From New York Magazine:
Demonstrators in Lafayette Park outside the White House attempted to remove a statue of Andrew Jackson, a slaveowner and Trump’s favorite president https://t.co/fPIkMfolmL
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) June 23, 2020
Why did they write this? Because Trump defended defending the statue from vandals.
Numerous people arrested in D.C. for the disgraceful vandalism, in Lafayette Park, of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson, in addition to the exterior defacing of St. John’s Church across the street. 10 years in prison under the Veteran’s Memorial Preservation Act. Beware!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
Jackson was a piece of shit. He massacred Indians by the thousands, caused the trail of tears, destroyed the Seminoles, set up the foundation for the Civil War, and his longest lasting crime against humanity, created the Democratic Party.
He also kicked the British out of the US for good after 1812 and opened up the frontier for westward expansion and made the state of Florida possible.
History is complicated.
But what really irks me is that WE DO NOT LET VANDALS DESTROY WHAT THEY DO NO LIKE.
This is a representative democracy, if you don’t like a statue, tell your Congressman/Congresswoman and submit a bill to have it removed.
Obeying the law isn’t that fucking hard.
But in 2020, respecting the law and stopping the destruction of Federal property means you love a slave owner.
Nuance is dead. The mob killed it.
Right now they are lynching statues. Next they will lynch people for not wanting to see statues destroyed.
The media should understand that but they push The Narrative instead.
This will end in bloodshed. At this point I see no way back without it.
So Jackson’s legacy is “complex” — the latest euphemism I hear.
Our ancestors were jerks. Embrace it.
Complex isn’t a euphemism.
The surgeon who developed the first gynecological repairs. The founder of gynecology, J. Marion Simms Simms experimented on slaves which was common practiceback then.
Countless lives were saved but the development was ugly. Square that circle. Do we throw out the procedure because of where it came from?
No, our ancestors were not “jerks” any more than they were “saints”. What they were was human. Sometimes they were jerks, sometimes they were saints and sometimes they were the same human.
Andrew Jackson did some heroic things that helped the growth of the United States and lead us closer to the ideals expressed in the Deceleration and Constitution. . He also did some shitty things. Looking at a SCOTUS ruling for native Americans and saying “Now enforce your ruling”. Knowing that the judicial branch had no way to enforce their rulings.
Grant was a *drinker* According to the mobs of the early 1900’s this made him unacceptable as a “hero”. He should have been canceled. But we learned that it just made him human.
We need to look at our heroes, saints and villains in the context of their times. My biggest example is almost always Thomas Jefferson. Yes, he owned slaves. Yes he had them working hard for him. No, he did not free his slaves while he was alive.
He also worked to make slavery illegal. He put things into the drafts of the Deceleration that would have made slavery illegal. He tried to free his slaves while alive and was unable to by the laws of Virginia. At all points he worked to free slaves. And when he died his will DID free his slaves. He finally succeeded in freeing his slaves but it took his death to do it.
His action was so huge that the Virginia legislature had to change the laws to make it illegal to free your slaves within your will.
It is my understanding that the only reason that Washington did not free his slaves upon his death is because the law had been changed after Jefferson’s action.
Jefferson’s action of freeing his slave upon his death was as big of a thing at that time, if not bigger than MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It was an action.
We *must* look at our ancestors within the context of history. That person that would be judge as evil today, might have made progress in undoing an evil within that context. History is built on small steps. And somebody has to make each one of those steps.
I wonder how we will be judged in 150 years?
Will it be Solzhenitsyn esque, “Oh, how we burned in the gulag…”, or a “those bastards should have lynched all the trumpsters sooner. And their supporters! Both vocal as well as silent! And their families! And the ones who did not oppose Demon Trump with sufficient vigor!”
The Democrat party has a big annual event called the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, or lunch, or whatnot. I guess they will have to rename it the Noname Dinner, because both names are now targets of extremist attack.
Nothing new to see here.
There are two settings for a leftist. Either you agree with them, or you hate whatever they are pushing. No in-between. Hate is their first response to any disagreement.
Do not think the homeless should be allowed to crap in a small businesses doorway? You hate the homeless.
Do not think churches should be forced to perform gay marriages? You hate gays.
Don’t think that healthcare should be free? You hate sick people and want them to die.
Don’t agree with reparations? You are a racist that hates blacks.
Think people moving into the country should do so legally? You hate immigrants.
This is no different. It is either on or off with the leftists. Either you agree Jackson is a monster who should be erased from the history books, or he is your favorite President. (Making you a racist, hater, etc…) No concept that somewhere between vilifying Jackson, and trying to emulate him is where the average person lies.