OPINION: Is the Smithsonian racist? MAGA makes a case in New…

And when your polls are sinking, as Trump’s have been, and midterm calamity appears to be coming for the ruling party, another insult will do in a pinch.

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Museum Director Hartig cordially answered questions from two separate House committees about what the report describes as the “ideological capture” of the Smithsonian. More Newspeak.

To their credit, some Democrats pushed back on the GOP Newspeak with blazing rhetoric of their own.

“Welcome to the Republicans’ white pride rally disguised as a Congressional hearing,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, of Texas, declared at the proceeding.

Alas, such frankness is why a lot of Republicans were happy to see her gerrymandered out of her district. Straight talk has its value — when people are ready to hear it.

History is to be argued, a scholarly history teacher taught us in grade school. A lot of Americans, for example, still believe the South won the Civil War, she said. Or should have.

And that’s why, even if the study and practice of historical scholarship is inherently political, it should not follow rules set by hardball partisan politics. Historical debates between scholars can be contentious enough without the interference of the House Department of Government Efficiency Subcommittee.

Diversity is our strength, as I long have long maintained, although MAGA militants deem that little chestnut to be heresy. (Are you listening, Stephen Miller?)

A lot of my diverse fellow Americans believe a wide variety of versions of history. The challenge of maintaining the peace between all those views is enormous and neverending, especially in these times when the internet offers cheap and accessible platforms to all manner of supposed authorities, whether in reality they are charlatans or actual scholars.

“For more than 180 years, the Smithsonian has served the American public with nonpartisan and independent scholarship, and we remain committed to doing so,” a museum spokesperson said.

Good. History is about the future, wise teachers have told me, not just the next election.

Page is a former member of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board and writes for Tribune Content Agency. He may be contacted at clarence47page@gmail.com.

TNS