Does the fact the General fought for the Confederacy keep us from learning any positive lessons from him? And if it does, what have we lost? And whose fault is it that we have lost it?
Read history, works of truth, not novels and romances.
—Robert E. Lee—
Keep people from their history, and they are easily controlled.
—Karl Marx—
Key point: The movement to remove historical monuments is not about fighting racism. It’s about stirring up hostility and animosity in society in order to implement socialism. That’s the “dirty little secret” elites don’t want you to know.
You can access all the articles in this series from this page.
Last time we began to examine the extreme nature of leftists’ demands to eliminate from the American historical record everyone who was white who may have had any ties to slavery. The demands are unreasonable, especially given the fact that America’s Founders were born into a world where slavery was embedded into the fabric of the culture.
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- Even though the Founding Fathers did not explicitly oppose slavery in the Declaration of Independence in 1776 when the United States was established, they did, in fact, oppose it implicitly.
- Moreover, even though eleven years later the Framers of the Constitution did not eliminate slavery outright in the document they signed and sent to the states for ratification, they set the new nation on a course that eventually would lead it to abolish the institution.
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Yes, the process took longer than it should have; and yes, unfortunately, a bloody civil war occurred before slavery finally was put to an end. The journey to guaranteeing civil rights for all would take another century, primarily because of bullying tactics and political maneuvering on the part of Democrats. Even so, the direction in which America was headed was clear. We must not underestimate the importance of the actions the Founders took at our nation’s inception.
History can never be properly or accurately understood without taking into account “the big picture.” In other words, looking at the past
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- through the lens of only one issue and
- from a perch planted in 21st-century attitudes
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leads us to simplistic — and wrong — conclusions about our forebears, the challenges they faced, and the actions they took to meet those challenges. This is true with regard to our understanding of all historical personalities, both leaders and “ordinary” citizens.
Looking at the past (1) through the lens of only one issue and (2) from a perch planted in 21st-century attitudes leads us to simplistic — and wrong — conclusions about our forebears, the challenges they faced, and the actions they took to meet those challenges.
This PragerU video makes this case very effectively. You will remember it from part 3. In it, Douglas Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds, blows the lid off the 1619 Project by showing it to be both misleading and agenda-driven. Here is a transcript of Murray’s presentation. You can learn more about the 1619 project and its nefarious goals here.1
The objectives are nefarious because, despite elitists’ claims, social justice crusaders aren’t really about challenging and reducing racism. Instead, they’re trying to stir up animosity and tension in society. Unfortunately, they’re succeeding with tactics that are themselves overtly racist and rooted in Marxism. For example, as we said last time, “Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization that is set on destroying foundational tenets in America, and ultimately America itself. It and its leaders should be called out as such.”
Let me be clear. I’m not saying everyone who thinks the social justice movement is a good thing or everyone who supports the removal of monuments necessarily wants to destroy America — but some clearly do. Far too few observers have the courage to call out those people, lest they themselves be accused of racism by the elites. The irony is palpable.
Clues that Point to Evidence of Subversive Intent
How do we know the elites who demand the removal of historical monuments have nefarious goals, goals that are contrary to the ideals on which our country was founded? The answer is multi-faceted.
Item one: History shows that quite often, the defacing and destruction of historical monuments precedes or accompanies revolution. We discussed this reality in our last post.
Item two: The elites have not acted with integrity. They do not consistently apply the standards they use against historical figures to themselves.
Item three: When given the opportunity to show us what’s really important to them, the elites uphold “values” that directly work against the ordered liberty America’s Founders endeavored to promote.
Item four: A look at the “big picture” of elites’ actions demonstrates clearly that racism isn’t their main target. What, or who, is their primary target? Ironically, they are at war with the only entity who truly can combat racism and other societal ills. More on this in a moment.
Having addressed the first item already, let’s tackle the second, third, and forth. We will illustrate these mainly by citing the actions of one leader: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. While certain specific details are unique to Governor Northam, the elitist and leftist attitudes are not.
