Unite America

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus). In Memory of Mary Ellen Witter

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words and express condolences for his loss of his dear friend.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko), my colleague and longtime friend.

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and I appreciate her comments.

We do see an increase in the amount of lawlessness. We have moved from peaceful protests, which I support, I understand. That is what the guarantee of the First Amendment is for. We all get a right to assemble with whom we want to assemble with. We get a right to speak. We get a right to seek redress of grievances from the government. All of those are important rights that we support, we stand for.

But we move into rioting, looting, mayhem. There has been murder. There has been assaults. There has been brutal violence.

I have heard some of my colleagues in this body call those protests. It is not protesting. That is lawless rioting, and it needs to be curbed and checked.

I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop).

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his comments, and I echo his sentiment that what needs to happen to restore order here is one must arrest malefactors who are committing crimes. We must then charge them and prosecute them and give them due process. But without a restoration of order, no one in this country has freedom.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber).

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments, particularly relating to history. I am reminded, as I was pondering that, that each of us has a history. Each of us has a personal history. None of us are perfect. Sometimes, we have flaws that seem almost insurmountable in our own lives. But if we deny our history, then we deny who we are and who we can become.

When I hear folks out there attacking our history and saying, let's bring down this statue or let's do this or let's do that, some of it is so acontextual. By that, I mean it is as if there was no history to learn from. And I think, how in the world can we be so narcissistic that we don't accept the flaws of our own past and build upon the promise of the future?

We have problems, for sure, but it does not inure to lawlessness, rioting, murder, and mayhem. It should, instead, inure to the better angels within us.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa).

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for his passionate and heartfelt words.

It is my pleasure now to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Posey).

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his thoughts and taking time to share those with us.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his passionate comments about freedom.

Madam Speaker, those of us who have had the good fortune of studying history, we know that it bumps and claws along. We do see progress sometimes, and we also see devolution sometimes.

What we are seeing today, though, reminds me an awful lot of a revolution that took place in the early part of the 20th century. It was not a large revolution; it was a small revolution. It was the Bolshevik Revolution. It was funded by some of the bourgeoisie who did not like the form of government in then-Russia. It was not a massive revolution. It wasn't widespread, but it changed that entire nation's form of government.

I am reminded that it was Trotsky who prevented the military from intervening against the lawless revolution. What I am seeing here today reminds me an awful lot of that. This is a small revolution that is violent in nature, is anti-American in nature.

And so when my colleagues mention the police and what they need to do, what happens is there has been an emasculation of the police. They don't really want to get involved because, should they get involved, there is a legitimate concern that they will be sued, arrested, et cetera. So when you get rid of the blue line of defense against lawlessness, then you basically destroy the foundation of the protection of your freedoms.

President Trump called certain groups antifa, domestic terrorists. In our debate in the Judiciary Committee, some of my colleagues said antifa is a fiction. So I said: Well, you know, is it a fiction?

So I went to CNN, because I knew that if I went to FOX and referred to FOX, nobody was going to believe that that was not biased. So I went to CNN because I wanted to find out what they said, and you can go through and find extensive interviews where the conclusion is clear: antifa is a real organization. It is a group. And the group sometimes chooses to resort to violence.

So what do you have? They are definitely domestic. They are committing terrorist activity in this country. Thus, they are domestic.

And what would terrorism be? Terrorism is the use of force, intimidation, violence to change or alter behavior for a particular purpose.

So you begin to see you have domestic terrorism going on.

18 U.S. Code, Section 2339A, I call on FBI Director Wray to begin using that statute, make the arrests necessary to restore order. And I call on Attorney General William Barr to use that same section to charge and prosecute these individuals who are attempting to intimidate Americans out of their freedom.

A lot of these Federal monuments and statues that are coming down, these memorials that are being ripped to shreds, destroyed are on Federal property.

And you know what? 18 U.S. Code 1369 is the statute that Director Wray should be having his Federal agency make arrests under. And then I call on Attorney General Barr to have his U.S. attorneys charge and prosecute under 18 U.S. Code 1369 for destruction of veterans' memorials. And we can go forward.

But why do I even bring that up? It is because I believe sincerely that this country is built on the idea that each of us should have agency, will, choice. It hasn't always worked out really well or perfectly. There are those who have had their choices and will taken away from them. That is inexcusable, of course.

