FINALLY. We hear from a politician who is willing to lose his job to do the right thing. Hearing this, I actually WOULD consider Mayor Landrieu in a bid to lead the United States.
38
Urbane, educated, reasonable.....poor sucker doesn't have a prayer!
14
The entire Landrieu family are better Americans than the family of Donald J. Trump.
22
I don’t care what the person’s politics are or where on the political spectrum they fall. We need leaders with courage and character. What we have is a load of selfish cowards.
29
"The Latin phrase 'E pluribus unum' — out of many, one — was treated as a de facto national motto."
Right, notice the word "one" - not "wonderfully diverse mosaic" or "rainbow coalition", one. Take down all the Civil War monuments you like but then also lose the mosaic and rainbow rhetoric, deal?
"an influential Trump adviser, dismissed Lazarus’s poem as something that 'was added later and was not part of the original Statue of Liberty.' "
The Trump adviser was correct. Furthermore Emma Lazarus' vision of a Jewish state, Israel, which would be haven for Jew suffering under Pogroms in Russia has come to fruition.
2
The "wonderfully diverse mosaic" and "rainbow coalition" which you seem to denigrate represents the e pluribus part of the equation: from many.
20
Racist use the Civil War state rights myth to mask the regions racist history. We don’t make Jewish kids go to Adolf Eichmann High School. There’s no reason memorials cannot move to a Smithsonian style museum, and more care shown before naming buildings after Confederate elites.
Liberal’s gerrymander history to bolster their social engineering goals. Michelle cites “E pluribus unum” as an ode immigrant multiculturalism. Wrong. America is not and has never been a multicultural society. It’s a multiethnic society comprised of citizens whom become one by pledging allegiance to one country: America.
This is expressly evident in the Pledge of Alliance, required in the Oath of Allegiance before immigrant naturalization, and codified in the Constitution via the Nobility and Emoluments Clause.
But racists and Liberals can marshal history because kids are not learning anymore. Instead, it's gender studies.
8
No conciliation. We need a modern civil war. This one being financial whereas the blue states stop sending their tax dollars to the red states. We do not deserve to live under their regressive, harsh leadership. They need to evolve and when they do, reconciliation can take place. Think how much more advanced states like California and New York would be if they kept their money. We are done with the moochers in the red states.
19
Imagine being willing to lose your job to do the right thing! I hope the Republicans in Congress read this. None of them are willing to speak out to save this country unless they are already retiring or not seeking re-election. So nobody pays any attention to them as their (finally) honest appraisals of Trump and his gang are said at no cost. Courage it's not!
When will those still in power look beyond their campaign war chests and personal bank accounts and see that the country needs them to be brave and stop this destruction of our democracy?!
They just need to stop giving him everything he wants. Speak out for our country! Block some of his worst ideas. There are Republicans out in the land who do not approve of him. Give them a voice!
8
That is one brave man.
He probably got more death threats than this article will have comments.
Some of those threatening have long rifles and know how to shoot.
It wasn't just a bunch of keyboard warriors.
He saw it done.
10
One thing to like about Mitch Landrieu on top of his eloquence is his pragmatism. He says he loves being a mayor because you have to solve problems affecting people on a daily basis which are right in front of you. Some of that would be useful in Washington.
His intelligence and his humanism are like a breath of fresh air in the putrid effluent of the Trump administration and Fox news.
13
What, and Clinton wasn't a centrist? Typical Southern Democrat, he was the most right wing of the litter running for President the year of his first term. Fur shur, he was no Jerry Moonbeam Brown.
And Obama? Sorry, in Nixon's era he might have been a Republican.
So I am as OK with Mitch as I was/wasn't with Bubba and Baraka....
5
Mitch Landrieu: poised, articulate, compassionate, and un-electable.
Donald Trump: crass, crude, spiteful, and elected.
I would ask what happened to America; however, I know the answer: we sat,watched it happen over the last 40-50 years, and said nothing. Bob Dylan was right, "for the times, they are a changin'"
5
The fact that you think Mitch Landrieu is too much of a centrist to be supported by the Democratic Party is exactly what's wrong with the Democratic Party and why Trump got elected.
The majority of the US population is in the center, and quite likely, center-right. A lot of those people just could not bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton (although I did), and they either voted for Trump or stayed home. The center-further-right "Never Trumpers" voted for Third Party candidates or stayed home.
This country desperately needs a viable centrist third party to counter the dangerous extremes of both the left and the right. Many, many people who hate Trump and his ilk would leap at the chance to vote for a centrist Democrat. Mitch's sister Mary Landrieu was a "Blue Dog" Democrat, a group I listened to getting villified the other day on NPR. If the country can't have more "Blue Dogs", then we need a coalition of centrists from the Democrats and the Republicans to find a "Third Way" and form a new political party to restore the nation's dignity and common sense.
The constant violent swinging from extreme left to extreme right is making me nauseous.
24
Michelle Goldberg says: "I suspect he’s far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters. (He certainly is for me.)"
I find this terribly disheartening. The first presidential candidate I ever voted for was George McGovern. I don't have to remind you how that turned out. It is truly better to have a Democrat in the White House than to say 'he's not liberal enough.' Are we going to have to be the ones calling for a big tent? I always thought that defined us.
Whenever I read that progressives will not support moderate Democrats, I can't help but think the Russians are chortling. We had better start realizing that perfect is the enemy of good.
20
What about our brave soldiers who fought in the Korean the Vietnam wars. Were they less brave because the wars may have been unjust? . What about Afghanistan and Iraq? They may wonder if you diminish their heroism at a later date.
2
They weren't committing treason. And I say that as a descendant of Confederate soldiers.
9
These days if anyone can string a few inspiring words together they're immediately talked about as presidential material. We're that starved for a president who is decent and not obviously bonkers. However, we should keep in mind that 63 million Americans voted for a person who they already knew was totally unfit for the office, and they didn't care. Who's to say the next election will be any different?
2
Thanks Michelle. I enjoy your writing every time, and was glad to learn more about Landrieu. Who knows but that he may stand a chance for some state office in this upheaval against the know nothing spineless Republican schlubby leadership and our lemming-in-chief anti-President.
I call myself a progressive Democrat and a feminist since the 70's, but was thrilled by Conor Lamb's squeak victory in PA.
Let's support the art of the possible in each State to drain the present sewer in Washington.
9
Best speech of my lifetime. Born in 1970.
2
I voted for Mitch Landrieu in three separate elections.
Would love to have the honor and opportunity to do it again.
SOON.
7
Bernie voter here. In normal times, Landrieu may well be far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters, for Ms. Goldberg and, for that matter, for me.
