Here's Tennessee state Sen. John Stevens explaining why changing the name of a state park named after the founder of the Ku Klux Klan is
a lot like what ISIS would do.
"Here's the thing, I'm not for it or against it," Stevens told The Jackson Sun. "If people want to change the name of the park, change the name of the park. I'm certainly not going to defend Gen. Forrest. I just think it's a slippery slope when you start changing names and taking down statues."
"What separates us from ISIS?" he then asked. "Because that's what they do, they go around and tear down history in those nations that they've conquered. If that's what America is about now, then it concerns me."
You could go a lot of ways with this, but I'm particularly inspired by his premise that this is what bad people would do in a nation "they have conquered," suggesting that 150 years after the Civil War the good state senator still sees Tennessee as a nation that was "conquered" by the north. This is not an unusual viewpoint, mind you; many people like to reminisce about history, but some people cling to that history like a cat clings to a shower curtain when bath time comes around.
I do wonder about these constant comparisons of Americans who don't like the Confederate flag to ISIS, however. That seems the sort of extremist they're-a-coming-for-our-heritage view that crackpots would write in their manifestos, not the sort of thing that politicians and pundits should use as a lynchpin argument for keeping the symbols of segregation around just a little while longer. Comparing a majority of your fellow Americans to ISIS for maybe not wanting to drive on Famous Segregationist Road on their way to Klan Founder State Park while segregationist flags wave from the statehouses—that is maybe the sort of thought you should keep to yourself. It makes you look ... unbalanced.