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Friday, August 18, 2017

Lets take the argument over Confederate Monuments to its logical conclusion, shall we?


Last week was not the first time I'd heard someone complain about Confederate War Monuments, but it had never really galvanized the left in this country until the disgusting violence that occurred last week in Charlottesville, Virginia.  I'm not really sure why, but some folks believe that the actions of a handful of absurd, lunatic racists, including one now charged with murder, is somehow connected to the existence of Confederate War Monuments that have been standing, many of them, for over a century.  All pretense aside, the truth is, the left has taken advantage of this tragedy to push the Confederate Monuments debate to the forefront simply to keep alive the flow of criticism directed at President Donald Trump.  Initially, President Trump was attacked in the press for not singling out "white supremacists" in his commentary condemning the violence.  Never known for letting an opportunity slip by, the left used this event to bring attention to the existence of numerous Confederate Civil War Monuments across the nation, but mostly in southern cities.  Anticipating that President Trump would not throw his southern supporters under the bus, the media's insertion of this topic into our cultural discourse was perfectly timed to keep the criticism of the President at a fever pitch.  Democratic leaders could not wait to express outrage at the continued existence of these statues and memorials, even though most, including House Minority Leader Nancy Polosi, have been working around Confederate Monuments for decades and only now are finding reason to complain.

Lets take this discussion in a logical direction, shall we? I'm willing to accept that many Americans are uncomfortable with Monuments to people who were slave owners and were fighting to uphold that inhuman practice.  But if we're going to get rid of monuments to men who supported slavery, lets at least be consistent.  Instead of singling out Civil War Generals Robert E. Lee and John Bell Hood, and statesmen like Confederate President Jefferson Davis, lets make a clean sweep of things and start at the beginning.  Lets go back to the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation.  We need to remove all statues and public acclaim for our most historic military hero and first president, George Washington; he was a slaveholder who made no effort to include abolition of slavery in the writing of the Constitution.  Neither did James Madison, James Monroe or John Adams.  Heck, Thomas Jefferson not only owned a plantation full of slaves, he kept a few females as concubines.  Has anyone thought about what we might call Washington State and Washington DC, now that we are abolishing all honorifics for persons who supported slavery?  Time to rename James Madison and George Mason Universities.  What will we do with our currency?  Shall we put Ronald Reagan on the dollar bill, and Bill Clinton on the nickle?  Who gets the honor of dynamiting half of Mt. Rushmore?

Better yet, lets include avowed segregationists on this list as well.  During the 1950's and 1960's, there were a number of high-profile politicians who put up one road block after another in an effort to block integration and the Civil Rights Act.  What about William Fulbright, famous for the Fulbright Scholarship?  President Bill Clinton dedicated a statue to his mentor Senator Fulbright, in a ceremony at the University of Arkansas in 2002.  Fulbright was a dyed-in-the-wool southern segregationist; do you homework so we can add him to the list, which will be a mile-long by the time we're finished.  I'm guessing somewhere along the way, someone from the left is going to suggest that we only focus on Civil War racists.  I'm okay with that, as long as you explain it to me and the American people.  Why is a slaveholder in 1861 more evil than one in the late 1700's?

At the end of the day, this is all about politics, which is disgusting, because I believe that many Americans truly are hurt by the idea of monuments to slave holders, and I sincerely respect their emotions on this issue.  But history is history, and we can't erase the past arbitrarily.  The Nazis were good at picking and choosing what parts of German history to trash and what events to embrace.  But don't hold your breath on this one.  As soon as the public gets a bit tired of this headline, the press will have another Trump-related scandal for us to digest.  These distractions have one true goal- the destruction of the Trump agenda.  Democrats are petrified not of Trump, but of the agenda on which he campaigned.  They realize that tighter border security and immigration reform will make our nation safer, that re-negotiated Trade Agreements will boast our exports, and that a stronger military will make us the most respected nation in the world, as opposed to Obama's effort to make us the most popular.  More jobs and less obsession with the fringes of our society is Making America Great Again.  Why is the Trump agenda so dangerous to Democrats?  Because after its implemented, and the economy takes off and real jobs return, we may not see another Democrat in the White House for some time.

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