But if we are going to have will and choice and freedom, then we are part of this great social contract where I delegate my right to defend myself because I can't do it all the time. There are people who are stronger or more vicious or are more malevolent who want to compel me to do something or take something from me.

We delegate police authority to police. It is not carte blanche. It is reasonable.

We have got to restore respect for the law, for the police, for the courts, and for process.

It is imperfect. I worked in that system for a lot of years on both sides, prosecuting and defending. It is not a perfect process.

The reality is, though, it is as Winston Churchill said, Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others.

It is the best humankind has come up with.

To destroy our history seems so antithetical to making progress, eradicating our history, erasing it.

College professors are now saying we have got to go through and remove books from the library.

Remove them from the library, because why? They have unpopular ideas in them. They may be unpopular ideas, but you know what is better than taking them out and burning them or removing them and trashing them ala Adolph Hitler and the Nazis? It is letting us read them, discuss them, and point out their flaws, and rehabilitate us, our hearts.

Artwork being removed from museums, being removed from this House. Why? Because some were not 2020 politically correct. What they did was, to some, unconscionable and abominable. Let's have the discussion.

Removing your history allows you to repeat the mistakes of your history. I simply don't understand it.

We have now moved beyond a motivational or some kind of philosophical attempt to remove historical items. Now we are seeing indiscriminate action.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a series of articles. [From Breitbart News]

A greater percentage of U.S. registered voters believe Confederate statues, which have been targeted by protesters in recent weeks, should remain standing despite activists' demands to remove them, a Morning Consult poll released this week revealed.

The survey, taken June 6-7, showed that a greater number of Americans believe Confederate statues should remain standing, 44 percent, as opposed to the 32 percent who say they should be removed. Twenty-three percent expressed no opinion on the matter.

The fundings reflect a slight shift in opinion over the last three years. In August 2017, 52 percent of voters indicated that the statues should be left alone, with just over a quarter, 26 percent, indicating otherwise.

However, Morning Consult reported that the purported increase in support over the years is largely driven by Democrats:

The rise in support for removing the statues was driven by Democrats, a majority of whom now take that position, and independents, who still favor keeping those statues standing by a 10-point margin. Eleven percent of GOP voters say the statues should be removed, virtually unchanged since 2017.

The vast majority of Republicans, 71 percent, believe the Confederate statues should remain standing, whereas the majority of Democrats, 53 percent, believe they should be taken down. Forty percent of independents believe they should remain standing, with 30 percent vying for their removal and 30 percent expressing no opinion.

The survey was taken among ``roughly'' 1,900 voters, with a margin of error of +/- two percent.

The survey comes as protesters vandalize and, in some cases, tear down Confederate statues and others they deem offensive, including statues of Christopher Columbus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has also embraced the calls for change, requesting in a letter on Wednesday the removal of Confederate statues occupying the U.S. Capitol, or as she called them, ``monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end.''

``Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals,'' she said in a letter to Committee Chair Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Vice Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). ``Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed.''

Interestingly, Pelosi has remained silent on her own father's role in the dedication of a Confederate statue in Baltimore's Wyman Park in 1948.

As Breitbart News detailed:

However, her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., oversaw the dedication of such a statue in Baltimore's Wyman Park--the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monument--as mayor of the city in 1948. At the time, the Speaker's father said people could look to Jackson's and Lee's lives as inspiration and urged Americans to ``emulate Jackson's example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.''

World Wars I and II found the North and South fighting for a common cause, and the generalship and military science displayed by these two great men in the War between the States lived on and were applied in the military plans of our nation in Europe and the Pacific areas,'' D'Alesandro said at the dedication ceremony, as detailed by the Baltimore Sun. He continued:

Today with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions . . . remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves, but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.

Pelosi's office did not return Breitbart News's request for comment. ____ [From Fox News, Aug. 21, 2018] Which Confederate statues were removed? A running list (By Christopher Carbone)

More than 30 cities across the United States have removed or relocated Confederate statues and monuments amid an intense nationwide debate about race and history.

After a ``Unite the Right'' rally in Virginia in August to protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee resulted in the death of a woman who was demonstrating against white supremacy, other cities have decided to remove Confederate statues.

