remember

Psychology And Capitalism: Personality Disorders, Capitalism, and Billionaires EXPLAINED https://prolepilled.substack.com/p/psychology-and-capitalism

Justice for the USS Liberty--the film: https://justiceforliberty.org/

Organic molecules of unprecedented size discovered on Mars https://phys.org/news/2025-03-molecules-unprecedented-size-mars.html

Monsanto to pay $2.1 billion in Roundup herbicide lawsuit filed in Georgia https://www.nationofchange.org/2025/03/26/monsanto-to-pay-2-1-billion-in-roundup-herbicide-lawsuit-filed-in-georgia/

The Biological Reality of Being Intersex https://www.patheos.com/blogs/duncanedwardpile/2025/03/the-biological-reality-of-being-intersex/

Meet the Ex-CIA Agents Deciding Facebook’s Content Policy https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-ex-cia-agents-deciding-facebook-content-policy/281307/

How a battery breakthrough from China’s BYD could be about to bury Elon Musk’s Tesla https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/tech/tesla-byd-cars-ev-battery-musk-china-b2722400.html

Jailed for their Words youtu.be/LXUsTR_zbb8?si=j0Gc7HuB5bNROdvG

New study finds that the world’s glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/03/27/yhai-m27.html

Breathing injustice: How a new scientific tool could help communities oppose industrial animal farming pollution https://usrtk.org/factory-farming/new-tool-measure-industrial-animal-farming-pollution/?mc_cid=f4d2537759