Conservatives need to guard American history—no one else will

On Tuesday, a reporter from the Daily Caller recorded a crowd making plans to destroy yet another US historical monument. Andy Ngo tweeted the now-viral video of a mob cheering at the chance, not just to topple a piece of history, but one that actually commemorated the emancipation of slaves themselves. If that’s not irony, I don’t know what is.

June 24, 2020

Of course, what the crowd thought they were tearing down and what the monument actually represents couldn't be further apart. As Christina Hoff Sommers writes, "The DC monument the mob intends to destroy was paid for by donations from emancipated African-Americans in 1876. Frederick Douglas spoke at the unveiling. In 1974, it was rotated to face a memorial honouring celebrated black educator Mary McLeod Bethune."

June 24, 2020

An historian was recorded talking about the history of the monument, and the symbolism in the art work.

She said, "Folks tend to think of that figure as being servile. But at a second look you will see something different perhaps. That man is not kneeling on two knees with his head bowed, he is in the act of getting up. And his head is up, not bowed, because he's looking forward to a future of freedom.

"People have said 'well, he's chained to Mr. Lincoln.' On a closer look you will see that while there's a shackle in his right hand, he is holding the end of a broken chain, which means he has taken his freedom. He now realizes he's free."

June 24, 2020

You could call it a watershed moment in the Statue Wars, the 1619 Riots, or whatever we’re calling them. The destruction of historical monuments that honor moments in American history where the status quo was upended and progress occurred is a revealing juncture indeed.

It means that the protests, riots, and destruction we’ve been observing on social media for the better part of two weeks has nothing to do with George Floyd, race, injustice, or law enforcement: It has to do with a Marxist worldview, pushed by progressives using Black Lives Matter as a ruse, a Trojan horse to garner sympathy from the masses. Toppling monuments is the proverbial canary in the coal mine and it must be stopped before the movement gains further steam.

On “The View” this week, Meghan McCain said she thought the effort to remove “offensive” statues had gone too far. Her comment was in response to the announcement the day prior that the American Museum of Natural History in New York City said it was going to remove the statue of Roosevelt outside its entrance. Apparently there are Native American and black figures depicted in the work flanking Roosevelt’s horse. I agree with McCain, where does it end?

McCain noted that "There's many institutions & many statues throughout history... that are problematic, that are going to be insulting, that are from 250 years ago if not longer that represent things we don't like. I think the question I have is how far does this go?"

June 25, 2020

Over the weekend, another interesting thing happened in the so-called Statute Wars. Jesse Kelly, a friend and fellow Texan, tweeted that Yale was named after Elihu Yale, a former slave ship owner and slave trader. Thus, he concluded, Yale must be “canceled.” So too, should Brown, Stanford, and any other high falutin but highly progressive university that actually was somehow reminiscent or named after America’s flawed past. Kelly’s tweets went so viral #CancelYale trended on Twitter for the day.

June 23, 2020