Item 2: The Elites Have Not Acted with Integrity but Have Shown Their Hypocrisy
As Douglas Murray indicates in his PragerU video presentation, leftists are arrogant. They also are hypocritical. Dennis Prager himself expresses it well. In an article titled “Those Who Don’t Fight Evil Fight Statues,” Prager indicates that people want desperately to look in the mirror and feel they have made society better, but leftists emphasize
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- the feeling more than the action, and
- what they do more than how society is affected.
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Self-righteousness is both a cause and a product of this perspective. Prager observes that leftist attitudes and actions breed feelings of moral superiority: “Leftists know they are more compassionate, more enlightened, more intellectual and more intelligent than conservatives. And they know that they care more about the ‘downtrodden,’ the ‘marginalized’ and the ‘disenfranchised’ than conservatives.” Prager continues,
Leftists know they are more compassionate, more enlightened, more intellectual and more intelligent than conservatives. And they know that they care more about the “downtrodden,” the “marginalized” and the “disenfranchised” than conservatives.
—Dennis Prager—
But to feel good about yourself, you have to fight against something bad. Since the left doesn’t fight real evil (that would take moral courage in addition to moral clarity), it has to fight lesser evils or made-up evils.
Thus, among leftists’ targets has been the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia that was removed on Wednesday, September 8.
Richmond Mayor Lavar Stoney said of the removal, “We are taking an important step this week to embrace the righteous cause and put the ‘Lost Cause’ behind us. Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. We are a diverse, open and welcoming city, and our symbols need to reflect this reality.”
Does Mayor Stoney also welcome those who believe that Robert E. Lee and other Confederates may have had qualities — any qualities — worth emulating, or that their lives and experiences might offer valuable lessons for 21st-century Americans? Don’t be fooled. The kind of “diversity” Mayor Stoney embraces is a lot less diverse than he would have us believe.
In June of 2020, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam initially called for the statue of Robert E. Lee to be taken down, but legal wrangling kept the removal from occurring until September 8, a year and three months later. Of the removal, Northam said,
After 133 years, the statue of Robert E. Lee has finally come down—the last Confederate statue on Monument Avenue, and the largest in the South. The public monuments reflect the story we choose to tell about who we are as a people. It is time to display history as history, and use the public memorials to honor the full and inclusive truth of who we are today and in the future.”
Forget Lee! Governor Northam effectively said. Lee doesn’t represent Virginia today. Yet Virginians and everyone else know that Robert E. Lee isn’t a contemporary Virginian, but one who lived from 1807 to 1870. The monument is, and was, about the past, not the present — except for the constructive lessons that Robert E. Lee and his perspective and experiences can bring to the present. Constructive lessons from Lee? Not in Ralph Northam’s book. The message from Northam is clear: Lee had to be a racist and an oppressor, because he fought for the Confederacy! Forget him and everything about him!
Meanwhile, there’s this from February 1, 2019.
While Governor Northam apologized for appearing in the yearbook as he did, he is applying a different standard to General Robert E. Lee than he is to himself. And that is hypocritical!
There’s yet another aspect to this, as well. Forget the past! we were told on Wednesday, September 8, when the statue of Robert E. Lee was removed from its pedestal on Monument Avenue in Richmond. Three days later — Saturday, September 11, 2021 — was the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Never forget! we were told, and instinctively we understood our need to remember: Noteworthy events and people from the past (difficult though they were, and imperfect though they were, respectively) offer us lessons that make us wiser — if we will be open to them and heed what they teach.
Noteworthy events and people from the past (difficult though they were, and imperfect though they were, respectively) offer us lessons that make us wiser — if we will be open to them and heed what they teach.
How ironic that remembering is thoroughly condemned, then upheld and extolled three days later! I agree with Dennis Prager: Leftists think they’re morally superior to everyone else, and they are perfectly happy promoting their own agendas (which to them also are morally superior) by robbing Americans of its past leaders and effectively telling them whom they must not appreciate from the past. And to top it all off, Ralph Northam himself, despite his pompous, self-righteous attitude, leaves no sterling example to emulate. I encourage all Virginians and all Americans to remember just how bereft of integrity Governor Northam is. By the way, Virginia’s governor also is an advocate of infanticide.
