But Marcus’s argument rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of conservatives supporting the removal of Confederate statues. I don’t support the removal of statues because I view it as a “compromise” or as a way of “offer[ing] an inch” to the Left or because I think it will spare me from charges of being called a racist. I am in favor of their removal because monuments to the Confederacy disgust me. Because I hate that they were traitors. I hate that they fought to expand slavery. I hate that romanticizing the Confederacy helped enshrine a system of state-sponsored oppression of one race that persisted for a century. And particularly, as a federalist and a conservative, I have a special loathing for the damage the Confederacy and its defenders have done to the cause of limited government. In addition to tainting arguments in favor of state sovereignty, the actions of the Confederacy and those who sought to preserve its legacy provided the justification for major expansions of the federal government.

So, when there’s an argument about Confederate statues, I don’t see it as a concession to the Left to support taking them down. I see it as an expression of my own deeply held values.