But this is a watershed moment. The entire Republican machine, including erstwhile never-trumpers, has benefited from the trump presidency. And if Pence were to ascend to power, things could be even worse because he would probably be more efficient at enacting bad policies. So it's important for the Dems not to construct another circular firing-squad that would destroy their chances of winning back power. If a Landrieu candidacy looked like delivering a win, I would go with it.
Secondly, I believe that before long, the left-right divide in the Democratic party will begin to dissolve, because the electorate will make it happen. There's nothing like Republican excess and the threat of more of it to concentrate people's minds (think Social Security and Medicare).
Just as the center has moved steadily right over the years, voters will start moving it back to the left. They'll still consider themselves centrists and they'll take with them the Landrieus and other Democratic centrists. All the way back to where Bernie stands - and Ike used to stand, for that matter.
15
Good for Mr. Landrieu. He is standing up for right in a time when few politicians seem willing to do so publicly. Not only Blacks but also Americans of other heritage whose ancestors arrived here only in the past century or so deserve to be considered for their own contributions--and for what they were not part of. I live in the South, but my ancestors came from Russia to the Northeast, where they lived exclusively. I may be white, but I have no responsibility for the cruelty of slavery. As long as I stand up for all people, I also have no responsibility for the era before the 1960s, when I was a child. I find that if I listen, I learn from almost everyone I meet, regardless of ethnicity, color or religion. So, I say let's make our own history, one we can be proud of--one that is inclusive rather than exclusive. We must acknowledge the past, but we don't have to stay mired in it.
3
Mitch Landrieu might be more likely to run for governor of Louisiana than president, at least at this point. The Landrieu family has produced two very good mayors of New Orleans and a U.S. Senator. They have a reputation for competence and even a measure of integrity, qualilties that seem clearly in short supply in Louisiana politics, where all too often ignorance and prejudice trump common sense and equitable governance.
5
I applaud Mitch Landrieu. Moderate or not, he has the courage to speak out loudly against his own constituency when needed. Let's not let an ideological litmus test define the Democratic Party. When we see a leader with enough moral integrity to stand up against his base let's stand with him.
14
Perhaps a political centrist is what we need in these hyper-polarized days. I am most certainly to the left of Mayor Landrieu, but I do not object to centrist politicians. I am aware the the majority of the country is to my political right, and ultimately, I want a government that actually *functions* instead of arguing all the time. I have come to the conclusion that having the far left and far right equally unhappy about the same proposal probably means that said proposal is likely to be palatable, if not perfect, to the largest number of people.
7
Remember, we’re dealing with scores of people who see nothing wrong with a public display of a statue honoring individuals who, under particular circumstances regarding race, fought for the right sell my wife, mother, dad, son, daughter, grandkids, loved one’s, any one else my color, and take any authority I have in my own family!
9
I saved the awe-inspiring Landrieu speech intending to read it every so often. Unless you have relatives in Louisiana or lived there for awhile as I did, most may not find the courage in the speech and action. He recognized there was no other way forward in a racially diverse state. Pragmatic yes, compassionate absolutely, guaranteed to inflame white voters, no doubt. Landrieu made a decision he would much prefer to be right on the issue than be in office. In a nation in need of healing post-Trump his voice, his speech needs to heard, be remembered. He may not get far in national politics, but ideas reflecting clarity of the thought and courage should be celebrated.
8
Mitch certainly has the stuff to make a fine President, and I would vote for him in a flash. Pity he's a "centrist" and not a left wing ideolouge.
10
Not too enthused about Mayor Landrieu, but thanks for trying. Democrats can find someone much better than Landrieu to run against President Pence in 2020.
I think its time for Michelle to: #deleteFacebook whose ties to Cambridge Analytica is just the first in a long line of bad actions by Zuckerberg. Facebook aided the subversion of democracy and you should drop the link in your columns.
6
Do you believe Americans today are happy?
1
“All around the country, there was a bitter debate about what to do with monuments to slavery and treason, most erected by white supremacists decades after the Civil War.”
Strong words, but it seems like the plain unvarnished truth to me. Throughout the article you seem to intend that words will be given their ordinary sense and meaning. You don’t rely on name calling, or attributing unworthy inner thoughts and feelings to your political opponents, to carry the weight of your argument. In this context, “white supremacist” is bare bones descriptive and the truth.
The fact that state governments as well as the national government are sovereign in the U.S. muddies the treason charge just a bit; but the national government is supreme under the constitution, especially when it comes to war, so fair enough.
Growing up in the South decades ago it seemed natural as a child to “root for the home team” when considering the Civil War. Later, after civil rights, one begins to think. Of course the war was really about slavery. Of course slavery was wrong, an affront to reason, conscience, and our common humanity. Thank God the North won.
The NYT series on the Civil War awhile back outlined how a revisionist southern narrative about the war came to carry the day. I can assure you that, for a long time, it was politically incorrect to challenge that narrative with facts and conscience.
6
Read his speech following the dismantling of Confederate statues and you'll understand that Landrieu is the only person in America with a chance of starting to reunite this country. In my opinion, it rivaled MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. He should be the Democratic nominee for president.
7
Mayor Landrieu's speech was one of the best I have read or heard in many years.
11
While a centrist Democrat would not be my first choice as POTUS, such would orders of magnitude better than any known Republican.
10
Ms.Goldberg, you are a hypocrite! You bemoan the divisions in our country, yet when a statesman comes along who might even have a chance to begin the process of reuniting this nation, you dismiss him as being too centrist. That kind of attitude divides us as much as the Trump worshippers.
13
Who may be a Democratic presidential candidate in 2018 is irrelevant. The United States is fighting for its sovereignty and its soul. It has been the victim of what Hillary Clinton once called the “great right wing conspiracy.”
Right wing plutocrats have for years dreamed of owning our government, an outcome which FDR called the essence of fascism. Private ownership of government has been the goal of the GOP for years and is a party which is financed by and controlled by ultra wealthy fascists. When in power they are the people’s enemy and when out of office they obstruct progress.
The GOP controls of the federal government. How how was that done? It was done with the help of a hostile foreign power which which connived with a greedy traitor to rig the election so that in spite and the of the votes of the majority of the voters he would be nevertheless “elected” president.
Mr. Putin selected our president and he had found the perfect instrument to destroy America. The Trump presidency has been a master class in how to go about doing just that. Now the investigation is getting close and an election is coming and something must be done. Starting wars in Iran and Korea seem just what the doctor ordered.
The question is will that be good for Russia? If not, will Putin order Trump to stop? If Putin does and Trump disobeys, whatever Trump is hiding will be revealed and Trump knows it.
5
The people elected Trump. Even Obama said that there were no irregularities at the voting machine.
1
Actually, Marika, about 63 million votes were cast for Trump; about 66 million were cast for Clinton; and close to 7 million votes were cast for Stein, Johnson and other 'independents.'
