Extremists Want to Abolish Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson—But They Won’t Stop There

The far Left is purging our founding fathers one by one while using slavery and the Confederacy as cover. In reality, this is a total war on America’s founding ideals. Who will they come for next?

Over the last several decades, leftists have distorted U.S. history to erase our nation’s past and promote a negative view of America. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with the tearing down of Confederate statutes and other historical monuments.

It seems clear cut, right? The Confederacy represents slavery. Slavery is horrible. We should destroy anything that serves as a reminder. Yet if we pause for a moment and apply critical thinking, we discover a slippery slope and dangerous path that has already spiraled out of control.

Slavery is evil. There’s no doubt about it. But that isn’t the argument at hand. The argument is: What will happen to future historical figures, and facts, once we’ve opened this Pandora’s Box?

Despite the negative emotion surrounding the Civil War, specifically the Confederacy, this period of our history cannot be ignored. It should also be noted that judging people who lived over 150 years ago by today’s standards is unreasonable, and that nefarious people tend to deal in absolutes to get what they want.

Other figures throughout history owned slaves, such as the prophet Muhammad. There’s no uproar to strike him from the classroom curriculum or disregard his existence. This current outrage seems to have been created so it could be applied selectively to those who stood for individualism, free-thinking, and limited government. 

With the help of the media, the Left has sown division and stoked racial outrage on this issue. It has helped them obtain total control over what history is acceptable, and what gets thrown onto the ash heap. This is ironic given that Leftists are usually the ones warning against book banning and the destruction of knowledge.

By letting emotion lead the way, the far-left has successfully removed reason from the equation. We are now faced with a freighting precedent that is already being used to erase great leaders from America’s memory, and replace them with absurd alternatives.  

Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln Must Go  

When the famous Thomas Jefferson statue in New York’s City Hall was removed earlier this year, a video of the removal  went viral on X/Twitter. What many didn’t realize is that the statue had already been taken out in 2021. It marked the first time in 187 years a likeness of Jefferson was not there.

Think for a moment, this is the same man who—along with Abraham Lincoln—is honored with a glorious memorial in our nation’s capital. A site that highlights his famous words about how he swore “upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

This was a man who drafted the Declaration of Independence, served as vice-president and as our nation’s third commander-in-chief, and was an architect, author, and scientist. Jefferson reduced the national debt, negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, and freed several slaves, which was considered forward thinking for his time. Yet using the Confederate statue precedent, those who hate America decided he must be shelved forever, without debate or delay.

George Washington, our country’s first true leader who gave up the opportunity to become a king, is also on the chopping block now—as was predicted by many when the Confederate craze began. New York City has once again lead the way, with Mayor Eric Adams (D) suggesting all statues of George Washington and Christopher Columbus be removed.

Washington, who freed his slaves in his will before his death, has apparently been deemed a tyrant whose faults outweigh any good he may have accomplished. There wouldn’t be a United States without him. But now, we must erase his legacy and brand him as evil.

Even Teddy Roosevelt, whom the Left hails as a “progressive,” was targeted when a statue of him on a horse outside the Museum of Natural History was taken down in 2022. The New York Times described it as a “symbol of colonialism and racism.”

The final nail in the coffin—and perhaps the most absurd and humorous—are efforts to remove statues and monuments of Abraham Lincoln. A great leader who oversaw one of the bloodiest wars in our nation’s history aimed at ending slavery in America, apparently triggered city leaders in Boston. They felt the need to dismantle a statue of him holding his hand over a freed slave. A similar statue still stands in Washigton D.C. today.

Talk of removing another Lincoln statue from the University of Wisconsin Madison also resurfaced in 2023, after students demanded it be taken down, in part, because the “unfettered admiration” for the former president “overshadowed” Black leaders of the Civil War.

Double Standards & Unintended Consequences

There are two questions that need answering here. First, why is a blatant double standard allowed to exist on the issue of statue removal?

Statues of Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, and Columbus can be defaced and ripped down by Antifa rioters who walk away with almost no consequence, while statues of known racists like Lyndon Johnson, Malcom X, and Woodrow Wilson are protected by the government.

Even the far-left MSNBC admitted Johnson was a racist. Liberal attorney and commentator Alan Dershowitz has highlighted Malcom X’s anti-Semitism, while PBS reminded the public that Woodrow Wilson—a hero of the “progressive” Left—was a proponent of segregation on several levels.

The statues of these three men, and others who fit a specific mold, are allowed to stand because their memories are used to divide and anger the populace, making us easier to control. They help advance a specific narrative. If the price of keeping them is to hypocritically cover up their sins, while crucifying figures whom they don’t like, so be it.

We must also ask ourselves: What sort of symbols and individuals are taking the place of these  monuments that are being removed?  

George Floyd statues have been erected in Minneapolis, New York, Newark, Houston, and other cities across America. Yet the recent documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, revealed details about Floyd’s life that conflict with the hero image he was given by the media.

His criminal record is extensive and includes delivery of cocaine, possession of cocaine, aggravated robbery, theft, robbery with a firearm, and more. He had a fatal level of fentanyl in his system along with traces of methamphetamine. Not exactly a role model for our youth.

Yet somehow, he was deemed worthy of deification because his death helps feed the narrative that police must be defunded, America is racist, and it’s time for a total reset of our country’s identity.

The most horrifying aspect of this movement is the acceptance of satanic and demonic displays in civic buildings. While those who wish to tear down presidential statues are almost immune from the law, a Navy veteran who beheaded a satanic statue at the Iowa state capitol in December is being charged with a hate crime. He now faces five years in prison.

For the past several years, satanic temples have been allowed to setup displays in the Illinois state capitol rotunda, alongside Christmas and Hanukkah decorations.

A “satanic golden medusa” statue from 2023 that sits outside a New York City courthouse has been allowed to stand, as a symbolic rally cry for abortion advocates. It is also meant to honor the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. No uproar. No civil discussion or dialogue by news anchors and activists about these monuments to Satan. Just demons and devils rammed down the public’s throat. The artist behind the courthouse display called it part of a “cultural reckoning,” which sounds like a threat.

Losing the War

There was a minor victory after the National Park Service withdrew their plans to take down a William Penn statue earlier this year, yet the statement merely said the proposal was released “prematurely.” This could mean the statue’s future is still in doubt while dozens of other figures are ripped down with little to no resistance.

Those who value the preservation of our history so we can understand the entire story, learn from the bad, and honor the elements worth emulating are losing the war. Statue after statue, monument after monument, street name after street name, our nation’s identity is disappearing.

This strategy is working because it cleverly cuts at our emotional side and doesn’t bother to present the big picture. As Edward Norton’s character said while addressing the perils of free speech in the film The People vs. Larry Flynt:

I don’t like what Larry Flynt does. . . What I do like, is that we live in a country where you and I can make that decision for ourselves. . . And if we start throwing up walls against what some of us think is obscene, we may very well wake up one morning and realize that walls have been thrown up in all kinds of places that we never expected. And we can’t see anything, or do anything. And that’s not freedom.

An outlandish dystopian future, feasible only in the minds of fiction writers and political pundits, has now become our reality. Will the nation wake up and fight back to preserve its history? Only time will tell.