Hiring of former Trump aide at UVa prompts 2 historians to quit

[DonViejo]

By BENJAMIN WERMUND 07/30/2018 08:30 AM EDT

Two prominent historians are leaving a public policy center at the University of Virginia in protest over its plan to hire a former aide to President Donald Trump, calling the aide, Marc Short, "complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse."

William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler announced Monday they are resigning from the Miller Center, a wing of the university focused on presidential history and public policy, over its hiring of Short, Trump’s former legislative affairs director.

In their resignation letter, the historians blasted Short for not distancing himself from Trump's response to the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in the death of a 32-year-old woman and in which Trump famously blamed "both sides."

"By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university," they wrote.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/30/marc-short-uva-2-historians-quit-1682069

[lark]

1. Anyone who ever worked for drumpf is totally too toxic for public work.

RW flaming assholes & racist haters are not wanted in public, they are anathema or they would never have worked for Agent Orange to begin with.

[Augiedog]

2. Imagine that, educated folks with a working moral compass. There is hope yet.

[DownriverDem]

4. Huh?

I know lots of educated people with a working moral compass. I hope you were kidding.

[Tucker08087]

7. I hope so, too.

MOST educated people see through the BS.

[barbtries]

3. Men with principles.

i like that. on the other hand trump cultists are as shameless as he is and this guy will probably be rewriting history every chance he gets.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[SharonClark]

6. My first inclination is to say Hitchcock and Leffler should stay and fight Short.

Although Leffler is 73 and might want to retire, Hitchcock is only 53 and has many years ahead of him.

I googled Short and he has no academic credentials. Not just working for Trump, he's worked in partisan politics (including for the Kochs) his ENTIRE post-college life. How is he even qualified?

Alumni of UV should speak up.

[dalton99a]

10. They're not leaving UVA

"They remain tenured faculty in the university's history department"

[TNNurse]

8. Who at UVA thought this was acceptable?

Students, alumni, faculty and staff should speak up.

[dalton99a]

9. William Antholis hired the racist asshole and should be fired

[Paladin]

11. Well done.

Members of the trump regime ought to receive this sort of public shaming at every opportunity.

[unc70]

12. They remain in the history department

They resigned from just the Miller Center.