Make 19th Century Argentina Great Again? (1/30/2018)
"The rich continue to get much richer, and millions of workers continue to work more and more to barely get by." -Bernie Sanders (just now)
Watching Senator Bernie Sanders respond to President Trump's State of the Union Address, I especially fixated on this quote. As he continued to speak, I thought more and more about Trump's America and Rosas's Argentina. America has just experienced some of the most politically charged and jarring years of politics in decades. Hardworking Americans are losing healthcare, rights, and the freedom to DREAM. The interest of the masses is being undermined in order to benefit the rich and powerful. Rights and treatment of people of color and immigrants have been set back 50 years due to Trump supporters and the normalization of hate. Media outlets which disagree and dare to challenge the authority and leadership of the Trump Administration are shut out, silenced, and dismissed as "fake news." Trump and current leadership are knowingly dividing our country on the basis of race, gender, ideology, sexual orientation, and legal status to weaken the public and strengthen their regime.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
In the early and mid 19th century, an Argentine cabildo named Juan Manuel de Rosas and wasted no time rising to power in the new nation. Once he had full control, Rosas and his small but unrelenting militia began enacting a totalitarian regime in Argentina. As time passed, and with the help of press censorship, Rosas's cult of personality grew, and his Federalist government had support from not only the wealthy, privileged Argentinians, but the poor people of mixed race. Somehow, people taken advantage of by Rosas and his regime came to wholeheartedly support him. Rosas divided Argentina on the basis of political ideology. It was the Federalists, conservatives, versus the Unitarians, liberals.
As we learned about Rosas in class, I couldn't help but draw comparisons between Rosas's Argentina and Trump's America. Both divided the people in order to maintain power, both censored or dismissed the press for challenging their leadership, and both somehow rallied the support of people who suffered under their policies. I am a firm believer that we can learn from history, and change ourselves for the better. Rosas's Argentina was plagued with wars, domestic terrorism, revolts, and instability. America needs to realize not only what is happening now, but what is potentially to come in order to prevent ourselves from going down the same road as 19th century Argentina.
-J
Watching Senator Bernie Sanders respond to President Trump's State of the Union Address, I especially fixated on this quote. As he continued to speak, I thought more and more about Trump's America and Rosas's Argentina. America has just experienced some of the most politically charged and jarring years of politics in decades. Hardworking Americans are losing healthcare, rights, and the freedom to DREAM. The interest of the masses is being undermined in order to benefit the rich and powerful. Rights and treatment of people of color and immigrants have been set back 50 years due to Trump supporters and the normalization of hate. Media outlets which disagree and dare to challenge the authority and leadership of the Trump Administration are shut out, silenced, and dismissed as "fake news." Trump and current leadership are knowingly dividing our country on the basis of race, gender, ideology, sexual orientation, and legal status to weaken the public and strengthen their regime.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
In the early and mid 19th century, an Argentine cabildo named Juan Manuel de Rosas and wasted no time rising to power in the new nation. Once he had full control, Rosas and his small but unrelenting militia began enacting a totalitarian regime in Argentina. As time passed, and with the help of press censorship, Rosas's cult of personality grew, and his Federalist government had support from not only the wealthy, privileged Argentinians, but the poor people of mixed race. Somehow, people taken advantage of by Rosas and his regime came to wholeheartedly support him. Rosas divided Argentina on the basis of political ideology. It was the Federalists, conservatives, versus the Unitarians, liberals.
As we learned about Rosas in class, I couldn't help but draw comparisons between Rosas's Argentina and Trump's America. Both divided the people in order to maintain power, both censored or dismissed the press for challenging their leadership, and both somehow rallied the support of people who suffered under their policies. I am a firm believer that we can learn from history, and change ourselves for the better. Rosas's Argentina was plagued with wars, domestic terrorism, revolts, and instability. America needs to realize not only what is happening now, but what is potentially to come in order to prevent ourselves from going down the same road as 19th century Argentina.
-J
As I was reading this I couldn't help but agree. Trump and Rosas definitely have a lot of similarities and I thought you did a nice job of showing that. Your post also remind me of AJ and his question on why we let history repeat itself without really realizing it. I think that it because the leader, like Rosas, know how to manipulate people, even people they don't really care about, into following them and getting what they want. A representation of some ones power is how many followers you have, the more followers the more power you have. I think that by convincing people of the lower class that you care for them and want to help them then you can extent your power since they are the most vulnerable.
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