Writing in the Washington Post, James Hohmann has given a sharply pertinent example of the importance of historical context.  He wrote about Donald Trump’s ignorance in dredging up scandals and conspiratorial fantasies from Bill Clinton’s presidency.  Along the way, he necessarily noted the laziness and incompetence of the media and, in the words of the Post, “a mix of ignorance and amnesia in the electorate.”

Hohmann writes,

“Perhaps it is no surprise that a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters are so young. They lean left but don’t remember the 1990s — and, as a result, lack any nostalgia for Bill Clinton. It’s much easier to demagogue the crime bill or welfare reform when the listener does not understand the context in which they passed.”   [The bold-face is his.]

I remember the 1990s, and I was a Sanders supporter.  However, I was for Sanders, never against Clinton.  Too many Sanders supporters have acquired a hatred for Hillary Clinton that exceeds what seasoned reasoning would account for.  I don’t know how much if any of that hatred is coming from Bernie’s younger supporters, and it certainly is not necessary to be young to ignore history.  However, I believe it to be true in general, applicable across all causes and across all age groups, that some things are easier in the absence of experience or historical context.

It is easier to demand purity and rigor if you have yet to experience the scope and scale of life.  It is easier to feel morally superior and entitled if you have not spent time running into the realities and randomness of the world.  It is easier to talk of revolution when you have neither seen nor experienced one, or to proclaim all politicians and parties the same when this is the first time you have participated or just if your curiosity is narrow.  It is easier to be swept up by enthusiasm if you never have learned to be wary of crowd psychology. 

As a former Bernie supporter who lived through the back story that Hohmann writes of, I can say that experience and historical context may not be sufficient but definitely are necessary when making hard choices and tough decisions – or even in recognizing that you are facing one.  To paraphrase one of the tweets in Hohmann’s article: you are selecting the President of the United States.  Read, people.