In Portland, the mob has torn down and burned George Washington’s statue. In San Francisco, they’ve toppled statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Francis Scott Key. In Sacramento, they vandalized a memorial dedicated to members of law enforcement killed in the line of duty. In Birmingham, they damaged a World War I memorial. In Philadelphia, they even defaced the statue of abolitionist Matthias Baldwin.
The thugs who vandalize and destroy these statues and memorials are criminals. They should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and I am pleased that President Trump will sign an executive order to clarify existing criminal statutes and ensure that vandals who destroy statues on federal property can face up to 10 years in jail.
But across the nation, Democrat mayors have joined these radicals in support of removing these statues, in clear testimony that the mob now rules their streets. Democrat New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the statue of Teddy Roosevelt will be removed from the American Museum of Natural History. In Columbus, Ohio, the mayor has announced the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue, in a city named for Columbus. And now they are after the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C. with the blessing of D.C.’s congressional representative.
The angry mob wants to erase history. In doing so, we eliminate the opportunity to learn from the past—good and bad. It’s deeply troubling on so many levels.
We can’t allow the mob to control our country. Where will this stop? When they’ve renamed Washington D.C. and Washington state? When they’ve burned all our history books? When they topple the statue of any historical figure with whom they disagree?
Make no mistake: they will not stop until they achieve their goal of making America a socialist nation. In “The Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx wrote, “In Communist society, the present dominates the past.” Destroying history, good or bad, is straight from the socialist playbook.
If you don’t think that’s where this angry mob is headed, then you’re missing what they are about. It is a march to socialism.
The mob’s destruction hasn’t stopped with historic statues. Now, they are even calling to destroy statues and depictions of Jesus. And that will just be the beginning. Next they will come for our churches, as they have done in Alabama already. They will trample on our religious freedom, until there is no religion at all.
For so many Americans, it seems outlandish that we would have to explain that fascism, socialism, and communism do not work. We have seen it fail across the globe, and when it is implemented, people suffer. We cannot allow it to grow in America, the greatest country the world has ever known.
As the U.S. ambassador to Japan, I saw firsthand how oppressive regimes in North Korea, Russia, and China attempted to erase history; it’s part of their playbook. That’s where the mob aims to take America. They want to erase our history.
Ronald Reagan said, “If fascism ever comes to America, it will come in the name of liberalism.” Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I will not be silent as increasingly more radical liberals here at home attempt to do the same.
We need to re-elect President Donald Trump, who has promised that, under his leadership, America will never be a socialist country. We need to call out these radical anarchists and bring an end to the chaos. We have to stand up to this angry mob and halt their relentless march toward socialism.
