GOP senator: Removing Confederate military base names is caving to a 'mob'

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) wants to block a bill that would force military bases named after Confederate soldiers to be renamed, saying the mandate to change the names “smacks of the cancel culture the Left wants to impose on the nation.”

Earlier this month, the Senate adopted an amendment written by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to the annual defense budget that would force the Pentagon to remove Confederate names, monuments, and symbols from all military facilities and equipment.

Warren’s amendment was adopted by the GOP-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee with bipartisan support.

Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is “personally OK” with the change.

But Hawley is mad, saying the decision caves to the left-wing “mob.”

He wants to strip Warren’s amendment from the defense authorization bill and instead create a commission that would “hold public hearings, gather input from military families and veterans, and work with state and local communities to recommend a way forward.”

Hawley said in a news release that his amendment would then “require the Commission to report to Congress on its efforts, so that Congress can ensure state and local input is substantially reflected in the Commission’s final recommendations.”

Hawley’s opposition to removing the names of Confederate figures from military bases comes as support for memorializing them wanes.

Protesters marching for racial justice have called for the removal of Confederate and other racist monuments. And their cause is gaining support, with 32% of voters now saying they support getting rid of Confederate statues, up from 26% in 2017, according to a Morning Consult poll.

State and local officials across the country have started to remove monuments to generals and soldiers who fought for the Confederacy against the United States in the racist cause of preserving slavery.

Donald Trump wants to keep the statues and bases named for Confederates, saying that removing them erases “part of a Great American Heritage.”

Hawley apparently agrees with Trump.

“The reality though is that this was never about the Confederacy,” he said. “That’s what left-wing activists want us to believe. The events of the last few weeks where rioters have attacked American and religious landmarks tell us otherwise. It only took days for them to move on to Grant and Lincoln. And the mob will keep marching through all our cultural institutions until every American whom the woke crowd deems unjust is cancelled.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.