Conservatives need to guard American history—no one else will

Trump announced that he has called upon the National Guard to to provide unarmed security for national monuments in DC. I think they should be armed. He also said he would be issuing a “strong” and “powerful” Executive Order making it unlawful to destroy national monuments, but it already is prohibited by federal law. I think this is a step in the right direction but it might be too little too late.

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.

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."

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."

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?"

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.

Of course Kelly, a radio host in the Houston area, does not want to cancel education—although he’d probably like to cancel how progressive education has become. What he did want to do—and succeeded in doing—was to point out how illogical and absurd this erasure of history really is for Americans.

People are flawed, America made mistakes in her early years. We already know this, took responsibility, and changed it. Why on earth would we banish everything related to our past? That would leave America with no valuable history to ponder and learn from. What is Rome without the coliseum? What is America without the Mayflower? Follow cancel culture to its logical conclusion and you get a country with nothing but a party seething for power.

I read 1984 in college and this quote from George Orwell keeps coming to mind. It meant little to me then but it’s so spot on now it gives me chills: “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

The highly organized, concerted effort to erase what is dear to America’s founding—however flawed—is an effort to gain power by all means necessary. This is an attempted play to gain power using destruction and fear. Sure, it is the way tyrants gain power, not the democratic way power is typically gained in America, but it is power nonetheless.

Marxism is unethical, immoral, and lovers of liberty and the Constitution would do well to remain far away from embracing any of its tenets. It fails in every setting in which it is tried because its core principles are flawed.

For a brief but sound primer and why Marx was wrong, watch this clip from Jordan Peterson.

This is why President Trump and the GOP who still retain some power must no longer stand idly by as the nation is systematically destroyed from within. It’s not just about toddlers having a tantrum, which I think is what Trump believes this is. Soon we will look around and there will be nothing but a few Republicans and a swath of uncontrollable leftists who want to satiate their taste for tyranny.

Trump and the GOP must encourage state and local officials to step in and stop the dismantling of America’s history. Issue commands to guard every piece of America’s past. Ask law enforcement to guard every emancipator and by doing so, we curb the mob and guard our future. Now is the time for Trump to utilize every ounce of law enforcement he can, legally and within his power, to make the statement that enough is enough. Cancel culture is canceled, the Statue Wars are over, and it’s time to make America peaceful and prosperous again.