Bending history to the arc of ideology 

In the bio that follows his recent essay in The Hill, Mike Purdy is partly credited as a "presidential historian." A more accurate descriptor would be "historical revisionist."

Legitimate historians understand that issues and events are often complex, involving competing interests and perspectives. When viewed objectively and in toto, they rarely lend themselves to pat characterizations. 

A few examples of Purdy's counterfeit renditions, plucked out in passing:

In Charlottesville and the failure of moral leadership, Purdy said of then-candidate Trump: "[H]e attempted to create false equivalencies between the protesters and counter-protesters." 

But in speaking of "good people on both sides," Trump was acknowledging reality. The Charlottesville Unite the Right event drew hundreds of attendees, if not more. And, as contemporaneous accounts and video attest, both sides included armed antagonists hungering to do battle. There were also peaceful Americans on either side, who simply differed in political persuasion. 

Like so many, Purdy errs by thinking appropriate sympathy with the general anti-racism cause necessarily equates to never being critical of anyone marching beneath that banner, no matter how worthy of condemnation their actions may be. 

That distortive prejudice also necessitates unwarrantedly consigning all gathered to protest the razing of Robert E. Lee's statue to the execrable neo-Nazi garbage heap.

Purdy wrote that by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln encouraged Americans to "live out the creed enshrined in the Declaration of Independence that 'All men are created equal.'"

It is indeed a good thing that proclamation was signed. (And it would have been better, still, if the document had never been needed.) But Purdy's rosy rendering does not acknowledge that Lincoln may well have had another, perhaps less noble, ambition. The legendary president spelled it out in an 1862 letter to Horace Greeley:

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not to either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it. And if I could do it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I believe it would not help save the Union." 

(In closing, Lincoln did reiterate his "personal belief" in freedom for all men.)

Purdy noted that Lyndon Johnson advocated Congress passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But he did not cite that, in the senate, the bill was opposed by a "Southern Bloc" of 18 Democrats and one Republican. They orchestrated a 54-day filibuster that resulted in compromise legislation.

Purdy also neglected to record the final vote breakdown by party: The senate version passed with the support of 82 Republicans, but only 69 Democrats. The House passed the senate version with 80 Republicans in favor, compared to just 62 Democrats. 

The effect conveyed by Purdy was that Democrats had as a party endorsed the momentous legislation. In fact it had been Republicans who'd been its supporting majority.

Purdy also claimed candidate Trump declared that "Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists." That misrepresentation is popular in partisan quarters. But Purdy, ostensibly a trustworthy  historian, is not supposed to be traveling in such company. 

Trump never said or implied 'all.' That a percentage of illegal immigrants do match that description is a truth borne out by relevant statistics. 

Perhaps conceding that reality is unpleasant, but to quote Ben Shapiro: "Facts don't care about your feelings."

A world events chronicler of unimpeachable professional character would records facts dispassionately and without concern as to how they might impact the fortunes of ideologies. 

"Presidential moral leadership requires the president to condemn racism -- strongly and in all forms," Purdy asserts.

That's true, And Trump has. Here's a fine quote from our president that Purdy somehow missed:

"Racism is evil," Trump declared in one post-Charlottesville address. "And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

Those wondering how Fake News finds its misleading way into the historical record would do well to consider the probity of some irresponsible partisans calling themselves historians.