Statue-smashing: An orgy of something, but of what?

The American Spectator’s George Neumayr calls the excesses of this past week an “orgy of self-righteousness.” We consider it more an orgy of hate — hatred for the nation (and its history) that has granted the purveyors abundance (or at least opportunity) beyond measure, foremost among which may be the delusion they — white supremacists and “antifas” alike — hold the keys to knowledge and have permission to display said knowledge vilely.

Not since the ’60s have we seen knuckleheads wandering about without semblance of a clue, yet hell-bent on violence.

To quote the insightful Mr. Neumayr: “One wonders what entitles this generation to speak so confidently about past evils given its inability to recognize present ones. Modern America is awash in the blood of millions of aborted children — a monstrous evil we’re told is as central to the modern lifestyle as slavery was to the ancient one.”

But not only are the unborn suffering a “monstrous” fate; so, too, says President Trump, are the “history and culture of our great country” being “ripped apart,” particularly when statues honoring men of renown are torn down for no reason. Of all the remarks Mr. Trump made this week, people looked at him as if he had antlers when he said it. But he was right about the statues, right as rain.

Open season exists, of course, on Confederate statues — Duke’s elite found a way to gouge out the nose of Robert E. Lee, whose figure greets visitors to the school’s iconic chapel — but even the Lincoln Memorial was defaced, vandalized. How do you explain that?

Now that Gov. McAuliffe has tendered his expected proclamation, putting all Rebel statuary in Virginia in danger, we can expect legal battles to commence over the efficacy of Section 15.3-1812 of the State Code, enacted in 1998 to protect all such statues.

There’s at least a consistency and predictability to Mr. McAuliffe’s liberalism, but what is to be made of Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican governor, who so informed his constituency that “while we cannot hide from our history, nor should we, the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history”?

“Properly acknowledging our past”? “Proper” — on whose say-so? And why now?

The statues should stay. Why sanitize history, or erase it? That’s downright Orwellian.

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