About 73 million voters did NOT vote for Trump, against 63 million who did. And but for about 75,000 Trump voters, spread among three swing states, he would not be in the White House today.
And therein lies a huge problem with our current electoral system, and with a President who makes no effort to bring Americans together and instead panders to his hardcore 'base,' which in fact represents a distinct minority of the American voting public.
7
No they didn’t- the electoral college did. Trump lost by millions - repeat - millions of votes. But a rigged system created 250 years ago by rich white men who believed it was ok to own their fellow human beings, put him into power.
1
An honorable politician says he is 'willing to lose his job to do the right thing' and a president who is purchasing silence from the hordes of women whom he abused and it's the former who is in the political fight of his life.
A sad day for our democracy.
6
"All around the country, there was a bitter debate about what to do with monuments to slavery and treason, most erected by white supremacists decades after the Civil War. "
Incorrect. The bitter debate was over slavery, not treason, and THAT is where Trump was allowed to set the narrative and win in the media.
Trump said Washington and Robert E Lee both owned slaves but we build monuments to Washington while tearing down Lee's. This simple statement was something his base could rally around as an attack on their "way of life."
If liberals agreed with Trump, that it was legal for both men to own slaves at that time, but Lee was a traitor indicted on a charge of treason after renouncing his citizenship and attacking his nation while Washington fought against a foreign power and then, in civilian life, set example after example for how a leader should govern, it would have, by extension of their support for Lee, painted Trump and his base as having questionable loyalties, especially given Trump's embrace of Russia.
As long as Trump's assertions go unchecked or refuted by the MSM he will continue to set the frame and move the nation in the wrong direction by sheer force of will alone.
"Make America Great Again" is not what the MSM should be focusing on. Media needs to pay more attention to the far more troubling subtitle of Trump's 2016 campaign:
"I, and I alone."
4
What history books have you been reading?
Robert E. Lee was never indicted on charges of treason.
In fact, the only Confederate, who was ever indicted on charges of treason was Jefferson Davis - but he was soon freed because the North knew they would never be able to try him for what was never a crime in the first place (secession).
1
http://www.civilwarprofiles.com/grant-protects-lee-from-treason-trial/
I thought the CA school systems were supposed to be pretty good.
2
There are 40 statues honoring the Confederate Army at Gettysburg National Memorial Park. They include statues of Generals Lee and Longstreet and a memorial sponsored by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Walt Whitman wrote: "was one side so brave? the other was equally
brave;"
The Gettysburg Memorial honors all who died there, in the spirit of Whitman. That's why those 40 statues continue to stand.
However perverse the reasons for building Confederate memorials in the South, it is not too late to transform them in ways that make it clear that they merely honor the bravery of fallen soldiers, not their cause. One way would be to add a standard plaque which simply says "a brave soldier for a long since dishonored cause in a tragic war". I believe that that is an appropriate, non-divisive message.
Those who tear down statues of Confederate soldiers -- like Mr. Landrieu -- and those who praise them -- like Ms.Goldberg -- want for compassion and understanding. There is nothing wrong with honoring the bravery of Confederate soldiers --as Whitman and the National Park Service understand -- as long as their cause is explicitly rejected.
2
In that case we're talking a graveyard. Not quite the same thing as celebratory statues down a town's main street.
3
Landrieu does not need to learn about "compassion" from one who argues for the retention of these white supremacist monuments.
1
If someone like Landrieu is dismissed out of hand as too centrist, as Ms. Goldberg has done, this early in the 2020 race, Democrats are already doomed. We need someone who can soundly beat Trump, not just lecture, harangue or posture about issues that will further inflame the polarization that elected Trump in 2016. Can we at least listen to the spectrum of opinions without being "told" who's the right candidate this far in advance? It's useless to come together only after sham votes, demonstrations and concession speeches at the convention, as Hillary and Bernie proved.
7
Landrieu "too centrist" for Michelle, who backed Hilary. Got it.
4
The Hillary crowd is all for a narrow group, one that reflects themselves.
4
They call it the "Lost Cause". But, none of them truly believe it is lost.
2
My goodness, Ms. Goldberg. Mr. Landrieu is too centrist for you, is he? Is it fair to conclude that what really matters to you is who your party nominates, not who the country elects? That you would rather go down to defeat proud knowing that your party stayed true to its values rather than compromise with a more right leaning (centrist) nominee?
That the rejected centrist might actually have been able to win apparently isn’t what matters to you. What matters is being pure to your principles. Sadly, I fear you are not alone in this foolishness. I ask myself how much of an epiphany will it take for you and those like you to resign yourselves to seeking a Democratic candidate who can appeal to enough Americans to win a presidential contest? How many electable candidates will you reject because they aren’t progressive enough? There are not enough progressives in this country to elect a progressive candidate. But there are enough somewhat right-leaning voters who are sufficiently disenchanted with Mr. Trump to accept a middle of the road Democrat. If you try to make them swallow a full-blooded progressive, they’ll gag, holds their noses, and stick with their party’s candidate. And that will be how the Democrats stayed true to their principles and lost a winnable election.
11
I ardently wish that all of us on the Democratic left-to-center spectrum would stop digging at one another's political leanings: parsing who is a 'true' progressive; who may or may not be "too centrist," etc. Those discussions will be both useful and instructive to have when we are having policy discussions AFTER we have taken back Congress. At the present time (and in the present political landscape) they are a source of aggravation and dissension to us and they are ammunition for our opponents.
7
Oh for the love of God, Ms. Goldberg, you -- or the Democratic primary voters to whom you refer -- are going to reject some for being "too much of a centrist"?!
One, and only one thing is likely to matter in 2020: thoroughly repudiating Donald Trump or, in the not unlikely event he's been removed from office by then, his apologists and enablers. The more "centrist" his opponent, the better.
9
As someone who grew up in the South, I am of the opinion that truthfulness and decency have always been liabilities for southern politicians. While there are surely many open-minded and decent white voters in the South, there are still too many who cannot bear to hear the truth and will lash out at anyone who dares to speak it.
4
Not all of Emma Lazarus' poem is often quoted. Following "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," is the less complimentary "The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." Then comes the best line, "Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
The English sent "Waste People" to the Colonies in the 17th Century. They hung around, worked the land and became our founding fathers and mothers.
Today we cannot even take a handful of Syrian refugees, who are surely homeless and tempest torn. What contributions they may have made in 100 years? What a loss to our development as a Nation. Shame on us for letting our President be so cruel.
10
His greatest asset--he's neither Hillary nor Bernie. Another Lamb in the wings--will the Left let him live long enough to make it to the convention in 2020?
