I would prefer to use this space for basic concepts rather than current affairs. Obviously, there are times when current affairs and basic concepts forcefully overlap. We are in such "interesting" times. The things we have been seeing over the last several days will be discussed for a generation, perhaps longer and it certainly seems to me to be time for us all to speak up. Forcing everyone to speak up is usually the end to populist / nativist waves. They return to froth on the rocky shore of common sense.
In the end it's a speech issue. Being angry, I started reading about speech and constitutional limits on speech. Looking for loopholes I suppose and I might have found some. I can make a pretty good argument that espousing Nazi ideas and displaying Nazi regalia sure could be illegal. I can make the same argument about Confederate regalia. Both of these things could be said to embody treason. Most people are against treason, as they should be. That's a pretty serious argument to make on an oh so serious subject and boy was I serious. If it hadn't been for the Tiki Torches I might have even stayed convinced and convincing. I'm thinking the proper response to a movement powered by Tiki Torches can only be Citronella Candles.
There are those who would have us believe the objections to the Confederate monuments are based on racism and slave ownership. To a degree that's true but those people do that to justify their own racism. There's no mistaking that. Monuments honoring "heroes" of the Confederacy honor armed, defeated insurrection against the United States of America. Maybe those who support such monuments have lost sight of that. Maybe those who support the public maintenance of such monuments have lost sight of that. We shouldn't lose sight of that and certainly a President should know better. That's how Jefferson got dragged into this. The president doesn't know the difference.
Here's the difference that counts between Lee and Jackson and Washington and Jefferson. Lee and Jackson committed treason against the United States. Washington and Jefferson didn't. However, Jefferson said the remedy for bad speech was more, better speech. The remedy for the pests a Tiki Torch draws in the dark is something as simple as a Citronella Candle.
Here's better speech. Every right we have comes with responsibility. Speech and expression are no different. We have to take responsibility for the validity of what we say. We are liable to correction; sometimes violent correction. Samuel Johnson said, "Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth and every other man has a right to knock him down for it." This might be jarring but I don't think it's too violent.
One traitor to the United States glorified is one too many. I don't care if Lee owned the Shroud of Turin, a splinter of the True Cross, the Hope Diamond or slaves. The issue is he was a traitor. Sure he was pardoned. How many statues do we have to Nixon?
Over 400,000 Americans died to defeat the Nazis. We have monuments to their memory and sacrifice in literally every village and town. One Nazi marching openly in the streets of the United States is one too many. It is blindingly inappropriate for a president to not know that. It is incredibly offensive for a president to try to defend such a march. People should be corrected in great detail if they speak as though they don't know that.
Any public expression of racism is one expression too many. The public discourse has recognized and codified that. For a public official to defend any public expression of racism is and should be disqualifying.
The only real issue I see with Confederate monuments is they shouldn't be supported by tax dollars or allowed on public property. Error corrects itself in a free society. Just don't make me pay for it.
We don't need and really can't tolerate laws limiting these expressions of error. We need the public discourse to rise up and correct these affronts to our selves, our country and our liberties. It usually does. The power of our culture is and should be far more fluid and influential than our laws.
Here's the true formulation and we are seeing it play out. The Culture drives the Economy and the Economy drives Politics. Until you know that, it's hard to imagine you would see what's really going on.
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