Many of the controversial monuments were dedicated in the early twentieth century or during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Discussions are under way about the removal of monuments in Houston, Atlanta, Nashville, Pensacola, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, Richmond, Virginia, Birmingham, Alabama, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Here is a running list of all the monuments and statues that have been removed and the cities that have taken them down: Annapolis, Md.

Under cover of darkness, city workers removed a statue in August 2017 of former Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney that had been on the State House's front lawn for 145 years. Taney authored the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision, which held that African-Americans could not be U.S. citizens. The city's Republican mayor said through a spokesman that it was removed ``as a matter of public safety.'' Austin, Texas

The statues of four people with ties to the Confederacy-- Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnson, John H. Reagan and former Texas Gov. James Stephen Hogg--were removed from pedestals on the University of Texas campus on Aug. 17, 2017. UT's president said in a written statement the deadly clashes in Charlottesville made it clear ``Confederate monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.'' Separately, a 1,200-pound bronze statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis that was removed from UT's campus in 2015 has now returned to the campus, at the Briscoe Center for American History.

The Austin school board voted to strip Confederate names from five district schools, though they haven't been renamed yet. The board had previously renamed Robert E. Lee Elementary School in 2016.

The Austin City Council approved renaming Robert E. Lee Road and Jeff Davis Avenue. Baltimore, Md.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh told reporters she wanted to move ``quickly and quietly'' to take down four Confederate statues or monuments--statues of Lee and Thomas, J. ``Stonewall'' Jackson and monuments for Confederate Soldiers and Sailors and Confederate Women--from the city's public spaces. Although the plan had been in the works since June 2017, the Baltimore City Council approved it only two days after the deadly events in Charlottesville. On March 10, 2018, the space where the Confederate statues had stood was rededicated to abolitionist and civil rights pioneer Harriet Tubman. Bradenton, Fla.

Mantee County removed a Confederate soldiers memorial obelisk on Aug. 24 after the city commission voted 4-3 to take it down and place it in storage. The monument, which had stood there for more than 90 years, was accidentally broken into two pieces when city workers removed it. The removal came after days of protests from residents and activists, most of whom were in favor of taking it down, and it cost $12,700 to remove. Brooklyn, N.Y.

Plaques honoring Lee were removed from an episcopal church's property on Aug. 16, 2017 and the governor called on the Army to remove the names of Lee and another Confederate general from the streets around a nearby fort. ``It was very easy for us to say, `OK, we'll take the plaques down,' '' said Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, who called them ``offensive to the community.'' New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a review of all the city's public art to identify ``symbols of hate'' for possible removal. Dallas, Texas

A bronze statue of Robert E. Lee, formally called the Robert Edward Lee Sculpture, was removed in mid-September 2017 from Robert E. Lee Park, which was also named in honor of the Confederate general. The Dallas City Council voted 13- 1 to remove the statue, which has stood in Lee Park for 81 years.

The park was dedicated to Lee by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936 during a renaming ceremony of the park. Daytona Beach, Fla.

Three Confederate monuments were removed from a city park Friday morning. A city spokesperson said the plaques were going to be cleaned up and taken to a nearby museum. The decision to remove them did not require public input, the spokes-person told FOX35, because they were donated and not purchased with taxpayer funds. Chapel Hill, N.C.

Protesters toppled the ``Silent Sam'' statue that has stood on the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus since 1913 on Aug. 20. More than 200 people had gathered and were chanting ``hey, hey, ho, ho, this racist statue has got to go.'' In a statement, UNC Chancellor Carol Folt called the act ``unlawful and dangerous,'' adding that law enforcement were investigating the incident. The statue had been a source of controversy, with school officials claiming that state law prevented them from removing it. Durham, N.C.

A nearly-century old statue of a Confederate soldier was toppled not long after Charlottesville by protesters associated with the Workers World party. North Carolina Central University student Takiyah Thompson, along with three others, were arrested and charged with felonies in the days following. As the bronze statue lay crumpled on the ground, protesters could be seen kicking it on social media. A Worthington assistant city manager said the community seeks to be one that ``promotes tolerance, respect and inclusion.''

A statue of Lee was removed from the entrance to Duke University Chapel on Aug. 19, 2017 and is set to be preserved in some way to study the university's ``complex past.''

