Virginia Counties Vote to Keep Confederate Monuments
Jose Nino
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Not talked about much during the electoral mayhem of the last week has been the decision by several counties in Virginia vto keep their Confederate monuments in place.
Sophie Mann of Just the News reported that this was conducted through ballot measures in rural counties during Election Day. Mann did call attention to the fact that these resolutions are not legally-binding but are resolutions that signal voter preferences to boards of supervisors.
Votes to keep the monuments reached over 70 percent in four of the counties. The levels of support ranged from 55 percent in Charles City County to 87 percent in Tazewell, according to initial results.
The ballot measures that were approved will have local authorities provide residents 30-day notice for any public hearings where officials plan on taking down monuments. In addition, the resolution would require officials to offer monuments they plan on removing to local organizations.
Prior to 2020, local governments in Virginia were prohibited by law from taking down Confederate statues. Earlier in the year, new Democratic majorities in the General Assembly scrapped this policy by passing a bill that gives localities the power to take down the memorials. In addition, the bill provides localities the ability to hold local referendums that give voters the opportunity to decide if they want to keep the monuments.
Cities such as Norfolk and Richmond were quick to take down these monuments during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. The six rural counties of Charles City, Franklin, Halifax, Lunenburg, Tazewell, and Warren were the ones who let the voters decide this question, which ultimately led to the monuments’ preservation.
“We as a board want to hear the citizens. We can hear and see what the will of the constituents is,” Travis Hackworth, the Tazewell county supervisor, said to a local outlet.
“Whatever citizens say is where I am going,” Tazewell Supervisor Mike Hymes told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.
Republicans voters in these areas were satisfied with the county’s decision to preserve American history. “I voted no on that — leave it where it is,” stated Steve Thompson, a Republican voter living in Franklin. “That’s our history. Too many people are trying to remove our history, either through the courts or through violence. This is the proper way to do it — put it on the ballot.”
The Biden/Harris ticket has allegedly won the election, which will likely be litigated in the courts due to suspect cases of voter fraud and irregularities. Should the Biden/Harris results hold, Americans should expect a massive assault by cultural radicals on virtually all artifacts of America history.
Localities should proactively pass resolutions to preserve monuments from these cultural radicals.
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