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It would be lovely if America's stupidest elected officials could shut their pie-holes and give us just one day's blessed peace, but today will not be that day.
Taking down statues of Confederate figures is "just like" removing a monument to victims of the 9/11 attacks, Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday, adding that the white nationalist and far-left protesters in Charlottesville over the weekend were "equally as bad" and "disgusting."
A reminder here: Confederate figures organized a violent rebellion against their country and methodically murdered their fellow Americans so as to protect their ability to enslave other Americans. The victims of the 9/11 attacks ... did not do that. LePage's extremely stupid and malevolent argument would only make the slightest bit of sense if he compared removing Confederate monuments to removing monuments to the perpetrators of 9/11.
LePage said left-wing protesters who want to remove Confederate statues are ignorant of history and want to erase it. He compared them to "the Taliban in Afghanistan" in their desire to remove monuments.
This is cribbed directly from white supremacist talking points. What is Maine Gov. Paul LePage watching or reading that leads him to repeat white supremacist talking points. Is it Fox News? It may be Fox News.
"How can future generations learn if we're going to erase history? That's disgusting," he said.
As it turns out, between the time Paul LePage was born (yesterday, apparently) and today, civilization has invented ... books. Video programs. Entire channels, devoted to history. You can still visit the old battlefields. There are museums aplenty, all of which would be thrilled to learn that powerful conservative wankers are newly dedicated to ensuring all Americans can learn about their sometimes valiant, sometimes shameful past. There is a difference between all these things and putting up a celebratory bronze statue of the traitors that led us into it. Which is why those statues were not erected after the war they ostensibly commemorate, but as reaction to civil rights battles a half-century and century later.
Confederate statues are not and have never been the rallying points for torch-bearing historians lividly shouting read a history book. It is white supremacists who are rallying to defend the monuments; when they themselves tell you what the monuments stand for, believe them.