"It's not that Andrew Jackson had a "dark side," as his apologists rationalize and which all human beings have, but rather that Jackson was the Dark Knight in the formation of the United States as a colonialist, imperialist democracy, a dynamic formation that continues to constitute the core of US patriotism. The most revered presidents-Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, both Roosevelts, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, Obama-have each advanced populist imperialism while gradually increasing inclusion of other groups beyond the core of descendants of old settlers into the ruling mythology. All the presidents after Jackson march in his footsteps. Consciously or not, they refer back to him on what is acceptable, how to reconcile democracy and genocide and characterize it as freedom for the people."
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Presidents of the United StatesAcademics from the United StatesLawyers from the United StatesPoliticians from ArkansasSpecial Envoys of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Original Language: English
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Sources
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (2014)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
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