The Left Focuses On Tearing Down Statues When They Should Be Condemning Violence

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, the Left has returned to one of its favorite pastimes: tearing down statues and defacing public property. Instead of making a grown-up argument that Confederate war monuments shouldn’t be funded by taxpayer dollars, Leftists have simply determined that it’s fine to tear down statues they don’t like, without even engaging in a serious historical or political debate.

Now, there are strong arguments on both sides of the aisle regarding the removal of Confederate war monuments. In favor: the Confederacy lost, as it should have; the people who fought for the Confederacy fought to uphold the evil institution of slavery, and descendants of slaves shouldn’t have to foot the bill for the upkeep of monuments to their would-be oppressors. That’s a pretty damn good argument. Opposed: those who fought for the Confederacy weren’t only fighting over slavery — about one-third of white families under the Confederacy owned slaves — but over their belief that their states should be free of federal encroachment; removing historic memorials generally is a bad idea because it prevents us from discussing our history, both good and ill. These are arguments that should be had at the public level, and voting should solve them. My own position is that the Confederate flag shouldn’t fly over public grounds but is perfectly appropriate with regard to Confederate war memorials, that Confederate war memorials have little to do with the perpetuation of racism today, and that the best solution might be to privatize those memorials and place them in museums in any case.