7
Whatever his positives I could never trust or support the brother of gutless, value-less and backstabbing Sen. Mary Landrieu, Unless he is able to distance himself from his sister's miserable record of appeasement and cowardice in the face of racism, sexism, and white-Christian supremacy, I have no reason to believe that Mitch is any diffferent in his heart of hearts.
1
As a New Orleanian that speech gave me chills and eloquently put into words exactly how I feel. New Orleans is a funky city with such a mixture of race, class, and cultural distinction that it can be dizzying. We're not a large city by any stretch(pop. in Nola proper is around 400k) so when you live in a neighborhood or frequent particular areas you're gonna see a lot of the same ppl. It's the smallest, most diverse city in America, but it's certainly not without its problems much like the rest of the country. Our murder rate is astounding, education is a mixed bag and highly segregated, we're surrounded by water yet ironically can't drink it due to piping issues/water boil notices, and then the statues...when white folks can't understand the symbolic significance of a white man(Lee, Jeff. Davis, etc) that fought a war to keep slavery in place it's truly disheartening and sad. But that's where we are as a country and I was incredibly proud to have our mayor lead on this. Leaders aren't always going to make everyone happy. Mayor Landrieu showed that in words and actions.
As he said it's not about forgetting our history, but about moving forward together as one even if doing so alienates many white Louisianaians. It took guts to do what he did(even if he was termed out. Folks always have a cynical answer for showing political fortitude). I can only hope that more politicians will show this kind of courage more often.
80
To paraphrase Landrieu - true courage is standing up for something you are willing to lose your job over. That's the way all members of Congress, but especially Republicans, should define courage. You are only serving your self-interest when you keep your head down and stay silent. It goes without saying that Nunes, Goodlatte, and a host of others are actual sycophants. Ben Sasse, I know you've read OVER and OVER about courage at our alma mater, St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. Where is your courage?
7
“I’m not a hero, and I’m not particularly a courageous person,” he told me. “But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.”
Take heed, Republicans!
94
A true patriot, a true American in the broadest sense. A rarity in this age of selfish white politicians. He gets it. If he were to run and my instincts indicated that he is genuine, he most likely would get my vote.
8
Michelle: It's got to be someone who can bring back a lot of Trump voters, and that means someone more or less centric. The Trump base would/does despise Landrieu, but to win in 2020 the Democrats need only to isolate the Trump base in a losing corner. They will not do that with any of the star-studded, left of center Senate prospects who will just be lightning rods, attracting centrists to the Trump base for a re-play of 2016. To paraphrase Carville from 1992, "It's the center, stupid." That's where most of us can be found, despite the appearance of things in this polarized era.
10
Amazing how one speech that titillated liberals washes away who Mitch is. He is the benefactor of a political machine that elected his father and sister before him, with all the sleaze that comes with that. The ninth ward in New Orleans along with other areas remain mainly abandoned - if this guy was Republican everyone would scream racism. There are still 100k less residents in New Orleans 12 years post-Katrina.
But one speech renders liberal elites swooning at his feet.
7
Oh Ms. Goldberg.
Please, Lord--PLEASE!. . . .
. .. don't let there be some odious scandal in Mr. Landrieu's background. Some teenager (now thirty five) fondled--or worse--by Mr. Landrieu. And sir--forgive me for any malicious or unworthy imputations. But I have seen so many OTHER worthy candidates--upstanding citizens--courageous men whose years of public service have been OBVIATED and OBLITERATED by. . . . .by. . . .
. . .scandals. Detestable scandals. Unforgivable scandals. And that being said. . . .
. . . .do you perceive, sir, how millions upon millions of us are pining for a voice? A voice in the wilderness as it were. We all know our President--and myself (I know it sounds petty or spiteful) but I cannot bear the man's voice. Always loud--always the hint of a snarl--and always saying mean or detestable things.
This about the Emma Lazarus poem. . . . .I mean it from the heart when I say,
"LORD, HOW LONG? HOW LONG MUST THIS GO ON?"
If you have the wherewithal, Mr. Landrieu--if you feel (on some level) a calling to higher office--if even the White House is not beyond your ken. . .
. . .GO FOR IT, SIR!
For God's sake, go for it.
We're desperate. Millions of us are desperate.
I know I am!
9
About 25 minutes along in the movie Gone With the Wind, Rhett Butler(Clark Gable) is asked his opinion of the pending secession of southern states and the prospect of civil war. He enumerates the strategic advantages of the North: a vast railway network, steel mills and weapons factories, a huge pool of young men for conscription and a powerful opposition to slavery and the Southern cause.
Intoxicated by their phony visions of the glory of combat ("One Southern gentleman can whip four or five Yankees!") but unable to counter Rhett's list with any form of logic, the young hotbloods resort to personal insults and challenge Rhett to a duel.
The author, Margaret Mitchell, grew up listening to her male relatives lament the glorious Lost Cause, and she summarized their self-deception and illogic in this scene.
8
I strongly support Landrieu’s action on the monuments (it’s certainly time) and I actually like him for being a centrist, unlike Michelle.
It’s curious that Michelle would make such a deal about his general ideological stances, as had he NOT fought to remove the statues, she would pillory him unmercifully for BEING such a centrist Democrat. But this one act makes up for all the hideous things he is otherwise because it’s one of the darling hyper-liberal causes of the micro-moment.
Landrieu probably wouldn’t have a chance at a Senate seat from Louisiana, but that’s where we need him as a Democrat. We desperately need to expand our centers in Congress, and Democrats need to seriously consider tossing out ALL the extremist rascals that Michelle loves so – just as Republicans need to finish off the job of tossing out THEIR remaining extremist rascals.
10
Good lord, Mr. Luettgen, can it be I agree with you? Have we both fallen down the rabbit hole?
2
Saw this man interviewed by Trevor Noah this week and was impressed . He seems to be a reasonable centrist ; also, a decent, likeable man.
9
No American should live in fear promoted and propulgated by their own 'American' president and reinforced by his GOP. Americans of color and diversity are afraid of losing their status under Trump and backsliding back into the hell that came before acceptance. Trump and members of the GOP consider women as service industries and have marginalized us as far as our life choices and health decisions.
The majority of Americans fear nuclear war under this mad man and Putin Prototype, and now he has made it more real by hiring John Bolton a fossilized war hawk who sounds as unhinged as Trump. We are losing our democratic rights and the laws governing the EPA, HUD, the Department of the Interior are being changed in order to savage our lands and oceans, pollute our air and water, and get rid of all the safeguards that kept Americans safe and healthy. All done in the name of profits for the one percent and wealthy donors who bought America and is turning it into Russia.