``I took this course of action to protect Duke Chapel, to ensure the vital safety of students and community members who worship there, and above all to express the deep and abiding values of our university,'' university President Vincent Price wrote in statement to the school. Franklin, Ohio

A monument to Lee was removed in August 2017 by Franklin workers. Gainesville, Fla.

A chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy paid for the removal of a monument to Confederate soldiers known locally as ``Old Joe'' that stood in front a building in downtown Gainesville for 113 years. It was moved to a private cemetery outside the city in August 2017. Helena, Mont.

The state's capital city on Aug. 18, 2017 removed a memorial to Confederate soldiers that had been in a public park since 1916. The granite fountain, which was dismantled, had been donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. City Parks and Recreation Director Amy Teegarden told the Spokesman-Review that the fountain initially will be stored in a city warehouse--but it could be reassembled at a future date. Kansas City, Mo.

A Confederate monument was boxed up in summer 2017 and is slated to be removed. The Missouri division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy had asked Kansas City Parks and Recreation to find a new home for it. Lexington, Ky.

Two 130-year-old Confederate statues were removed from downtown Lexington on October 18 after the state's attorney general issued an opinion giving the city permission to take them down and move them to a private cemetery. Lexington used private funds to take the statues, of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and John Breckinridge, a former U.S. Vice President and the last Confederate Secretary of War. Private funds will cover the cost of their upkeep in the cemetery. Los Angeles, Calif.

A large stone monument commemorating Confederate veterans was taken down Aug. 16 from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery after hundreds of people demanded its removal. The 6-foot granite marker was loaded into a pickup truck and taken to a storage facility. A petition calling for it to be taken down had garnered 1,3000 signatures. Louisville, Ky.

A statue of a Confederate soldier was removed from the University of Louisville campus after a legal battle between the city residents, the mayor and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was relocated to Brandenburg, Kentucky, which hosts Civil War Reenactments. Madison, Wis.

A plaque honoring Confederate soldiers were removed Aug. 17 from a cemetery not long after residents and city leaders began calling for it to be taken down. ``The Civil War was an act of insurrection and treason and a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery,'' said Mayor Paul Soglin in a statement. ``The monuments in question were connected to that action and we do not need them on city property.'' Memphis, Tenn.

Crews removed two Confederate statues from Memphis parks on Dec. 20 after the city sold them to a private entity. The City Council voted unanimously earlier in the day to sell both Health Sciences and fourth Bluff Parks where the Confederate statues, of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, were located. Nashville, Tenn.

The Legendary Ryman Auditorium, where stars like Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn made their Grand Ole Opry debuts, quietly moved a sign on Sept 21 hanging the venue's upper level that read ``1897 Confederate Gallery.'' Honoring an 1897 reunion of Confederate veterans at the Ryman, the sign had been shrouded over the years but has now been permanently removed from the main auditorium and added to a museum exhibit that explains the history of the 125- year-old music hall. New Orleans, La.

New Orleans city workers removed four monuments in April dedicated to the Confederacy and opponents of Reconstruction. The city council had declared the monuments a public nuisance. The monuments removed were of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, Davis and Lee. Also removed was the Liberty Place Monument, which commemorated a Reconstruction Era white supremacist attack on the city's integrated police force. The mayor plans to replace with new fountains and an American flag. New York, N.Y.

Busts of Lee and Jackson were removed overnight on Aug. 17 from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College. Prior to its removal, Bro x Borough president Ruben Siaz Jr. had said ``there is nothing great about two men who committed treason against the United States to fight to keep the institution of slavery in tact.'' Orlando, Fla.

A Confederate statue known as ``Johnny Reb'' was moved in June 2017 by officials from Lake Eola Park to Greenwood Cemetery in response to public outcry about it being symbolic of hate and white supremacy. A spokesperson for Orlando's mayor told Fox News that city officials are working with historians on a new inscription to put the monument ``in proper historical perspective.'' Richmond, Va.

The Richmond school board voted 6-1 on June 18, 2018 to rename J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School to Barack Obama Elementary School. The process began several months prior and involved input from students, teachers, administrators and local stakeholders. Virginia is home to the largest number of Confederate monuments and symbols in the country. Rockville, Md.

