We begin by dropping labels like “alt-left” and “alt-right” and referring to people as people. “Tearing down monuents” is not intended to be a conversation opener. It is intended to say that the government is making a statement when it builds, maintains and defends heroic representations of people and causes and that some of these monuments no longer represent what we as a society believe to be right. A heroic statue of Stonewall Jackson valourises both the man and his cause. A mosque makes no such statement any more than a church makes a statement about the Inquisition. And I wonder, why is the onus on people with Progressive views to open the conversation? When will Conservatives take a step forward and start a real conversation? It seems to me that people like Arlie Hochschild and Nancy Isenberg are trying very empathetically and very sincerely to explain Conservative views to Progressives. Where are their Conservative equivalents?