In a recent American Greatness essay, I demonstrated how modern American leftists are the heirs of the colonial Royalists, those who timorously sought to remain lowly subjects of King George III rather than boldly revolt to become sovereign citizens. Further, despite their “radical chic” preening, these Royalists are counterrevolutionaries, hell-bent upon reversing the fundamental, exceptional victory of America’s founding generation: a sovereign citizenry with individual God-given rights that formed a servant government grounded in the consent of the governed to protect and promote those rights.
As is their wont, the Royalist Left denies their counterrevolutionary aims, though such protests are decreasing as their hubris and delusions continue to spring to the fore for all to see. Whether they feel a counter-revolutionary victory is near or they desperately sense that the window for one is soon closing is irrelevant, as both are manifestations of their collective fever dream. But for those leftists whose duplicity or ignorance compels them to carp about being outed as counterrevolutionary heirs of the Royalists, one need only take a gander at that once and future hot bed of Royalist anti-revolutionary ardor, New York City.
After 187 years gracing New York City Hall, the obsessed Royalist Left has finally removed a statue of the American revolutionary Thomas Jefferson. In this single, symbolic act of historical cancellation, the Royalist Left reveals its craven nature and counterrevolutionary aim: a regression back to a governing paradigm of the sovereign government on top and the servant people on the bottom.
Even the manner in which the Royalist Left purged Jefferson reveals their end goal: government knows best and you must abide—or else. Per the New York Post:
Keri Butler, executive director of the Public Design Commission that voted to banish the statue, at first tried to block the press from witnessing its removal. Butler relented after members of the mayor’s office and City Council intervened. The commission also attempted to vote on the statue’s removal without a public hearing on the controversial move until The Post revealed the plan.
These Royalist counterrevolutionaries are stunning and brave, indeed.
The reason for Jefferson’s removal? He owned slaves. While Jefferson’s cancellation was greeted with acclaim among those on the Royalist Left, in this case an interesting divide over tactics transpired. Again, per the the New York Post:
‘Removing a monument without a public conversation about why it’s happening is useless. New Yorkers all need to talk about who we want to honor and why,’ said Erin Thompson, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who authored the forthcoming book ‘Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments.’ Thompson said the removal could spark a broader understanding of history.
If ever there was a “teachable moment” for us as to how leftist academia justifies history’s eradication as a means of education for the ignorant peons, this is it. But the professor’s rhetorical font has yet to run dry: “Moving this statue doesn’t mean New Yorkers will forget who Thomas Jefferson was—but some of them might learn from the controversy that the man who wrote ‘all men are created equal’ owned over 600 of his fellow humans.”
Apparently, despite the Left’s nonstop besieging of the founders, the historical fact that Jefferson owned slaves will somehow be overlooked unless his statue is removed.
Others in the Royalist counter-revolutionary movement took a more direct tack. “Black, Latino and Asian Caucus co-chair I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens) said he wanted the statue gone because it doesn’t represent contemporary values.”
One can be forgiven for believing that the question of slavery being morally wrong and needfully illegal was settled well before this contemporary generation of Americans was but a gleam in the eyes of their parents. And it is edifying to know the author of the Declaration of Independence—which includes such verities as “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”—doesn’t represent the “contemporary values” of the Left.
Ultimately, the statue will reside in the New York Historical Society’s lobby and reading room. As hope springs eternal, maybe one day there, in those cozy confines and surrounded by so many opportunities for edification, the Royalist Left can crack a damn book and can begin to shed the intellectual and emotional shackles of their counterrevolutionary dogma.
From those books, maybe these Royalists can finally realize their ideology—whether it be a Leninist, Maoist, Castroite, or any other virulent variant—is not progressive, but rather a regressive slide back into a collectivist, authoritarian past wherein the individual is subordinate to the sovereign and the state.
From those books, maybe these Royalists can learn from history, transcend their Manichean-mindset, and hold to account those of their fellow leftists who breached “contemporary values” by killing and repressing their fellow human beings in pursuit of their socialist aims.
From those books, maybe these Royalists can come to a place where they cease propagating their puerile lie that honoring the founders and cherishing the legacy of liberty and equality they bequeathed us—and with which they enabled succeeding generations of Americans to enhance and expand that liberty—does not constitute supporting everything they ever did. Maybe, eventually, they will realize that the founders—just like us—were human, too. They, like us, failed to live up to their ideals at times.
But maybe the most important thing those Royalists could learn from those books is that the 1776 generation, unlike this one, actually led a successful revolution on these shores on behalf of liberty. It’s time for them to admit, by aiming to overturn that victory, they are engaged in an authoritarian counterrevolution.