Today’s political climate feels (and objectively is, in many ways) far more hostile than it was earlier in my lifetime. I’ve often wondered if things would feel as tumultuous to me now if I had lived through the mid and late 60s. The world must have felt heated up with the Cold War in full force. Trouble was brewing in Vietnam. A liberal icon, JFK, gets elected, which must feel like a win for the liberal cause. Then Johnson, sends U.S. combat troops to Vietnam, getting drafted becomes a real thing for people to worry about. Society splits into pro-war (or at least still loyal to the country and our military) and anti-war sides. Anti-war and pro-civil rights seemed to go hand-in-hand, and all were brewing and the fuel for protests. Malcom X is killed in the midst of it, which was likely more meaningful for the civil rights liberals. A few years later, King was killed followed shortly after by the killing of Bobby Kennedy. The 1968 election season was in full swing. Kennedy and McCarthy were vying for the anti-war vote in the democratic primary, and on the heels of meaningful wins, Kennedy was killed. For a liberal, it might have felt like it was all over and the direction of the country was set. Nixon went on to win the White House, twice, and the Democratic Party was in shambles.

Anybody who’s read anything on this blog can tell in a minute that I’m generally on the left side of things. I imagine that if I were alive at that time, with my current political leanings (adjusted for the time, of course), I would feel like it was a lost cause and all was over for things that I cared about. But that wouldn’t be true in the longer arc of history. The country continued to move leftward on many issues. We’ve made good steps toward racial equality. Homosexual couples don’t need to hide their lives, at least not as much as they used to. Despite current tests of it, we have robust federal science and education programs. We’ve been far more limited in the use of humans in military conflicts and we haven’t strayed from keeping our military all-volunteer. These are all things that liberals can be happy about. For me, these fell like things have moved in a good direction. There are still steps we could take, and wage/wealth disparity remains a challenge, but overall, I’m happy with the larger arc of history (history in terms of my lifetime).

But what about the future? I still seem to believe deeply that the arc of history will continue to follow the direction I like. I don’t have any evidence for this, and it might not, but my belief holds. When my friends talk about things being bad for science funding from the NIH, my reaction is to think about how glorious the rebound will be. Without any reason, other than the arc of history, I see brighter days ahead. But there’s a parallel that makes me worry a little. The liberal arc continued despite the killing of liberal champions. What if the conservative arc continues despite the killing of a conservative champion? There were undoubtedly people who thought it was good that JFK, Malcolm, King, Bobby were gone. I’m sure when Nixon was elected it was seen as a step in the right direction (consistent with those people being out of the picture) for the arc of history. But it wasn’t. It didn’t stop the overall direction and today, people who don’t hold King in high regard are frowned upon. It makes me wonder if there are similarities between King and Kirk. King wasn’t elected. Kirk wasn’t elected. King was very influential on the White House. Kirk was very influential on the White House. King’s killing was seen as a political assassination. Kirk’s killing was seen as a political assassination. Today we idolize King. Will we idolize Kirk fifty years from now? But we are only free to idolize King because we live in a world that’s closer to the one in his dream. Black people in Mississippi do have the right to vote. Black Americans do have something to vote for in New York (at least in many districts). Of course, that wasn’t the whole story of King, and I wonder how much the idolization of him has changed the modern view of who he was at the time. Perhaps things will continue to arc in the direction I like, and Kirk will still be idolized. Idolized for his willingness to have open dialog and he’ll be seen in the future as a peacemaker. But there’s also the possibility that his theocratic leanings will win, and he’ll be idolized as a key figure in the restoration of America as a Christian Nation (the story that will unfold). To be clear, I’m not conceding that we are or ever were a Christian nation, but if we became a Christian nation, it’s easy to imagine the history being told as if we were a Christian nation, lost our way because of the liberals, and folks like Kirk and Trump helped us find our way again.

Of course I don’t know what’s next, but I know that we live in a time when even my elderly Trump-adoring family members would never say a bad word about King or JFK. They’ll say they liked him and that they remember being so sad when they were killed. Will people in the future remember Kirk and, even if they would have opposed him with all their might if they were alive when he was active, will they still be socialized to view him as a hero in the arc of history. I guess it depends on which arc we follow.