A rational person looking at the status of blacks in the United States would note the great strides made since the Civil Rights Movement, starting with the integration of the Armed Forces by President Truman.  We have laws banning discrimination in employment, housing, education, and other areas.  We have laws and court cases mandating preferences for blacks.  To be called a "racist" today is the ultimate sin and charge, especially for politicians.

But even though the black unemployment rate is high, the burning issue now is not jobs for blacks or safety in cities like Chicago, but whether we should remove statues of Confederate soldiers from public areas.  Being a resident of a Northern city with no Confederate statues, I never gave this issue much thought.

If I were black and saw a statue of a Confederate soldier, I would question honoring soldiers who fought for the states in rebellion against the Union over the issue of slavery.  But I would be more concerned with living in a safe area and having a good job or business to support my family.

The answer is that we honor soldiers and warriors for their bravery, not their politics.  The soldiers did not make the policies that allowed slavery.  The politicians were the ones who allowed slavery to exist until the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment.  And most of the politicians who allowed the evil of slavery to persist were members of the Democratic Party.  The Democrats ruled the Southern states that permitted slavery and ruled the Southern states after the Civil War that permitted segregation and discrimination against blacks.  The Republican Party was formed in 1856 as the anti-slavery party that elected Lincoln in 1860, which caused some states to secede.  The 13th and 14th Amendments were passed by a Republican Congress.  

One would think that the anger would be against not Confederate soldiers, most of whom were poor and owned no slaves, but against the politicians.  What is the benefit of removing statues of soldiers?  Many of the Confederate officers also fought for our country in the Mexican War.

As President Trump asked, what next after the removal of statues of Robert E. Lee?  It would seem logical that if statues of soldiers offend, then the statues of political leaders should offend more.  Thus, logic would dictate we remove statues of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and all other slave-owning political leaders.  We would have statues only of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.  Next, we would remove statues of political leaders who did not end slavery and segregation.

Logic also dictates that the Democratic Party acknowledge its role as the party of slavery.  The KKK was part of the Democratic Party.  Senator Robert Byrd was a KKK member.  Supreme Court justice Hugo Black, appointed by FDR, was a member of the KKK.  The leaders of the Democratic Party were much more to blame for slavery than ordinary soldiers.  The Democrat politicians used the Confederate soldiers to fight the Civil War, and now the Democrats are using statues of Confederate soldiers to again push their agenda.  This is another example of the hypocrisy of Democrats to shift the focus on the soldiers but not on the Democrat politicians responsible for slavery and the Civil War.

The real question, as Trump said, is this: how does removal of statues help blacks get jobs?  How does it help blacks in badly run cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New Orleans, St. Louis, Cleveland, etc., all run by Democrats for years, and all with high crime rates, live in safety?

Democrats do not want to debate these questions because of their complicity in slavery and their responsibility for today's poorly run cities.  They prefer the easy way to remove statues.