The Mayor of Washington, D.C. has come up with an ambitious plan to make the nation’s capital more woke. She had previously taken some small-scale, temporary measures like painting a gigantic Black Lives Matter mural on 16th Street NW on the north side of Lafayette Square, near the White House. But that clearly wasn’t enough of a gesture to get the message across. Her new idea, published just this week, is far more sweeping. She’s set her sights on the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and the statues of Columbus and Andrew Jackson. She would like them to either be removed entirely, relocated, or “differently contextualized” (whatever that’s supposed to mean).
Needless to say, the President wasn’t exactly a fan of the plan. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House Press Secretary, came out with her usual level of candor, describing the idea as one that would only further incite divisiveness and violence in the streets, while further erasing our nation’s history. (Washington Times)
The White House slammed Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday night for a “ludicrous” plan to remove, relocate or “contextualize” the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and other monuments in the nation’s capital.
“By publishing a plan that recommends potentially removing the Washington Monument, Christopher Columbus Statue, Andrew Jackson Statue, and Jefferson Memorial—among many other ludicrous recommendations — the radically liberal mayor of Washington, D.C., is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage,” said White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
She said “as long as President Trump is in the White House, the mayor’s irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere, and as the mayor of our Nation’s capital city — a city that belongs to the American people — she ought to be ashamed for even suggesting them for consideration.”
To be fair, Bowser didn’t come up with this crackpot scheme entirely on her own. It was apparently part of a set of recommendations from the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions working group. But it’s still pretty much entirely Bowser’s brainchild. Also known as DCFACES, this is a a group that Bowser summoned into existence only last month, charged with “evaluating” all of the memorials and buildings in the capital to see if they are in keeping with “D.C.’s values.” The group is co-chaired by one of Bowser’s top advisors, so you know where all of this is coming from.
We’ve already seen fairly consistent polling in other parts of the country showing that a majority of people are opposed to tearing down historic statues and monuments, even when they represent places and people associated with the Confederacy. When you start going after the Founding Fathers, support totally craters. And now they’re talking about tearing down the Washington Monument? That’s going to go over like a lead balloon.
It’s also unlikely that the municipal government of D.C. even has the authority to make such changes. Those parks and monuments are federal property. If these wackjobs were crazy enough to actually attempt this they would probably be shut down in court so fast it would make their heads spin.
What I’d really like to know at this point is how Joe Biden feels about this plan. Is anyone from the media going to ask him? I’d wager that it would be an entertaining conversation to tune in for. Biden isn’t so far gone around the bend that he could possibly be in support of this. But if he comes out in opposition to it he’ll once again wind up disappointing his woke base. I’m sure you could get Kamala Harris to sign on because at this point she’ll say anything that gets her one step closer to the Vice Presidency and eventually the Oval Office and she’s supposed to be the one keeping both the socialist base and minority voters enthusiastic about the ticket. It’s a fair bet that Bernie Sanders would go along with it as well.
But I’ll be very (pleasantly) surprised if anyone from CNN, MSNBC or the alphabet news networks actually ask Biden. They don’t like troubling Uncle Joe with pesky questions that might hurt his poll numbers. Until we hear anything else on this subject, perhaps DCFACES could take on a parallel project. Someone needs to take Bowser and have her head examined.
UPDATE: As noted on social media by D. Dean Johnson, the media “cleanup crew” is offering the Mayor cover after she removed the page from the report where it discussed “removing or relocating” the monuments.
The WaPost cleanup crew in action. D.C. Mayor Bowser released a report recommending "the Federal government remove, relocate,or contextualize" Washington Monument, etc. After pushback, Bowser removed that page–and the WaPost now pretends "remove" and "relocate" were never there. pic.twitter.com/TrvDoE9tHS
— D. Dean Johnson (@ddeanjohnson) September 2, 2020
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