A 13-ton bronze Confederate statue that had stood for decades next to Rockville's Red Brick Courthouse was relocated in July next to a privately run Potomac River ferry named for a Confederate general. The relocation cost about $100,000, according to the Washington Post. San Diego, Calif.

A plaque honoring Davis was quietly removed Aug. 16, 2017 from a downtown park. ``This morning I ordered the immediate removal of a plaque honoring the Confederacy at Horton Plaza Park,'' Mayor Kevin

Faulconer told the Los Angeles Times. ``San Diegans stand together against Confederate symbols of division.'' San Antonio, Texas

A Confederate statue was removed from Travis Park overnight Sept. 1, 2017 after the City Council voted 10-1 in favor of taking it down the previous day. There were no protesters during or after the removal, according to local media reports. ``This is, without context, a monument that glorifies the causes of the Confederacy, and that's not something that a modern city needs to have in a public square,'' said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg following the council vote. San Antonio, Texas

A Jefferson Davis highway marker was removed in 2016. St. Louis, Mo.

The Missouri Civil War Museum oversaw the removal in late June 2017 of a 32-foot granite and bronze monument from Forest Park, where it had stood for 103 years. It shouldered the costs of removal and will hold the monument in storage until a new home can be found for it. The agreement stipulates the monument can be re-displayed at a Civil War museum, battlefield or cemetery. In Boone County, a rock with a plaque honoring Confederate soldiers that had been removed from the University of Missouri campus was relocated a second time after the Charleston AEM church massacre to a historic site commemorating a nearby Civil War battle. St. Petersburg, Fla.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman ordered city workers to remove a bronze Confederate marker at noon on Aug. 15, 2017 after determining that it was on city property. It's being held in storage until a new home can be found for it. ``The plaque recognizing a highway named after Stonewall Jackson has been removed and we will attempt to locate its owner,'' Kriseman said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. Washington, D.C.

The stewards of the National Mall announced this week that the exhibit alongside the Thomas Jefferson Memorial will be updated to showcase his status as both one of the country's founders and a slaveholder. ``We can reflect the momentous contributions of someone like Thomas Jefferson, but also consider carefully the complexity of who he was,'' an official with the Trust told the Washington Examiner. ``And that's not reflected right now in the exhibits.''

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill in Sept. 2017 to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol Building.

The National Cathedral voted that same month to take down two stained-glass windows of Confederate generals. The removal could take a few days and workers seen putting up scaffolding around the windows to start the process-

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, signed a bill to replace a statue of a Confederate general at the U.S. Capitol with one of Mary McLeod Bethune, a black woman who founded a school that became BethuneCookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She'll become the first black female to be honored in Statuary Hall. Worthington, Ohio

Worthington removed a historic marker Aug. 18 outside the former home of a Confederate general. [From the Huffington Post, Aug. 23, 2017] Polls Find Little Support for Confederate Statue Removal--But How You Ask Matters (By Ariel Edwards-Levy)

Americans are generally unsupportive of attempts to remove memorials honoring Confederate leaders, new polling shows-- although the way the question is framed may make a significant difference.

In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, a third of Americans favor removing statues and memorials of Confederate leaders, with 49 percent opposed. Just 29 percent of Americans favor changing the names of streets, schools and buildings commemorating Confederate leaders, while half are opposed.

Those surveyed are effectively split on whether the Confederate flag is more a symbol of Southern pride (36 percent) or racism (35 percent), with the rest unsure or saying it represents neither. But even if Americans don't overwhelmingly recognize the flag as a symbol of racism, there's also little widespread enthusiasm for its use. Just 34 percent of Americans say they approve of displaying the Confederate flag in public, while 47 percent disapprove.

Opinions on the Confederate memorials are divided along racial lines, but to an even greater degree along political ones. Black Americans are 18 percentage points likelier than white Americans to favor removing statues of Confederate leaders--but the gap between Democrats and Republicans on the question is 46 points. And the difference between Hillary Clinton voters and those who supported President Donald Trump in last year's election is a full 58 points.

Within the Democratic Party, white and black people are about equally likely to favor removing the statues: 64 percent and 63 percent, respectively, say they'd like to see them taken down. There are differences, however, by ideology among the party's members--77 percent of self-described liberal Democrats, but just 40 percent of self-described moderates or conservatives--want to see the statues removed.