Item Three: Two Time Capsules Reveal What Leftists Really Treasure
Leftists don’t just try to dictate who is and isn’t worthy of respect, but also what values should be promoted. The pedestal for the Robert E. Lee statue held a time capsule, the contents of which were replaced with items that supposedly “better reflect” contemporary Virginians’ values. Governor Northam said,
This monument and its time capsule reflected Virginia in 1890 [the year they were unveiled] — and it’s time to remove both, so that our public spaces better reflect who we are as a people in 2021. The past 18 months have seen historic change, from the pandemic to protests for racial justice that led to the removal of these monuments to a lost cause. It is fitting that we replace the old time capsule with a new one that tells that story.
Writing for the Family Research Council’s (FRC’s) Washington Update, Joshua Arnold reports that the contents of the original time capsule were assembled “by a defeated and occupied people against their victorious and vindictive foes. But it also looked forward.” Among the artifacts was an 1881 brochure created to help new arrivals to America understand the nation and its people and assimilate. Of Virginia the flyer said, “the heart-burnings of the conflict are subsiding: and Virginia will yet be richer and greater for the trials and losses she has endured.”
The brochure and the items that accompanied it were replaced with set of new items that included a Black Lives Matter promotional sticker, a “pride” pin promoting the LGBT movement, a sash declaring “Ratify ERA,” and a face mask. Thus, “the 2021 capsule tells the story of a protest, not a people.” Sadly, from the annuls of “Virginia’s long and splendid history, it commemorates only the introduction of slavery in 1619.”
For many years, evangelical Christians were condemned for what people incorrectly thought of as the Religious Right’s trying to impose its values on the rest of society. Chuck Colson got it right when he said Christians weren’t imposing, but proposing. Now, in light of the items that have been selected to replace the time capsule’s original contents, I simply would ask, Who is now trying to impose their values on whom?
FRC’s Joshua Arnold understands the implications of the events of September 8 and the attitudes they represent. He observes that “to the new orthodoxy, America cannot have heroes, only villains.…The modern Left cannot lead America into a shining, utopian future because it does not believe in one. They believe only in perpetual protest, even while they dominate the cultural and political elite. Their vision is darker than a Netflix original series.”
The modern Left cannot lead America into a shining, utopian future because it does not believe in one. They believe only in perpetual protest, even while they dominate the cultural and political elite.
—Family Research Council’s Joshua Arnold—
Item Four: The Big Picture Shows What Leftists Value — And What — and Whom — They Hate
- On a Conversations That Matter Podcast with Jon Harris released on September 9, I was privileged to be Jon’s guest for the first half of the program. During the second half, Jon interviewed Rebecca Dillingham, who blogs at www.dissidentmama.net. Rebecca has a keen awareness of the dangers of trashing history rather than learning from it. These two clips from Jon’s and Rebecca’s conversation are extremely insightful.
Why has the left targeted Robert E. Lee? Rebecca Dillingham says they’ve targeted him because he was a Christian. An unbiased look at the “big picture” indicates she is right.
Jon Harris observes that Robert E. Lee isn’t really the primary target. The Founders, including George Washington, are targets that are even closer to the bull’s eye. Ultimately, however, whether leftists realize it or not, their central target is God. Listen to Jon. His observation is astute!
The Bottom Line
Friends, ultimately, the political elites jettisoning America’s history today are doing so because they wish to eliminate Christianity from this nation! They know that if they are successful in erasing biblical Christianity from American history, they will succeed in eliminating it from the nation’s present landscape.
You see, despite Russell Moore’s perspective, this isn’t just about being sensitive to people whose ancestors may have been oppressed by slavery or racism in the past. This is about America’s future!
I can guarantee you that socialism will oppress everyone…except the elites! Remember that Karl Marx said, “My object in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism.” Remember that Marx also said (as we have noted at the top), “Keep people from their history, and they are easily controlled.”
Friends, the elites are endeavoring to do these very things.
Don’t let them get away with it! Fight back!
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Special Notice:
Hillsdale College offers a refreshing alternative to the 1619 project called “The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum.”
You can learn more about it here and here.
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Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Note:
1Hillsdale College offers a refreshing alternative to the 1619 project called “The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum.” You can learn more about it here and here.
image credit: Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney
image credit: Virginia Governor Ralph Northam
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