Trump is the greatest danger America or the world has known as he is the enemy from within and no American can sleep peacefully at night until this national security risk and Putin lover is removed from office. We don't want a racist, a neo-fascist, misogynist or white supremacist trying to take absolute rule over America and destroy it from within.
7
These confederate monuments that have been removed were part of our American history. They had been standing for years without any complaints about their being taken down. You cannot erase or change the past, but you can remind citizens of the mistakes that occurred many years ago. These could have been a valuable teaching lesson to future generations how not to treat your fellowman regardless of color or creed. Teachers could have visited these sites with their classes and told of a darker time in history when blacks were treated in a cruel and mean way. Now that will not occur.
3
Most (as almost all) Confederate oriented monuments were erected during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by white supremacist organizations and by public money from racially biased local and state legislative bodies in the Deep South. They were meant to show the Confederate legacy in the most flattering way an bend history to reflect this.
5
Hahaha what a silly remark. As if the (glorious and noble) statues had to be there to teach history. Silliest rationale yet, should play big with some, though.
2
There are two main waves in Confederate statuary; one in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (up through the 1920s), mostly erected by the generation who survived the War, and their children. There's a second wave in the 1950s and 60s, oddly coinciding with the civil rights movement. (It's not an accident that SC first flew the Confederate battle flag over its state house dome in 1961.)
1
I've been adamant that the Dems need a bluff conventional-looking white guy to challenge Trump at the national level...
Perhaps this Mitch is the man of my dreams...That speech he gave was terrific...
5
Yes, we are starved for eloquence and every decent man and woman in any way politically connected is now seen as a potential candidate for President, which, of course, is slightly absurd, if only slightly comforting, conveying that there is hope. Thank you for bringing this uncommon man of common sense to everyone’s attention. Hope is rare, mostly absent, from even our journalism these days.
4
I doubt he would ever be elected Governor of Louisiana.
America is Republican. I understand we are less than we have been but for me it is too slow, so I go with "it is Republican."
Being Republican means America is what it is: a gun-toting, racist population that both fears and hates immigrants and minorities.
1
Of course, the important thing is that Trump not make it to 2020, especially with his new pal John Bolton calling the shots - literally. Then we have to see if we can make it to 2020 with Smoking Mike Pence. But Landrieu is a Vice-Presidential nominee, maybe part of a Sanders' ticket if Ms. Warren says no. He could deliver the New South, meaning the Millineals.
2
Mitch Landrieu is my idea of an American patriot. He's the kind of politician who gives me hope.
2
There is one core theme in conservative right-wing ideology, and it is racism. Anyone who stands courageously against racism is a core anti-conservative. Landrieu's stand on race is not centrist. Centrist would be to erect a mealy-mouthed plaque, and leave the statues in place.
6
I think a lot of Democrats would vote for him. Certainly I will vote for any Democrat over a Republican as long as I can hold a pen.
7
After the fake populism and incompetence of Trump, maybe Mitch Landrieu is exactly the right medicine to recover from the grave illness of Trump. He has the background and ability to bring people together.
46
This article represents everything that is wrong with liberal discourse today.
It’s as ridiculous as it is revisionist.
Take this absurd line for example:
“All around the country, there was a bitter debate about what to do with monuments to slavery and treason, most erected by white supremacists decades after the Civil War.”
Michelle Goldberg sounds like she just stepped out of some time machine from 1864. It's as though she missed all of the developments and reconciliation since the end of the Civil War.
Nobody's considered the Confederates “traitors” since 1864 and even then, it was only the minority (aka Radical Republicans) who did.
Well, here’s a newsflash, Ms. Goldberg: The country reconciled itself and the leaders of the Confederacy went on to become deeply honored and highly-respected by the American public.
Virtually every president since the late-1800s has praised the Confederates as among the noblest men in American history.
And now radical revisionists like Michelle Goldberg are trying to claim they were “traitors”?
This is like something right out of 1984.
To imagine that some liberals would have the sheer audacity to accuse President Trump of tearing the country apart while they pick open the scabs of this nation’s most divisive and deadly war demonstrates just how disingenuous they are.
3
Ms. Goldberg was not wrong in implying that Confederate leaders were traitors. By every definition they were practicing treason against the country to which they were citizens, the United States, their personal integrity, honor and loyalty to their states not withstanding. They believed their cause was just, but that heart felt belief did not make it true.
3
That's a revisionist view and it is not only historically incorrect, it's an abuse of the English language.
The word "traitor" is only correctly applied when we are talking about one man or a small number of individuals, who have betrayed their nation.
It does not apply when referring to a seceding nation that comprises millions of people.
2
What would you call those who take up arms against the Republic? Heroes, freedom fighters, slave-owners? Traitors they were, and supporting their cause now makes traitors of those supporters.
3
In a discussion with a friend about the removal of Confederate monuments I asked him the following question: Why there is not monument dedicated to Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Herman Goering, Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann in Germany?
3
Yes, so many “teaching moments” missed. What’s wrong with the Germans?
2
Comments in another place on a similar article lamented the "loss of history". If we are going to consider history let us consider the case of Benedict Arnold.
At West Point there is a monument with the representation of a leg - Arnold was wounded in the leg in the battle at Saratoga. On a visit to London I went past a house that was the residence of a "patriot". It a house that Arnold had lived in after his betrayal of the Continental Army and his defection to England.
That is history in monuments.
3
A patriot officer at the time of Arnold's treason said that if he caught Arnold, he'd hang him, and then bury the leg with full military honors.
How about for Attorney General. Or Supreme Court.
3
Ms. Goldberg,
Centrism is the only way to calm our current national hysteria. I'd vote for Mr. Landrieu if he won the Democratic presidential nomination.
13
Landrieu shows true leadership and is a hero for taking a stand because of personal ethics instead of kowtowing to partisanship, even at the expense of his job approval.
5
Landrieu for 2020! The speech he made after New Orleans pulled down those Confederate monuments is one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard by an American politician. Right now, there is no one among the Democratic Party who has the spirit and conscience and drive and guts to restore democracy in the White House...except Mitch Landrieu.
62
Let's not get carried away. We have seen what "cult of personality" voting method has done for us already.
2
No one in politics in the country is allowed to be a centrist. Whoever is elected as a Democrat will be viciously attacked as a leftist liberal by right wing propaganda. Take a centrist like Obama whose instincts and policies were center right; his attempts to govern from the center were purposely and intentionally sabotaged entirely for political gain. In terms of the propaganda machine he was made into a radical leftist. And the other party (which should be shamed, not named) "primaries" any candidate who poses as a centrist.
We could take a different view. Where is the balance of power – call that the center. The 99% have little power compared to the 1%. Big Money today tilts the power structure its way. That is the new centrism.
5
He would be a good president.
6
Great column, thank you.
