Why Is the G.O.P. Fighting to Preserve Monuments to Traitors in the Capitol?

[Zorro]

Portraits and statues venerating Confederate leaders are an insult to freedom and democracy.

Confederate statues are being pulled down across the South — from Birmingham, Ala., to Decatur, Ga., to Richmond, Va., the Confederacy’s former capital. The U.S. Navy and the Marines have banned public displays of the Confederate battle flag — as has NASCAR.

Now, Congress is taking its own halting steps forward. On Thursday, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced that portraits of four former House speakers who also served the Confederacy would be removed from display in the Capitol in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. (June 19 marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news of the end of slavery — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It has come to be a more general celebration of liberation.)

The portraits are of Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia, who was speaker from 1839 to 1841 before serving in various high positions in the Confederacy, including secretary of state; Howell Cobb of Georgia, who was speaker from 1849 to 1851 and later served as a Confederate Army officer; James L. Orr of South Carolina, speaker from 1857 to 1859, who went on to serve in the Confederate Army and in the Confederate Senate; and Charles F. Crisp of Georgia, the House speaker from 1891 to 1895, who served in the Confederate Army as a young man.

“As I have said before, the halls of Congress are the very heart of our democracy,” Ms. Pelosi wrote to the clerk of the House, requesting the removal. “There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/capitol-confederacy-statues.html

[volstork]

1. For their base.

Holding power is ALL they care about. Oh, and $$$$$$$$

[smb]

2. Professional Courtesy nt

[Turbineguy]

3. For Republicans, traitors are

"one of us!"

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Votes. Stuff like this gets them excited.

[Marcuse]

5. Confederate Democrats are the only Democrats that Republicans admire.

[Skittles]

6. pandering to his sick base

these racist fuckers who tell liberals to get over Trump's election can't get over a war they lost 155 YEARS AGO