President Donald Trump has — for some reason — lately made it one of his apparent chief priorities to defend monuments to the Confederacy. He has endlessly wound himself up over the topic, claiming that those opposed to the continued presence of the monuments are launching some kind of plot against America — or something. During an appearance on CBS’s Face The Nation this weekend, retired General Colin Powell showed up Trump over his continued attachment to the monuments, insisting that it’s time to “move on” from the Confederacy. To be clear, the Confederacy — which didn’t even last a whole decade — stood for the defense of violent, societally-embedded racism, plain and simple.
Powell commented:
‘The Confederate flag is now an explicit demonstration of another time, another place, another country that has nothing to do with the United States of America. It was the Confederate States of America. They were not part of us, and this is not the time to keep demonstrating who they were and what they were back then. This is time to move on. Let’s get going. We have one flag and only one flag only, and that’s the flag we should all support and all display and all be proud of.’
Watch his comments below:
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell calls to "move on" from the #ConfederateFlag
The #confederateflag is a "demonstration of another time another place, another country that has nothing to do with the United States of America…it's time to move on," he tells @margbrennan pic.twitter.com/8EcmgUqi4W
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 19, 2020
Trump has taken the exact opposite approach. He has complained about those who have spoken out against the Confederate flag. For instance, after NASCAR decided to ban displays of the Confederate flag on the grounds of its race tracks, Trump lied that the decision had sparked low ratings for the racing league. In the same tweet, he lied that black driver Bubba Wallace had made up a “hoax” that a noose had been hanging in his car’s garage stall. Wallace isn’t even the one who found and reported the rope.
Trump tweeted:
‘Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!’
Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 6, 2020
In a Fox interview that aired on Sunday morning, Trump defended the Confederate flag yet again. He said:
‘When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag. It represents the south. They like the south. People right now like the south. I say it’s freedom of, of, many things, but it’s freedom of speech… You know the whole thing with cancel culture, we can’t cancel our whole history. We can’t forget that the North and the South fought. We have to remember that. Otherwise, we’ll end up fighting again. You can’t just cancel all [of that].’
Has Trump never heard of books? His suggestion that removing the Confederate flag could entail forgetting history is laughably ridiculous. Just go read a book.
“When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag. It represents the south. They like the south. People right now like the south. I say it’s freedom of, of, many things” — Trump pic.twitter.com/SBAWXJpLfB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 19, 2020
Trump’s defenses for Confederate monuments are the latest in a long line of his defenses for monuments to and expressions of racism in general. He’s founded much of his entire policy platform on racism.