I consider myself a Progressive, and would consider Mr. Landrieu for my vote. Politicians operating to placate the fringes of their parties ultimately will fail - whether it is the far right or far left. The Democratic Party has appeared to have the mind set they can win national elections by carrying large cities in a few states - however the electoral math of the last election proved this wrong. It is courageous of Mr. Landrieu to take on the ingrained sentiments of Southerners who refuse to acknowledge that the Confederates were traitors, and the root of their "cause" was to maintain slavery. Once can only hope as more people migrate to cities like Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte, Nashville and other hubs of population and commerce they will change the political and cultural outlook there. In the meantime, we need politicians like Landrieu who are willing to take a stand. Sadly our Congress is full of craven politicians who never make a move without a political calculation, regardless of whether their decision is ethically or morally repugnant. I hope for some good candidates who recognize that most Americans really do want governance from the center - unfortunately our voices are being drowned out by big money, cable TV and gerrymandering. I'm frankly not very optimistic about the future, because people like Ms. Goldberg have already written off Mr. Landrieu as a candidate they could support.
9
Mitch Landrieu says, “I’m not a hero, and I’m not particularly a courageous person, but at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.”
Have you ever noticed that heroes almost never think of themselves as heroes?
16
As a New Orleanian, I was shocked but not surprised at the rage directed at Landrieu for following through on taking down the Confederate statues in this city -- which had been talked about for decades but no one ever actually did anything about, until Landrieu. He made his case publicly and made it well, but this did nothing to stop the undercurrent of southern racism to bubble up. His detractors insist he did it solely for his own self-promotion and claim he doesn't really care about black people; that he was "erasing history" and "destroying southern heritage." Some more ignorant even called him racist against white people. I think Landrieu has guts and didn't think twice about the criticism he'd receive -- he did the right thing, and that's become increasingly rare in politicians these days.
15
But Emma Lazarus's poem was "added later and was not part of the original Statue of Liberty," and there is a compelling progressive argument -- the heads of the last two national commissions on immigration, the late Rev. Theodore Hesburgh and the late Barbara Jordan, articulated it best -- for moderating immigration in the interest of greater equality and of America's own poorest, most disadvantaged people of all ethnicities.
Closing the borders to all immigration and opening the borders to all comers in the spirit of Emma Lazarus's poem are both intellectually empty propositions. We have to decide how many, which means we have to debate honestly whether current numbers -- legal immigration is the more important issue, because mass legal immigration spurs more illegal immigration -- are in the best interest of America and the rest of the world.
As Paul Krugman has observed, open borders are incompatible with a social safety net. The National Academies of Science have documented that current levels of immigration represent a wealth transfer, from the bottom to the top of our society, of around $500 billion a year. And mass immigration functions as a safety valve, and a source of remittance income, for corrupt regimes in feeder countries. Not to mention negative environmental impacts in America, among other costs.
The Democrats' decision to embrace the cheap labor lobby, with the aim of harvesting cheap votes, set the table for Donald Trump and his gang of thieves.
7
Mayor Landrieu is a Democrat in a very Democratic city where African-Americans make up over 70% of the population. It makes sense politically for him to understand & respect the feelings of his constituents about the existence of statutes which, in effect, mock their sense of freedom & liberty in America. This could only have come about as African-Americans gained political power throughout the South.
The statutes should be relocated to areas of Louisiana where they do not daily remind others of the burdens of slavery but serve the purpose of marking an important time in American history when the population was even more divided than it is now. We cannot erase our history; we can only understand it and learn from it.
3
I remember reading this speech, thank you NYT, and being almost overwhelmed by the feeling of relief. Relief that somewhere in America someone still had integrity, the courage of their convictions. Mr. Landrieu was willing to do the hard thing, say the true thing no matter its lack of popularity or the consequences to himself. It's called having principles, something that apparently the entire GOP has forgotten. His rightness or leftness is of no consequence really, because we are in desperate need of leaders who have character.
10
Too centrist for most Democrats? Would those Dems be the one who turned out for Obama and Bill Clinton, both centrists?
4
The removal of the Confederate monuments and the speech celebrated by Michelle Goldberg represent a smokescreen to obscure New Orleans' decline under Landrieu's mayoral tenure. Whether measured by crime statistics, infrastructure neglect, trash-strewn streets, or many other measures, he was a failure as mayor. Ms. Goldberg, in the fashion of the day, celebrates symbolism over substance. Expect better from a NY Times writer.
4
I'm White 7 generations Southern (no, my great greatgranddaddy did not own slaves: he was an abolitionist, his son- my great granddaddy - was an early civil rights lawyer... in Georgia). There are - seemingly - only a few of us in ex-urban Atlanta who even consider that "equal" should equal "equal for all." In 48 years of marching and arguing and pushing for African American equality and Hispanic equality, and LGBTQ equality, and women's equality (I am unafraid of the competition - which seems to drive much of the bigotry - for my 4 sons and 3 daughters). But I'm tired. I'm sick to my core about 45 and his 60 million supporters. So, today ... today ... a committee in Europe is considering my application to be an EU citizen. Two of the 9 of us have already left. Three more have been approved for EU citizenship. All empires fall. I wonder if gross ignorance has ever before so destroyed a nation.
170
Dear NYT editorial board:
Please find John and offer to have him write a guest Op-ed about his experiences. Heck, I think even a book contract would be in order.
17
I sympathize with your despair. But are you aware of what's going on in Poland and Hungary? The extreme right is in ascension throughout Europe. Better to stay here and fight and re-establish American as pro universal rights.
10
I hope you reconsider.We need Americans like you.There are lots of us.We can do this!
7
Too much a centrist to vote for? Actually most Americans will be centrists shortly. We get things done when centrism or moderation to unite America is the theme. Recently to o many Americans believed what Cambridge Analytical promoted than what was fact. Bernieites & vacilating union members were duped by demogogery . Centrism allows for progress, Revolution buries everyone.
1
God, if only the Republicans in Congress thought that way. Ryan, McConnell and the rest are a sad example of statesmanship. Quite the opposite. Can we ever rid ourselves of this kind of politician? Sadly, I have my doubts. The era of the Dirksen type of politician is long gone. It's now party over country. Career over country. Self over the many. Greed over right.
3
How sad that confronting the bigotry of David Duke is seen as heroic for a politician. Instead of educating voters, they cower before such prejudice.
But the Republican Party was on that side of the fence since before Nixon. Generations of race-baiting and fear-mongering campaigns set the stage for Donald Trump. Trump is the evidence many conservatives seek for evolution.
Yes. Confronting bigotry is the least we can expect from our leaders. There truly is no other way.
