Introduction to the 2020 Election Special Issue
Keywords:
2020 election, social studies education, civic education, teaching controversial issuesAbstract
Social studies educators face a daunting task with teaching civic education in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Donald Trump’s political career has been predicated on stoking political hyperpartisanship to portray himself as the defender of Republicans’ beliefs and opponent of Democrats’ policies that he deemed harmful to the United States. Trump has challenged his opponents’ patriotism as can be seen with Collin Kaepernick and even went so far to say that some of his political enemies should be arrested (Cheney, 2020; Serwer, 2017). He entered the political arena pushing birther claims with no evidence that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya (Halperin & Heilemann, 2013). This brand of right wing politics continued throughout Trump’s administration as demonstrated by his response to the tragedy at Charlottesville and urging that he would fight to prevent the removal of Confederate monuments dotting the American landscape (Collins & Subramanian, 2020; Diamond, 2017). Trump’s actions have mainly been used to frame himself as a right wing cultural warrior, despite the fact that he made large campaign donations to Democrats prior to his entry into the American political arena (Kurtzleben, 2015). The ripple effects from the Trump administration are still being felt in U.S. society as will be discussed in the following pages of this special issue.
References
Barr, R., Barth, J., & Shermis, S. (1977). Defining the social studies. NCSS Bulletin 51.
NCSS.
Bartels, L. (2016). Unequal democracy: The political economy of the New Gilded Age (2nd ed.).
Russell Sage Foundation.
Cheney, K. (2020, October 7). ‘Where are all of the arrests?’: Trump demands Barr lock up his
foes. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/07/trump-demands-barr-arrest-foes-427389
Choi, J. (2021, April 15). Pat Robertson: Chauvin should be put 'under the jail.' The Hill.
Clabough, J. (2017). Helping develop students’ civic identities through exploring public
issues. The Councilor: A Journal of the Social Studies, 78(2), 1-9.
Clabough, J. (2018). Analyzing Richard Nixon’s “political death and resurrection” to
strengthen students’ civic thinking skills. The Social Studies, 109(4), 177-185.
Clabough, J. & Wooten, D. (2016). Bias, bigotry, and bungling: Teaching about the Port
Chicago 50. Social Education, 80(3), 160-165.
Cole, D. (2020, June 10). Top Trump officials claim there's no systemic racism in US law
enforcement agencies as Americans flood streets in protest. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/politics/systemic-racism-trump-administration-officials-barr-carson-wolf/index.html
Collins, M., & Subramanian, C. (June 23, 2020). Trump vows to issue executive order protecting
statues, says it would 'reinforce' current law. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/23/confederate-statues-trump-issue-order-protecting-federal-monuments/3241036001/
Cummings, W., Garrison, J., & Sergent, J. (2021, June 6). By the numbers: President Donald
Trump's failed efforts to overturn the election. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2021/01/06/trumps-failed-efforts-overturn-election-numbers/4130307001/
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. Macmillan.
Diamond, J. (2017, August 17). Trump calls removal of Confederate monuments ‘so foolish.’
CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/17/politics/trump-tweet-confederate-statues/index.html
Frank, T. (2004). What’s the matter with Kansas? How conservatives won the heart of America.
Henry Holt and Company.
Fritz, J., Nowicki, D., & Collins, M. (2019, March 21). What's driving Donald Trump's feud with
John McCain? War record, Obamacare among the themes. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/21/how-did-donald-trump-john-mccain-feud-begin-obsession/3228906002/
Halperin, M. & Heilemann, J. (2013). Double down: Game change 2012. Penguin Press.
Hess, D.E. & McAvoy, P. (2015). The political classroom: Evidence and ethics in democratic
education. Taylor and Francis.
Kawashima-Ginsberg, K., & Junco, R. (2018). Teaching controversial issues in a time of
polarization. Social Education, 82(6), 323-329.
Kornacki, S. (2018). The red and the blue: The 1990s and the birth of political tribalism. Harper
Collins.
Kurtzleben, D. (2015, July 28). Most of Donald Trump's political money went to Democrats —
until 5 years ago. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/28/426888268/donald-trumps-flipping-political-donations
Martin, J. (2021, January 11). Vote for Trump? These Republican leaders aren’t on the
bandwagon. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/politics/trump-biden-republicans-voters.html
Nobles, R., Barrett, T., Raju, M., & Rogers, A. (2021, May 28). Senate Republicans block
January 6 commission. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/politics/january-6-commission-vote-senate/index.html
Oliver, D. & Shaver, J. (1966). Teaching public issues in the high school. Houghton Mifflin.
Packer, G. (2021, May 15). Can Civics Save America? The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/civics-education-1619-crt/618894/
Phillips, A. (2017), “ ‘They’re rapists’ President Trump’s campaign launch speech two years
later, annotated.” The Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/news/thefix/
wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-laterannotated/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6a3a7f07ae02
Reuters Staff (2017, November 4). Neither George Bush voted for Trump, book author tells New
York Times. Reuters News. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-bush-book/neither-george-bush-voted-for-trump-book-author-tells-new-york-times-idUSKBN1D40TP
Richards, E., Aspegren, E., & Mansfield, E. (2021, February 4). A year into the pandemic,
thousands of students still can't get reliable wifi for school. The digital divide remains worse than ever. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/02/04/covid-online-school-broadband-internet-laptops/3930744001/
Schuessler, J. (2021, January 19). The ideas behind Trump’s 1776 Commission Report. The New
York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/arts/1776-commission-claims-
trump.html
Searcey, D., & Zucchion, D. (2020, June 6). Protests swell across America as George
Floyd is mourned near his birthplace. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/george-floyd-memorial-protests.html
Serwer, A. (2017). Trump's war of words with black athletes. The Atlantic.
Serwer, A. (2021, May 21). Why conservatives want to cancel the 1619 Project. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/why-conservatives-want-cancel-1619-project/618952/
Sprunt, B. (2021, May 12). GOP ousts Cheney from leadership over her criticism Of Trump.
The National Council for the Social Studies (2013). The college, career, and civic life framework
for social studies state standards: Guidance for enhancing the rigor of K-12 civics, economics, geography, and history. Author.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Research Issues in Contemporary Education (RICE) is a nationally indexed, double-blind, peer-reviewed online journal that publishes educational research studies, literature reviews, theoretical manuscripts, and practitioner-oriented articles regarding issues in education. Views expressed in all published articles are the views of the author(s), and publication in RICE does not constitute endorsement. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published and is not currently under review for publication elsewhere.
RICE is an online journal available in the public domain, and use of its content is protected by a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This license provides authors with an assurance that LERA values their rights to their scholarly works and has adopted this license to restrict use of RICE content without appropriate permission and attribution.