Protesters Pull Down Columbus Statue Outside Minnesota State Capitol 6/10/2020

[mysteryowl]

LIVE, citizen, streaming...

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Going to piss off the East Siders.

and the folks in NorthEast.

[JCannon]

2. This is why I think Trump will win

Dems keep forgetting one important lesson: An election is a popularity contest. It's not about rage or revolution or self-expression. It's about popularity.

Destroying Columbus statuary is not a popular move. You may argue that such a move SHOULD be popular, and I might even agree with what you have to say. But we're not talking about the word "should." We're talking about the word "IS." Like it or not, destroying this statue IS not a move likely to meet with popular approval.

Removing confederate statues -- which should have happened a LONG time ago -- is not popular. I wish the situation were otherwise, believe me! I was appalled to run across a double equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson here in my adopted hometown of Baltimore. (The statue was removed quietly a couple of years ago.) But I'm not going to pretend that removal of such monuments is popular when the polling tells me otherwise.

Justice and equality are popular notions. If Dems stick to those ideas, they will win. But "Defund the police" is not popular. Reparations are not popular. Busing (a concept forever associated with Kamala Harris) is not popular.

Political correctness is not popular. Identity politics is not popular -- not even with members of minority groups. (Look at the polling.)

Feminism is not popular, not even with women. Look at the polling. Feminists have had many decades to make their argument, but they've not made the sale. Not even with women. Gender equality IS popular -- vastly popular -- but feminism is not. Less than a third of American women identify as feminists according to the most recent Ipsos poll. If feminist spokespersons had not repulsed so many Americans, the "pro-equality" and "pro-feminist" numbers would be equal. But they are not.

Progressives who do not care about popularity do not want power. Deep down, they WANT Trump to win. They perversely enjoy feeling rage.

For my part, I consider global warming the single most important issue of our time. If the Democratic party is seen as the champion of so many unpopular stances, it will not be able to accrue the power needed to assure the survival of our species.

[Sarg]

3. This is something to celebrate?

Mobs going around and deciding what public sculpture to destroy?

I've seen no evidence that any of these mobs have given any consideration to these sculptures as art, whatever else they may symbolize. The art is separate from the person; these mobs seem to believe that the art is the person.

There may be a reason to remove certain statuary from public space, but even if they deserve to be put in a closet, the sculpture's art should be preserved for the artist's sake.

This is reminiscent of the iconoclasm that Protestant mobs destroyed in 16th century Europe. Great art was shattered because the mob decided that these were"false idols" of Catholic Church.