4
Reading this makes me wonder whether the people supporting Donald Trump and his politics of crude nationalism and racial purity understand that he's taken a page right out of Adolf Hitler's 1930s playbook. Do they ever ask themselves how far he's prepared to go beyond Tweets and a "beautiful wall?" He's already deporting the immigrant parents of American-born children and proposing bans on our era's unfavored religious minorities. Germans went along with their "Chancellor" until it was too late and they had a genocidal dictator on their hands. Don't think it can't happen here.
3
I wish you had included a link to his speech whether as a transcript or a video.
3
Mitch Landrieu is indeed a politician the likes of whom we need many more of, and something tells me we will get some more this year.
"All around the country, there was a bitter debate about what to do with monuments to slavery and treason, most erected by white supremacists decades after the Civil War"....... Michelle, you forgot to include "losers".
Slavery and treason and losing.....
I remember a picture of a counter-demonstration against one march or another in the south in the 60's; the picture was a white woman whose face was so distorted by hatred and fear she did not look human. That is the picture of the t rump supporter: hatred and fear of a future she just doesn't understand or want to.
Come to think of it that is the face I see every time the so called president is on TV; a face so distorted by hatred he has lost his humanity.
2018 will either see the end of the republican party or the end of America.
VOTE like your life and the lives of your children depend on it. Because they do.
4
It is true, but hardly astonishing that the Emma Lazarus poem wasn't inscribed on the base of Lady Liberty at its source in France. Who cares? Better than most texts, her verses signify what a once-great nation, driven by a noble purpose for human fulfillment can aspire to.
"Make America Great Again?" Aside from the fact that the phrase is utterly meaningless, it offers inspiration only for belligerent bigots, who seem to have taken over the nation's spiritual inspiration. Better, perhaps, to take a baby step first and "Make America Good Again."
3
Having served as a department head in the administrations of this Mayor Landrieu and his father, Moon Landrieu [who was a far better man and mayor], I firmly believe that he would be as much of a disaster as President as he has been as mayor. Wilful ignorance of the law coupled with arrogance in its application is most unbecoming in any politician; as we are seeing with the Republican version, the combination can be embarrassing and potentially disastrous in the office of US President. Surely we can do better than this 'Flavor of the Month' opportunist Democrat.
2
Purging statues and monuments erected by forebearers is a mistake,as is excessive reverence or revulsion of them. Why can't statues of General Lee and Reverend King stand side by side in the spirit of Lincolns "Binding the nation's wounds..without malice". Rather stirring up emnity of the past, let those whose ancestors were slaves and those whose ancestors confederate soldiers come terms with those facts as united Americans.. Lincoln would likely have preferred that.
2
I'm hoping the South will rise again under this kind of leadership. Removing monuments to men who went to war to preserve and expand "their right" to enslave black people is a direct threat to the many white men and women who want to maintain American apartheid. Those statues were erected to keep black people in their place with the constant reninder of who holds the real power. I am grateful to and inspired by Mayor Landrueu for having the courage to take these symbols of white dominance down, I just ordered his book as a show of support today and hope to support him in a presidential bid in the future.
3
Wonderful article and strange times we live in, where a person is described as a hero simply for doing what is right. Mitch Landrieu is trying to raise the bar back to where it belongs after Trump has made effort upon effort to lower it to the sub-basement level.
14
I lived most of my life in New York and I am to the left of nearly any elected official in the US. But I've lived in Louisiana long enough to notice the facts of political life here.
Landrieu is very unlikely to advance to statewide office in Louisiana, because he isn't conservative enough. Governor Edwards is anti-abortion (unlike me), and it was crucial to his election as a centrist Democrat in Louisiana. Likewise the Democratic mayor of Baton Rouge, Sharon Weston Broome, staked her political career on an anti-abortion stance prior to her narrow electoral victory here. New Orleans is nothing like the rest of Louisiana politically or otherwise, even the next biggest city.
Maybe Landrieu could win the Congressional seat representing New Orleans, but the second district is currently drawn to be majority African-American (running up the Mississippi to the Black neighborhoods of Baton Rouge).
So Landrieu is very unlikely to achieve any Louisiana political office higher than Mayor of New Orleans.
3
Goldberg's grudging praise of Mayor Landrieu says a lot more about her than him. He's far too centrist. She prefers hypocritical New York lawyers who make their bones (and their fortunes) defending tobacco companies right to kill people and the lie in ambush for anyone who might threaten their entitlement. Ms Goldberg is a smart, articulate person with the vision of a garden mole.
5
We had 8 years of “eloquent leadership” and our economy was crawling along a 2%, our military was under funded and losing the war against terror, Congress was in a continuous deadlock and we made no progress solving any of our problems. The left is now engaged in a gorilla war to rewrite our nation’s history and empower a more prescriptive political correctness in how we talk about our past or express our political opinions today. Already the left is moving beyond the easy targets (confederate statues) and are aiming at our forefathers who owned slaves. When will they insist on tearing down the statues of Washington and Jefferson? When will the begin rewriting our American history?
3
Washington and Jefferson, though they were slave owners, founded our nation.
The statues of confederate 'heroes' are people who attempted to destroy the nation, for the sole reason so that white male southerners could still be allowed to own black human beings, and the children that those human beings gave birth to, in perpetuity.
And if you're still in denial that the Civil War was fought over slavery, ask yourself this simple question: if slavery hadn't existed, would the Civil War have happened?
4
Talk about rewriting history. Facts are really interesting things b/c they can be verified.
Mar 6 2009: Dow Jones at 6443.27 and 9.5% unemployment.
Nov 1 2016: Dow at 18,037 and 4.6% unemployment.
Who was President during the great awakening of the economy? Oh yeah...Obama!
And, BTW, "the Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which determines the start and end dates of U.S. recessions based on a range of economic indicators."
4
Mikeweb,
No where did I attempt to claim that slavery was not the central cause for the Civil War, and while state's rights was the central issue and North impingement of that right the primary reason for secession, most soldiers fought and died for less grandiose reasons, their homes, their families and their way of life. Ask yourself this question, should we take down the Vietnam War Memorial, which honors the men that sacrificed all for this country in a war that today is considered by many to be immoral?
2
Why shouldn't Mitch Landrieu run for president? So what if he's a southern democrat, the deep south wouldn't vote for any democrat regardless of where he comes from. But he talks a good game and seems to believe in what he says. I say go for it Mitch.
4
When described as “monuments to treason,” I suppose they should come down but as works of art, they should be preserved.
The artistry in these statutes is almost a dying art. They should all be placed in a national museum along with the history of the artists who made them; where they were cast and the techniques used to make them.
A less-than-heroic past should be buried but not without a marker.
3
When I clicked on this article, I was expecting to find more than one White-Southern Anti-Trumper.
