Fans of history need to wait no longer. The events unfolding at the christening of the Trump administration would make for a fascinating discussion.

I believe that the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States was due in no small part to his overwhelming support from disaffected white men. Globalization and technological innovation has resulted in the loss of many jobs and steady income in large swathes of white electoral. This loss of livelihood has been especially pronounced in manufacturing cities of the Midwest and rural suburbs west of the Rockies. The Trump campaign recognized and capitalized upon this opportunity, and it was enough to propel their unlikely candidate into the White House.

In the process, Trump defeated sixteen other Republican candidates, many of whom were governors or senators, most of whom had more political experience, and all of whom had their sights set on the White House. Many of these candidates had been steeped by the mainstream media in a culture that values political correctness over blunt talk and flowery elocutions over direct action. Oblivious to the discontent, their soliloquies were short-lived.

Media darling Hillary Clinton was also none the wiser. Confident of a win against the GOP nominee, she rested on the laurels of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, and Bill Clinton, her husband. She preached exclusively to the democratic base. Her message was biased towards blacks and women, but alienated the largest part of the electorate that had been displaced by the policies of former.

But history shows well that displaced white men are not to be forgotten. They are a potent political force. In the post-Civil War ravaged South, many politicians rode the wave of disaffected Southern white men to office. Once masters of their plantations, these men now found themselves unable to repay debts or to even feed their families. Trapped in a desperate situation, many would resort to intimidation and vigilantism to gain political power. They became known as the Ku Klux Klan.

Interestingly, half a century later, in another part of the world, in debt-laden post-World War I Germany, another outsider would come to power similarly. He promised jobs and relief to the working class. On the backs of this group, the Nazis, Hitler would wipe out millions of Jews and conquer nearly all of Europe.

Then, the 2016 presidential election arrived. America was deep in debt from several unsuccessful wars. Globalization was bleeding millions of jobs from middle-class families. And the black man was elevated with the election of America’s first black president. Had American politicians examined history as much as they examined their pocketbooks, they perhaps would have seen that 2016 would be another fold in history. Instead, it would be the Washington outsider, whom the media thought was too crude to become president, whose father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally and who was rumored to keep a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside, who seized upon the golden opportunity abandoned by others.

History likes to repeat itself. Trump saw this, seized the moment, and the rest is history.