If you're a regular connoisseur of left-wing propaganda, you've probably bought into the notion that any American who's not an avid racist supports banning all statues or monuments depicting Confederate figures or, frankly, anyone who's ever done anything offensive.
We weren't so sure. To get a better grasp on public opinion, MRCTV traveled to the Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, Va. to ask everyday Americans from all over the country whether they think we should remove statues and monuments that either offend people or don't have the shiniest of histories. And their single most common response surprised even us.
The overwhelming consensus from everyone we talked to was that the statues and monuments shouldn’t be removed, because we need to preserve history. Some respondents suggested a compromise, instead.
“I think it’d probably be a better idea to go ahead and maybe elaborate a little bit more on the person that the monument signifies,” one man told MRCTV, “but we still need to remember who we are as a country.”
One woman brought up a pretty good historical point when it comes to remembering tumultuous times in history.
“It’s part of our history,” a woman who we talked to began, “and just like World War II, where the Nazis did something that we disagreed with, it’s important to remember it for future generations so we don’t make the same mistake in the future.”
That’s an excellent point, considering that you can still visit and tour concentration camps the Nazis used to kill millions of people in Europe during World War II.
“We're becoming more of a self-centered, self-focused society,” one man told us. "So it boils down to, 'What do I think? What is my opinion? and if you don’t share my opinion then you’re wrong,' versus what the country was built on, which was free speech.”