As Republican lawmakers sign on to a bipartisan push to rename military bases named after Confederate generals and protesters topple statues they perceive to have a connection to slavery, President Trump is holding firm against the idea, despite the lack of recent polling.
Trump has said he “will not even consider” renaming military installations such as Fort Bragg and Fort Hood as the protests following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in police custody have sparked a national conversation about national symbols, customs, and artworks that are associated with racism and the Confederacy.
It’s a position that has traditionally played well with the Republican base, especially in the South, but it is unclear where public opinion stands following the nationwide protests after Floyd died when a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag from all its events, and a Republican-controlled Senate panel advanced an amendment by Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren to remove Confederacy-related monuments, names, and other items from military bases over three years. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden supports Warren’s proposal.
While more recent polling is scarce, a 2017 Fox News poll found 61% of Americans were against taking down Confederate monuments, while 29% were in favor. A PBSNewshour/NPR/Marist poll taken around the same time found 62% wanted to keep the monuments intact, while 27% preferred to take them down, with even black respondents split 44%-40% on keeping versus removing Confederate statues.
This has recently been true even in Southern states that have experienced a leftward political trend. A 2019 Elon University poll found 65% of North Carolinians wanted to keep Confederate monuments on government-owned property. A 2018 Quinnipiac poll found 57% of Virginians also opposed getting rid of Confederate statues. North Carolina voted for Barack Obama twice, while Virginia hasn’t delivered its electoral votes to a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.
Some polls, such as the Public Religion Research Institute or the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, have shown people are more likely to support removing Confederate memorabilia if it involves relocating the items in question to museums. The public has remained divided on whether Confederate paraphernalia is primarily a symbol of Southern pride or racism and slavery.
But the national climate has changed rapidly in the wake of the Floyd protests. “If you have a military base that is named after someone that actually rebelled against the United States government, then you would want to be able to go back and look at that name,” Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “That should be a pretty basic principle.”
“It’s important that we preserve history while at the same time realizing that there are cultural shifts to be aware of,” said Dave Wilson, a Republican strategist in South Carolina, where the Confederate battle flag was removed from statehouse grounds, while Nikki Haley was governor, after a 2015 racist massacre at a black Charleston church. Wilson points to his state’s Heritage Act, which requires a two-thirds majority in the state legislature to change or remove similar monuments. “It allows for us to have a debate and achieve a true consensus,” he said. “The decision is made by the people as a whole, not just a select group.”
“I think it’s in the DNA of native South Carolinians to care very little about the opinions of outsiders, and we all have a bit of a revolutionary streak in us,” said Republican strategist Walter Whetsell. “However, with rapid growth in the low country and in the suburban counties bordering Charlotte, the demographics here are changing. I think most South Carolinians see renaming monuments akin to remaking history — and they wonder that in a state where history is so part of our culture, where do you stop? We literally have thousands of streets, buildings, parks, towns, cities, named for historical figures.”
Trump isn’t alone. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, an up-and-coming Republican lawmaker, has come out against renaming the military bases. “Now, before we vote on this floor on the National Defense Authorization Act, I will offer an amendment to undo this effort at historical revisionism,” he said in a Senate floor speech. “I will offer it not to celebrate the cause of the Confederacy but to embrace the cause of union, our union, shared together as Americans.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, has also signaled support for more local input into the base names.
The White House has gone so far as to say Trump would veto the NDAA if Warren’s amendment is included. “We must recognize the sacrifices made by these men and women, some of whom saw Fort Bragg for the last time before they went overseas,” said press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at a briefing last week.
Trump has warned in the past that the monument removals will not be limited to Confederate leaders. “I wonder: Is it George Washington next week, and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” Trump said to reporters in 2017. “You know, you really do have to ask yourself — where does it stop?”
Albany’s mayor is removing a statue of Revolutionary War Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, who was a slaveholder, while demonstrators have targeted figures as diverse as Jefferson and Winston Churchill.
“It’s a very difficult issue the president is wrestling with,” Wilson said.