Most other surveys released in the past few weeks find at best modest support for removing Confederate memorials, although two distinctively-worded questions stand out in these results.

The strongest support for keeping memorials in place came in the poll conducted by Marist for NPR and PBS NewsHour, which gave respondents a choice between letting statues ``remain as a historical symbol'' and removing them ``because they are offensive to some people.'' (Arguably, the question might have been better balanced had the first option been written as ``because some people view them as a historical symbol.'')

The only poll to find majority support for removing some monuments, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, adopted a framework far more sympathetic to the monuments' opponents, asking about their ``relocation'' rather than their ``removal.''

PPP found voters split--39 percent to 34 percent--on whether they ``support or oppose monuments honoring the Confederacy.'' But those voters were largely willing to relocate Confederate monuments if the issue was instead presented as an attempt to move them ``to museums or other historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical context.'' Unlike other questions, PPP also asked specifically about memorials on government property, rather than a broader question about public spaces.

Opinions surrounding Confederate symbols have also proved to be fairly mutable in response to current events. After a white supremacist killed nine members of a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, two years ago, support for the Confederate flag dropped quickly and significantly.

That doesn't appear to have happened yet following the violence earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, sparked by a white nationalist rally opposing efforts to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. But if the issue remains a flashpoint in the days to come, its prominence could possibly polarize views even further than they already are. (Charlottesville on Wednesday draped black shrouds over the Lee statue and one for Confederate Gen. Thomas ``Stonewall'' Jackson.)

Since Trump took office, Democrats have repeatedly rallied around opinions that serve as anti-Trump shibboleths, expressing sharply increased alarm about global warming, mistrust of Russia and support for immigration. While Democrats are already generally in favor of taking down the Confederate statues, their level of support for doing so ranges between 45 percent and 72 percent in recent surveys-- far lower than the party's almost unanimous dislike for the president. ____ [From the Federalist, June 12, 2020] Abolitionist Monuments Defaced by Anti-Racism' Rioters Is What Teaching Fake History Gets America (By Joy Pullmann)

The imagery couldn't be more direct. Across the nation, rioting and unrest that has killed black Americans and destroyed black neighborhoods has included the defacement of historic monuments, including those to abolitionists.

The last wave of monument destruction, in 2017, largely focused on Confederates and slave holders, erasing all the accomplishments of figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson with a scarlet S, for slave-holder. This time, the ignorance has descended even further.

The rioters are now tearing down and defacing memorials wantonly, apparently assuming that if someone is being celebrated that person is ``probably a racist,'' as the image below says.

This prejudiced ignorance appears to be widespread, and unchecked by local authorities. Several of the defaced monuments are of abolitionists, including the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln, as Tristan Justice reported Thursday. For example:

``[I]n Boston, demonstrators also vandalized a monument to the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the second all-black volunteer regiment of the Union Army,'' Justice writes.'' . . . Add to the growing list of civil rights freedom fighters defaced by social justice protestors a Minnesota memorial to three black men who were lynched in 1920 following false rape accusations from a white woman.''

These mob actions are not the result of accidental ignorance, but of cultivated prejudice. One month ago, I collected just a few pieces of evidence pointing in this direction:

A 2019 poll found . . . that ``more than 80 percent of Americans ages 39 and younger could not say what rights the First Amendment protects, and three-quarters or more couldn't name any authors of The Federalist Papers.'' Another 2019 poll found ``just 57 percent of millennials believe the Declaration of Independence `better guarantees freedom and equality' than the Communist Manifesto.'' A 2016 Federalist article notes, ``40 percent of recent grads were unaware that Congress has the right to declare war and 10 percent think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court.''

In February, I presented more such evidence:

Today, 4 in 10 Americans who are younger than 39 disagree that the United States ``has a history we should be proud of,'' according to a 2019 poll by FLAG/YouGov. The poll also found that half of all Americans agree the United States is a sexist and racist country, including two-thirds of millennials. Millennials showed the lowest level of agreement with the statement, ``I'm proud to be an American.'' Thirty- eight percent of ``younger Americans do not agree that `America has a history that we should be proud of,' '' according to the poll. 2019's annual poll from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found that 37 percent of millennials think the United States is ``among the most unequal societies in the world.''

