“As if George Wallace had won in 1968″

As historian Jon Meacham explained to the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump is bringing about "a return to the most disturbing elements of white supremacy."

"This is as if George Wallace had won in 1968, that’s where we are," Meacham explained, referring to the independent presidential candidate who ran in that year's presidential election by running on an openly racist platform. "If we'd been talking fifty years ago today, the level of violence in the country would have been incredibly high. We would have just buried Sen. [Robert] Kennedy, just buried Dr. [Martin Luther] King. We'd be heading into the Chicago Democratic National Convention. You had an immense amount of violence, both on the left and on the right. George Wallace carried five states, 13.5 percent of the vote, in November of '68. But he didn't win."

Meacham added, "The one through-line here from Charlottesville to this issue is — to use your phrase — a return to the most disturbing elements of white supremacy, white male supremacy to be precise, in the national character."

Meacham made it clear that Americans can't dodge the fact that the ugly impulses which Trump has brought to the fore are very much ingrained in the nation's history. ...