Show Americans this clip, then poll them on whether they agree. I’d guess 75-80 percent would say yes. Remember, 62 percent told Marist that statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy should remain in place as historical symbols. That includes a plurality of blacks (44/40). If you nudge people to state an opinion on whether CSA monuments should stay or go, you’ll get a divide but one that leans strongly towards leaving them in place. If you include a “there are more important things to worry about” or “eh” option, the numbers that are effectively in favor of the status quo can only rise. Most people, I suspect, just don’t care much either way. In the end, to Barkley and to many, many others, we’re arguing about scenery.

There’s peril in that, though, if you believe firmly in leaving the statues in place. The number of people who feel passionately about smashing monuments may be small but they’re motivated and have a defensible argument that these are tributes to white supremacy more than to the Confederacy or “gallantry” or whatever. If they succeed in pressuring local governments to remove them, the “eh” contingent (which includes Barkley) will flip the other way: “Now that they’re gone, there’s no sense obsessing over them anymore. What’s done is done.” The politics of “what done is done” are slippery here, easily mutating potentially from justifying the pro-statue position to the anti-statue one. Which, I guess, is why we’re destined for a big public argument over it despite wide apathy towards the subject across the population. Dedicated believers in leaving the statues alone know that if they don’t push back diligently, the tear-’em-down contingent will prevail through sheer agitative will.

Exit question: If Nancy Pelosi’s so offended by Confederate statues in the Capitol, why didn’t she and Harry Reid have them removed 10 years ago?

#ConfederateStatues A unique take from #CharlesBarkley pic.twitter.com/l9Dz43sLp3

— Rick Karle WVTM 13 (@RickKarle) August 17, 2017

.@realDonaldTrump Tweets while #CharlesBarkley does not. With respect, Chuck says POTUS should follow his lead.@FoxNews @CNN @maddow pic.twitter.com/iY85BgkbpM

— Rick Karle WVTM 13 (@RickKarle) August 17, 2017