A Princeton professor explains how the future will remember this election

Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton has written an article in Quartz describing how he thinks the 2016 election has reflected a shift in American politics.

Citing the effects of “new media” on politics, as well as a dramatic shift to the right for the Republican Party, Zelizer explains how future historians will explain this year’s election.

The upshot? “All the signs suggest it won’t be a pretty picture,” he writes.

Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs, says:

“First, the election of Donald Trump revealed the powerful reactionary forces pushing back against pluralism, diversity, and social tolerance in the US. American voters threw their support behind Trump for a variety of reasons, ranging from concerns about the economy to distaste for his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. But there is no doubt that Trump’s campaign both encouraged and benefited from the resurgence of xenophobia, Islamophobia, sexism, racism, and anti-Semitism in mainstream party politics.”

Describing this year’s election as a “transformative moment in US history,” he explains “there is much uncertainty about what president-elect Donald Trump’s term will bring.”

He goes on to say historians will remember this election “for the way it revealed the strength of white voters’ resistance to these changes, as well as their desire to find scapegoats to explain their economic struggles.”

The blurring of fact and fiction and the downfall of the Democrats, according to the professor, will also be future talking points for anyone trying to figure out what 2016 was on.

Zelizer concludes: “We don’t know exactly how historians will frame all of these developments in the future. But we can see the outlines of the conversation they will have. And all the signs suggest it won’t be a pretty picture.”

Encouraging.

Read the full post on Quartz.