I would believe that if antifa, blm, and the rest of the alt-left were trying to hug it out with nazis and the kkk, rather than violently attacking them and anyone with white skin in their general vicinity.
I have an alternative hypothesis — removing Confederate memorials is an attempt to keep conflict going, and to give purpose to the progressive base that has already won so much over the past century. With unions, gay marriage, gays in the military, women’s suffrage, social safety nets, obamacare, massive government programs and spending, and the elimination or reversal of racism and sexism as a government institution (now only practiced against white and asian males), the alt-left has run out of things to fight. It’s as if the Union army, unsatisfied with the surrender of the South, decided to continue marching on to Canada to keep the war going and to give them purpose.
And it alienates people. Not just the crazy KKK and Nazis, but normal, perfectly liberal and reasonable people who have no idea what re-litigating a war over 150 years ago is going to do to reduce black-on-black crime in the inner city, or improve education in Baltimore, or even provide more jobs in the rust belt.
So sure, it’s not primarily an attempt to erase history (although that’s a big consequence) — it’s really an attempt to keep the fight going, to find some other noble cause to rally the troops. It’s a cause over 150 years old and dead, but since they’ve run out of bad guys in 2017, they’ve had to borrow some from 1865.
Slavery happened. The War of Northern Aggression happened. Reconstruction happened. Woodrow Wilson happened. The Civil Rights movement happened. None of these things will change if you tear down monuments, plaques, pictures, or flags. The past is in the past, and our choice is to learn from it, or ignore it. I refuse to choose ignorance.