The anti-American group of recent graduates is not a fringe element. It is a substantial and ominously growing group of voting-age adults.

The recent riots have given us many more indications that America's education institutions do not merely keep kids ignorant, but actively teach them to hate their country. Just refer to any of the emails and website banners you've been subjected to from every company you've ever purchased from online, detailing about how they're all ``fighting racism'' by frantically donating to people and organizations that make a living off heightened racial tensions.

These messages reveal that the nation's leadership class has all been re-educated extremely successfully to believe a pack of things that just aren't true about American history and ideals. They are well-catechized in what is billed as antiracist attitudes and activities that are rooted in false information and more likely to instead increase racial tensions.

Hardly a one of them, or any other American, can tell you much about George Washington besides he was a slave owner. Hardly one of them can identify Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as bona fide, deep-dyed racists. Not one of them know one of the first acts of Congress--the Congress that existed before today's Congress, the one that pre-dates the Constitution--was to pass a massive document outlawing slavery in territory newly acquired from Great Britain during postwar negotiations.

But they all have heard of Audre Lorde, whose great contribution to society is basically being black and gay. They are all up on movies directed by black women like Ava DuVernay and books by pathos-filled but fact-challenged black writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates. They all know Michael Brown put his hands up and said ``Don't shoot'' even though he didn't. They're passing around discredited fake history like The New York Times's 1619 Project as if it were accurate, and using it to justify supporting totalitarian thought policing because a black guy says this will solve racism.

These people's heads aren't empty. Their hate isn't blind. It's very well-formed. And it's been deliberately aimed at the very country that has paid for and overseen their indoctrination into political violence.

I've now spent about a decade tracking information like this, and have researched and written about it in more detail than most, and therefore can assure you there is much more to find. Entire books have and could be written to detail more. Each generation of American children has learned less real history than the generation before it. Each generation of American children has instead been subject to greater levels of indoctrination in place of genuine education. The alarms have been sounded for decades, even a century, and nothing effective has been done.

So now we have riots and unfettered monument smashing. This is no accident. It is a logical consequence of convincing ourselves, against all evidence, that America's public education institutions are largely sound outside a few crazies who never happen to be in one's own school district, and even if they were, one's own children would of course be impervious. Not like their stupid dupes of classmates, who in just a few short years will go on to vote and tear down monuments to American abolitionists in the name of anti- racism.

This is what happens when conservatives spend 120 years complaining about the left controlling academia while the politicians conservatives vote for and cheerily profile in our publications keep increasing funding for these intellectual enemies of our country. Seventy years later, God and man are still objects of scorn at Yale, and so is our nation, but still we keep sending them our kids and money, hiring their graduates to teach our children and rule us, and funding their students.

The postwar convention of Minnesota niceness in politics has been a disaster. That's because cowardice ultimately is not nice. It leaves the innocent and the vulnerable defenseless. And, as with Stockholm Syndrome, some of the preyed upon ultimately turn predator themselves after identifying too strongly with their captors.

How many more statues and American minds have to get smashed before people who genuinely love their country gain the courage to start fighting effectively for her restoration before it's too late? Here's part of what that would look like: Civil authorities first stopping vandalism and pursuing the vandals to mete out their just, legally determined penalties; second, politicians who claim to love America fighting for her by refusing to send public funds to institutions that fail to prove their graduates honor the country that pays for their education. At this point, that's just about all of them.

It's time for a new, non-racist boycott, divest, sanction movement--for taxpayer-funded education. Liberate public funds from these institutions with a century-long record of failure. Return it to families. At least half of them will be delighted to choose pro-America schools. That's a lot more than pick proAmerica schools now. It would give this country a chance to strive toward its ideals once more rather than burn them in chaos. ____ [From the Federalist, Aug. 17, 2017]

Here's a List of All the Monuments Liberals Want To Tear Down So Far (By Bre Payton)

In the wake of the violence that took place in Charlottesville over last weekend, numerous activists and politicians have called for the destruction of more historical monuments, although a significant majority of Americans (62 percent) think the monuments should stay put. Only 27 percent of Americans think these statues should be removed for fear of offending some people. As usual, public opinion's not stopping liberals from pursuing an unpopular agenda.

