Leave it the Daily Beast to take the most myopic view of the president’s commentary about the desecration of monuments. According to their assessment, he is making an argument about the statues. And people in his inner circle are worried. Following Maggie Haberman’s “two individuals close to the president” model, they breathlessly reported:
Two individuals close to the president told The Daily Beast last week that they believe devoting so much time and energy to defending lifeless statues—a kick that started with sticking up for ones honoring racist dead Confederates—will likely fail to help rejuvenate his sagging 2020 campaign and close the wide polling deficits that former Vice President Biden has opened up.
Both sources independently said they intended to gently implore Trump to take a different approach. One of the sources said they had already told Trump in recent days that making statue fetishization a cornerstone of the re-election pitch amounted to a “distraction” that wouldn’t help move the necessary votes into the president’s column by the election in November.
“The question now is: Is the statue sh** going to work?” said a senior Trump campaign adviser, adding that current polling was “inconclusive” at best.
Statues are symbols of much larger ideas. Most often, they depict people who have made exceptional contributions to our founding ideals or the continual progress of living up to them. Sometimes they represent individuals who make unique contributions to science or industry. Some make a significant contribution to a state or location.
In other words, we are attracted to what they thought, created, or changed. When President Trump defends depictions of our past and memorials, he is defending the ideas, ingenuity, and progress we have made as a nation. The sum total is the history of our country. To insinuate the majority of Americans don’t see this distinction is not just insulting. It is the sum total of what the elites in Washington D.C. and the media think of most Americans.
This disdain wasn’t lost in the debate over kneeling to the flag in the NFL. It turns out the President was correct. It was not about police brutality. It was about hatred for our country, its symbols, and traditions. Chief kneeler and mediocre quarterback Colin Kaepernick proved that himself this weekend:
Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of “independence”, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all. ✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/YCD2SYlgv4
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2020
This oppressed multi-millionaire just inked a deal with Disney. The first project is a docuseries about his life. One has to wonder if it will include anything about the adoptive family that raised him or the biological mother that gave birth to him. It would seem his tweet raised a defiant middle finger at all of them.
It turns out President Trump was correct about our other national symbols as well. When confederate statues were being removed, he wondered how long until it was Washington and Jefferson that the left was trying to remove. The Daily Beast, of course, calls this a defense of them. Instead, it was musing about the slippery slope that would ensue.
Pretty sure when they are topping abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and lighting elk statues on fire, we are getting to the steep side of that slide. It is also clear this has nothing to do with systemic racism. As if to prove the President correct, they also came for Washington.
Add the calls for the removal of literature which is following the censoring of television programming:
Buy physical copies of your favorite books. Things are getting creepier with each passing year. pic.twitter.com/8Tv7q3N02U
— Douglas Ernst (@douglasernst) July 6, 2020
Then this starts to sound like something that rhymes with what you see going on with your own two eyes and hearing with your ears:
It starts with: "you cannot express those ideas"
Then it moves on to: "you cannot even think those ideas"
Then: "you cannot even *know* those ideas"
This is why they're removing pro-democracy books from HK libraries. To "de-program" minds. https://t.co/gJPT8AG2uL
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) July 5, 2020
Now recall people, police officers, and our military kneeling in front of fellow citizens. Some are chanting in response to prompts. We all watched the birth of a bizarre secular religion absent a power outside itself and absent forgiveness. Say the wrong thing, the not quite right thing or nothing at all, and they will come for you.
Just ask Drew Brees, the top editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, or Hamilton creator Lin Manuel Miranda. They have had to take a figurative knee to the deities in this new religion and will never be able to stand with their head fully upright again. If they do, it will be knocked down. This list is a small sample of those who have had to confront the retribution of the mob.
It’s not about statues. If there are really two people in President Trump’s inner circle who think it is, they should be replaced immediately.
This election is about a fundamental choice about the future of America. You can choose an imperfect vessel that loves this country with all its flawed history and imperfect founding, who wants to make it better for every American. He did just that for three years and can absolutely do it again.
Or you can choose the party that is afraid of people toppling statues because that is their radical base. They will not criticize, admonish, or even caution. They are being pulled to voice the same criticisms of this country and are saying erasing our founding fathers should be considered. Just ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
And make no mistake. There is no appeasing the mob. Democrats and some Republicans who have bent the knee will be forced to do it again and again. And the mob will happily extort them with the false promise of ending the destruction and chaos. Again.
Joe Biden’s Race-Baiting Fourth of July Message
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