From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:
Like a lot of conservatives, [U.S. Senate candidate Jeff] Bell argues that the effort to remove historical artifacts has its roots in the Stalin methodology that George Orwell highlighted in “1984.”
“Orwell satirized the idea of a ‘memory hole’ and now the left is starting to have a memory hole for anything they don’t believe in,” he said. “They don’t want Americans to be proud of their country. They want to change the story into a triumph of evil.”
True enough. But Mulshine goes on to include Confederate monuments in the category of historic American artifacts that deserve to be preserved. That’s where we differ.
First of all, there is no “alt-Left”. The Left has always been anti-American, at least since the rise of the New Left half a century ago. It stands to reason that they’d want to remove true American heroes, and morally equate a Washington with a Lee. Under cover of the white nationalist, alt-Right controversy, the New Left is making a direct assault on reason, individual rights, limited rights-protecting government, and free market capitalism.
Having said that, count me among those who would remove statues that hold up Confederate leaders among America’s heros. They are no such thing. True, history is messy. Most historical figures were mixed bags, morally. Plus, context is everything. We should be very careful about where we draw the moral lines. It should not be taken lightly. Many factors must be balanced. But we can and should draw moral lines.
Does a lack of statues honoring Nazis in Germany mean that people no longer know about Nazis? No. History is not erased by the removal or absence of a few symbols. In fact, symbols themselves tell us nothing of history. Statues are just figures who could be anyone without the context of an adjacent plaque or common knowledge. If you eliminate the symbol, its history remains; if you eliminate the history, the figure means nothing. We should be more concerned about history being left out or altered by those in control of the history books. People like, say, Texans. Once again, Republicans cry about some evil that they themselves perpetrate to a much greater extent.
Now, I am also not sure when a historical figure’s wrongdoing justifies the removal of a statue erected in honor of his good works, but I have to wonder how many of these Confederate statues honor anything more than fighting (and losing) for the South in a war that had quite a lot to do with slavery. Fighting alone is not enough reason to be honored. Fighting (and losing!) for a bad cause is a reason to be condemned.
Always a hoot.
So let’s get this straight. Leftists “hate America” yet want to remove statues of traitors. And Mike agrees with us. Hmm. Must be our only redeeming quality.
It’s a good thing he has a cover story about that Marxist egalitarian slavery we are all demanding.