Though by no means comprehensive, here's a list of the monuments that are facing calls for removal or have already been torn down. 1. The Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC

In a PBS interview, Al Sharpton called for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC to be abandoned because the third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence was a slave owner. 2. Statues In The Capitol

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have both called for statues commemorating Confederates to be removed from the U.S. Capitol. 3. Mount Rushmore

Vice News's Wilbert L. Cooper called for Mount Rushmore to be destroyed because the U.S. presidents whose visages are carved into the mountainside are problematic by today's standards. 4. Monuments In Baltimore

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh had Civil War monuments removed from the city in the cover of night, without any public hearings or any public discussion process. Pugh told The New York Times that she used her emergency powers as mayor to take down statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from a public park--surprising even some members of the city council.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan also called for a statue memorializing Roger B. Taney, a Supreme Court justice who penned the infamous Dred Scott decision. which determined that anyone descended from a slave could not be an American citizen, be removed from the pedestal where it had been erected since 1887. 5. Stone Mountain

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called for a frieze depicting Confederate soldiers to be removed from Stone Mountain in Georgia. 6. Albert Pike Statue In Washington DC

In Washington DC, a group of protestors gathered on Sunday to call for the statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate general, to be torn down. 7. Chicago Parks Named After Washington And Jackson

A Chicago pastor has asked the mayor to remove the names of two former presidents--George Washington and Andrew Jackson-- from city parks because both men owned slaves.

8. Confederate Soldiers Monument In Durham, North Carolina

The Confederate Soldiers Monument was torn down by protesters from its spot in front of the old Durham County Courthouse on Monday. Four have been arrested in connection to this instance of vandalism. The Workers World Party released a statement claiming that it should be their right to tear the monuments down. 9. Monuments Throughout The State of North Carolina

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has called for additional monuments to be torn down and is asking the state legislature to repeal a 2015 law that prevents the destruction of Civil War monuments. 10. Monuments Throughout The State of Virginia

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is asking state legislators and city officials to tear down monuments throughout the Old Dominion. 11. `Old Joe' Statue In Gainesville, Florida

In Gainesville, Florida, a statue of a Confederate soldier was removed Monday from outside a county administrative building. 12. Statues In Lexington, Kentucky

The City Council of Lexington, Kentucky voted unanimously on Tuesday to remove Confederate statues from the lawn in front of an old county courthouse. In response, a white nationalist group is reportedly planning a protest. 13. Statues In Louisville, Kentucky

On Monday, protesters gathered in favor of removing a statue of Civil War officer John B. Castleman from Louisville, Kentucky. 14. Statues In Nashville Tennessee, Including One On Private Property

In Nashville, Tennessee, protestors gathered to call for the removal of a monument depicting Nathan Bedford Forrest, a lieutenant in the Confederate army, from the state capitol on Monday. People have also called for a memorial of Forrest, which sits on private property, to be hidden from view of the nearby highway. 15. Two Statues Vandalized In Wilmington, North Carolina

``A white flag was hung on the gun of the statue and its head and feet were spray painted,'' WECT reports. ``Officers were called back to the scene and found a rope tied to the statue's neck. Upon examination, officers said they believe it was likely tied to a vehicle in an attempt to pull the statue over.'' Another statue was marked with graffiti. 16. A Cemetery Marker In Los Angeles

A statue that stood in the Confederate section of Hollywood Forever Cemetery for more than 90 years was toppled on Wednesday, Los Angeles Times reports. A plaque commemorating Jefferson Davis was also removed from a park this week.

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I will say that as we go forward, if we continue to denigrate all police officers because of a few police officers, if we denigrate all of our society because of a few in our society, we will see this Nation, the ideals of individual freedom, erased from this Earth.

I used to do work at multilateral institutions and at the United Nations, and I will tell you this: This country, to me, is special and unique; imperfect, but the idea, the ideals, the people who have gone before us, how can we erase what they have done? Some made magnificent sacrifices that we might enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today, and yet they were wrong on other issues in their lives.

How can we erase our history? We must face our history squarely and openly and build upon that history to the great promise of the ideals of this Nation if we are going to persist as a Nation.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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