"tRump equated a traitor to the Father of our Country." Kurt Eichenwald

[ffr]

Link to tweet

President said this: “This week, it is Robert E. Lee … is it George Washington next?" Trump equated a traitor to the Father of our Country.

I think this is the way the RW is framing the discussion as well, as I just heard the same from a RW'er I know. They really don't have a leg to stand on. Lee is symbolic of the Civil War and that hateful black-eye of an era. Quite different than our founding fathers who were protesting against taxation without representation.

Edit follow-up:

Link to tweet

[TubbersUK]

1. You're right

Having spent the day on social media, that's exactly how the Alt-Right and their sympathizers are framing it.

Plus, they're going big on the term Alt-Left - to help shore up their false equivalencies.

[ffr]

3. Meanwhile: Putin winning.

It's all going according to plan. Tricking RW'ers into voting for this shart was geopolitical genius!

[DURHAM D]

2. Looks like Trump needs to move to Richmond, VA - Capital of the Confederacy nt

[Caliman73]

4. They like to muddy the water. That is the only thing they can do.

"I think this is the way the RW is framing the discussion as well, as I just heard the same from a RW'er I know. They really don't have a leg to stand on. Lee is symbolic of the Civil War and that hateful black-eye of an era. Quite different than our founding fathers who were protesting against taxation without representation."

Here is the thing. Our country was founded by people who at some point, in some way, believed that Black people were inferior and thereby subject to slavery. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin (who later reformed and became highly anti-slavery), and others. Even people who were not slavers, believed in some way, that Black people were inferior. There were also people, from the beginning, who saw slavery as an absolute moral evil and recognized the equality of all. While we still have a great many problems with the founders as men, we tend to understand that the issue was complicated and that the founders presented ideals for democracy and freedom for the country while harboring hypocrisies, and personal failings throughout their lives. At time went on and other countries dealt with the issue of slavery and the issue became more and more difficult to sustain morally, things began to shift and a growing number of people wanted to discontinue, or at least halt the progress of slavery, but to many in the South, slavery was big business and for others, it kept a large source of labor competition from entering the market, and instilled a caste system that at least meant that poor Whites were not at the bottom of the barrel.

The Civil War was about the South's investment in slavery. It was so powerful that they chose to try to tear the country apart to maintain it. You can see it two ways:
1. They rebelled (committed treason) and lost. Their history should be that of traitors. All leaders should be likened to Benedict Arnold who started out with the US, then defected to the enemy. There is maybe one monument associated to Arnold, but bears no name or likeness to him (and was from service prior to his treason).

2. They left the United States, formed their own country, and as an enemy combatant (like Mexico, Spain, England, etc...) attacked the United States and lost. Their history is not American History and has no place being commemorated in US History classes or US soil. We don't commemorate our Nazi opponents or the Japanese in our textbooks, why should we commemorate an enemy nation.

American history is complex and there are a great many things related to racial inequality (along with other inequalities) that we have do deal with. Honoring traitors or enemy combatants does not move us forward in either regard.

[mcar]

5. Neo Nazi talking points with every fetid breath

[Gothmog]

6. Trump is wrong-George Washington is not equivalent to Robert E. Lee

Trump is comparing the father of our country to a traitor

[flotsam]

7. Are Washington and Jefferson next?

No shitwad-for now we are working on asswipes who commanded troops shooting at US troops.