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For years now, Americans have been told that tearing down historical statues is about some half-baked “healing” process that will somehow lead to “progress,” because we’re finally confronting our dark, ugly history with honesty.
Hogwash.
The pattern has always been perfectly clear. What’s being destroyed isn’t ignorance or “racism,” it’s memory. History is being weaponized and rewritten to fit a progressive narrative.
This week, that pattern was on full display inside the US Capitol, where a statue of Robert E. Lee was replaced with one honoring civil rights activist Barbara Rose Johns. And standing front and center, smiling ear-to-ear for the cameras, was Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin.
And that’s what triggered the epic backlash that swallowed Youngkin whole. He was digitally lambasted for caving to the left’s whitewashing of history by publicly endorsing the removal of one of the most historically significant Virginians of the last 150 years.
To many watching this circus unfold, it looked like one of the biggest RINO surrenders in recent memory.
This is the post Glenn Youngkin wrote that started all the outrage:
Today we gathered in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol to dedicate the Barbara Rose Johns statue, to honor her legacy as a trailblazer, and ensure her story of courage and conscience is a story for generations to come. You can’t tell the story of Virginia, or the story of how our nation overcame segregation, without telling the story of Barbara Rose Johns.
Today we gathered in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol to dedicate the Barbara Rose Johns statue, to honor her legacy as a trailblazer, and ensure her story of courage and conscience is a story for generations to come.
You can’t tell the story of Virginia, or the story of… pic.twitter.com/lO7MjFDLmk
— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) December 17, 2025
Right away, conservatives and historians began pummeling Youngkin, accusing him of cheap, political pandering and historical illiteracy. One viral post cut straight to the heart of the issue, arguing that the impulse to tear down historic figures like Lee isn’t about “correcting” the past, but about targeting people in the present and sending a message.
John Daniel Davidson:
This is shameful cowardice on the part of Youngkin. But the place from which this urge comes goes far beyond cheap political pandering.
More than a decade ago now I wrote something for @FDRLST on the 150th anniversary of Appomattox. It was in part a response to a leftist screed published in The New Republic calling for the mass desecration of Confederate graves.
At the time, the broad contours of our current troubles were just coming into view. It occurred to me that the impulse to tear down monuments to the Confederate dead, and men like Robert E. Lee, came from a very dark place, and that example of Lee and Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, who displayed remarkable humility and generosity for the sake of reconciliation and national reunion, was totally absent from the discourse about how to honor our collective historical memory.
We are way past all that now. Today, it’s impossible not to see that the purpose of pulling down a statue of Lee is not to redress some historical grievance. The purpose is to get a mob to burn down a city block, or a violent radical to put a bullet in Charlie Kirk.
The real target was never those in the past, but those in the present.
But for what’s it’s worth, the reason we as a nation once honored Lee was not because of his battlefield genius. It was because of how he single-handedly prevented the Civil War from spiraling into a years-long insurgency that would have made reunion all but impossible. His greatest was made manifest in his hour of defeat, and that is something worth not just remembering, but honoring.
This is shameful cowardice on the part of Youngkin. But the place from which this urge comes goes far beyond cheap political pandering.
More than a decade ago now I wrote something for @FDRLST on the 150th anniversary of Appomattox. It was in part a response to a leftist screed… https://t.co/Uy7zyG0hQE pic.twitter.com/KiW1Q9DxT7
— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) December 17, 2025
Other X users focused on the classic establishment GOP tone-deafness of the moment. As a result, Glenn Youngkin was ratioed into oblivion. Many angry conservatives didn’t even bother with words. They just posted images of Robert E. Lee. The message was clear: Glenn is just another weak, establishment RINO.
National Conservative:
Left-wing Republic Governor @GlennYoungkin is being ratioed by tiny accounts posting pictures of Robert E. Lee. Johns was an elementary school librarian who nobody ever heard of before. Youngkin never heard of her before this.
Left-wing Republic Governor @GlennYoungkin is being ratioed by tiny accounts posting pictures of Robert E. Lee.
Johns was an elementary school librarian who nobody ever heard of before. Youngkin never heard of her before this. pic.twitter.com/MpJ1N05wap
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) December 17, 2025
One blistering response came from an X account operating under the name “Jefferson Davis,” which pointed out just how badly Youngkin’s post was landing. As the governor of Virginia, Youngkin has a massive follower count. But after this weak-kneed move, angry responses quickly began outperforming his original post.
That really shows just how sick and tired people are of these uniparty types.
Jefferson Davis:
As of this posting (8:09AM) my response to Youngkin has more likes, despite the fact that he has far more followers.
It is unclear who he is pandering to by stating something so stupid. The fact is Lee is more important to the last 150 years of VA’s history than any other man.
As of this posting (8:09AM) my response to Youngkin has more likes, despite the fact that he has far more followers.
It is unclear who he is pandering to by stating something so stupid. The fact is Lee is more important to the last 150 years of VA’s history than any other man. https://t.co/5xxvcxAHsU pic.twitter.com/Cd0fm4I1Eu
— Jefferson Davis (@Jeff_Davis1808) December 17, 2025
Here’s a copy of the images “Jefferson Davis” shared:
Trump supporter Steve Cortes weighed in, calling the moment a disgrace and reminding Republicans that honoring Lee was once considered a unifying act, not a controversy. Cortés pointed out what many establishment Republicans seem to have forgotten: history doesn’t disappear just because politicians are afraid to defend it.
Steve Cortes:
What in the hot hell is this nonsense?! Glenn Youngkin in front too, beaming at the destruction of history, a disgrace to Virginia. Dear “old school” Republicans: study some history. Also, consider that Eisenhower considered General Lee to be one of the greatest Americans EVER
What in the hot hell is this nonsense?!
Glenn Youngkin in front too, beaming at the destruction of history, a disgrace to Virginia.
Dear “old school” Republicans: study some history. Also, consider that Eisenhower considered General Lee to be one of the greatest Americans EVER https://t.co/H0RGr0ejw9
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) December 17, 2025
What happened in the Capitol was another left-wing ritual and one more realization that establishment Republicans believe their “survival” means nodding along as history is dismantled piece by piece.
The real irony here is that Robert E. Lee was honored because he helped unite the country. The lesson of Appomattox wasn’t about domination. It was about restraint and choosing order and reconciliation instead of letting the country spiral into endless chaos.
But, by pretending that lesson no longer matters, RINOs like Glenn Youngkin aren’t advancing the country; they’re showing everybody they either don’t understand it or don’t care. And voters are noticing. Big time.
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