Why slippery slope
arguments should not stop us from removing Confederate monuments
The inside track on Washington politics.
August 15 at 10:28 PM
Following the violence in Charlottesville, Va. that
was sparked by plans to remove the Robert E. Lee statue, cities across the
country are stepping up efforts to pull Confederate monuments from public
spaces.
(Reuters)
Following the violence in Charlottesville, Va. that was
sparked by plans to remove the Robert E. Lee statue, cities across the country
are stepping up efforts to pull Confederate monuments from public spaces.
(Reuters)
This past weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Virginia
arose from a
gathering of racists, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists, whose ostensible
purpose was to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E.
Lee. Over the last several years, efforts to remove Confederate
monuments from public spaces have gathered steam because more and more people
are coming to realize that government should not
honor people who principal claim to fame was fighting a war in defense of the
evil institution of slavery.
Defenders of Confederate monuments sometimes try to argue
that slavery actually had nothing to do with the Civil War and secession. This
theory is undermined by the Confederates’ own explanation of their motives,
including those in the Southern states’ official
statements outlining their reasons for secession, which focus on
slavery far more than any other issue, Confederate Vice President Alexander
Stephens, who famously said
that “slavery . . . was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present
revolution” and that protecting it was the “cornerstone” of the new Confederate
government . . .
Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/08/15/why-slippery-slope-arguments-should-not-stop-us-from-removing-confederate-monuments/?utm_term=.696c23020fd0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/08/15/why-slippery-slope-arguments-should-not-stop-us-from-removing-confederate-monuments/?utm_term=.696c23020fd0
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