2
What Landrieu represents to me is sensible thinking. What has been hijacked these past months, since Trump took office, is common sense. As someone said, common sense is uncommon wisdom. We need more Landrieus to fight against the upside down mentality in the Trump administration and the world he is constructing.
4
Those four statues were by Alexander Doyle, one of North America's finest sculptors. They are now in murky, undisclosed locations, some reportedly verging on junkyards. NOLA will not be able to agree on nice new art to replace the four statues -- notice how we haven't heard a peep since the last statue's removal. They also won't be able to agree on what to do with the four existing statues which, as noted above, are beautiful and important works by Alexander Doyle. In the end, we will have one of three future possibilities for the empty pedestal problem: We will either have: 1) a culturally barren landscape like some third world countries, 2) guilt monuments like Germany, or 3) crummy didactic art like in the old USSR. None of those three things would be an improvement over Alexander Doyle.
3
I am a Democrat who is a centrist. The push by ‘progressives’ to the left and sacrificing the good on the altar of the pure is disturbing. Landrieu is a great leader and it would be thrilling to have him in a position to bring his intellect and humanity to the public square.
12
"That’s the only time you really find freedom.” While truly honorable, would anybody also still claim centrist for Mr. Landrieu? Someone who managed to remove Confederate statues in the deep South? But otherwise, maybe he would still be considered as such. The problem with centrist is still likely associated with the staggering Democratic Party losses during the Obama years, seemingly still almost invisible because of his wins. Many carefully designed polls show that a majority of people want the policies that a so-called leftist Sanders proposes. Maybe this desire for change and the disappointment about centrist candidates had something to do with with those losses. "Change you can believe in" truly is still a slogan to keep in mind.
2
"...threats, armed right-wing protesters and a car being firebombed." Little has changed in the South. If you have read, as I have, Ron Chernow's doorstop biography of Grant you'll see that "threats, right-wing [armed] protestors" and bombing targeting former slaves, as well as frequent murdering of black Republicans was quite common in Louisiana as in may other southern states during Reconstruction. Chernow doesn't make that connection for good reason, but the southern states haven't really changed much since the Civil War.
As for Landrieu, and I'm saying this as a lifelong Democrat (I'm 68), most likely Democrats in 2020 will nominate an unelectable progressive, a person of color, or woman, all potentially great candidates for President, but I doubt they can get elected for reasons Goldberg elucidates here - racism, and hate are at the highest levels since Reconstruction, and the angry white voters in many states that will still be using their gerrymandered districts, not to mention the slave based Electoral College. This is where Landrieu comes in. Unless there is a sea change of Democrats beginning to vote, only a white southern male Democrat has a chance. So, Michelle, I would say be less progressive and more pragmatic if you want to save democracy. Landrieu may be "too centrist" for you and other progressive Democrats, but he would be electable, and that should be the goal rather than a progressive that has no chance.
11
Perhaps what this country needs is centrist leader!
6
Ms G:
You're young. Wait a few more years-before you place any confidence in anyone . Juast because he talks pretty for TV don't mean he's gonna be able to cayy the weight all the way to the senate, or governotr's mansion. The road to control , and the way towhite house runs straight through the middle of the road. There are no detours. Even LBJ-remember him? was really well qualified and and did more for the nation then any Kennedy-but we dumped him over his once unfortunate sounding politics and his error filled foreign policies attempting to imitate FDR's achievements when the US was a near force of nature.
There are no perfect solutions. Many sound good, but that may hide a multitude of sins. You now write for a once important, influential paper. If you want to be rememberedd as a person of acute judgment-don't jump on any bandwagons and never join in any popular group celebrations. Historians and journalists, writers-do their best work from the side
of the road, where the view is little better than what ordinary voters and citizens can see. Only in this way will you kow what the rest of America knows sees-much of which is in their heads-and as a writer-you need to see what's IN their heads, not just what their leaders think they see.
1
Michele, once again your political naïveté bursts through...” Landrau is too centrist....(he certainly is for me)”. This kind of egocentric liberalism is dangerous for the Democratic Party and for our country. Don’t you know that yet? Get smart whippersnapper! Hey, I’m with you on most things, but I learned a long time ago through the candidacies of MCarthy and the venerable George McGovern, we are not gonna get our way in presidential politics, at least not yet. Let’s give a little and in the end we will get a lot!
And let’s not forget where your outrage at the harmless indiscretions of Al Franken got us...nowhere.
5
As I posted on the columnist's website, he has not been mayor long enough to make one bit of difference in a city that does not live up to the tourist brochures and televised sound bites. His speech was good, but talk is cheap. He needs to prove himself here, in a city that has intractable problems, one that officials bank on via rhetoric but abandon in the day-to-day. Where I live, the Seventh Ward, egregious disrepair is the norm. If you don't believe me, come down and experience the ruins of ineffectual ideology of both parties. And I mean ruins: gutted, dilapidated houses and buildings on every corner. Yes, come down and see for yourself. But you won't. This city was left for dead long ago by officials at every level.
1
Patricia, the fact is, New Orleans is destined to die. Climate change will finish the job. Unless, like Italy with Venice, we as a country decide to rebuild it for the purpose of being a time capsule, it will be done.
3
Three cheers for Mitch Landrieu!
I remember driving past pro-statue protestors congregated at the statues of various Confederate icons (any P.T. Beauregard fans out there?), and asking the following questions:
Where did these protestors come from? (Many of them were clearly not New Orleanians--Confederate flag regalia is not a thing in the Big Easy)
Since when did they decide they loved these aging, poop-covered statues? How long must a statue, any statue, stay up? Two hundred years? Three hundred? Forever?
Finally, [in Jerry Seinfeld voice] "What's the deal with statues?"
3
If you are looking for other White Southern Anti-Trumps, I suggest looking at Representative Steve Cohen from Memphis.
3
Bless you, Mitch. Bless you.
3
There is no single more disgusting thing on television than Fox News. Lies and sick perversion 24 hours a day. Totally un-American and as far from the message of Christ as Satan loves seeing things. Anyone Fox disapproves of or censures is worthy of consideration.
5
Fearing that Landrieu is too much of a centrist is just what's wrong with the Democratic Party. Your ultra-left wing politics are just as off-putting as the conservative right (white) wing politics.
It's the big tent that this country needs. Inclusion and diversity are the direction that this country needs to go in. Michelle, you make centrist into a four letter word. Shame on you!
6
See my earlier comment on this ludicracy and let me now move on to the most shameful part of our history;
The Native American is still waiting, and waiting and waiting
2
White, southern, black, northern, has got nothing to do with this. A terrible person was given control and a gutless congress refused to exercise any checks on what he can do to us, placing all of us in danger.
4
Lost in the article is an emblematic disaster within our modern-day concept of The Presidency. That an egomaniac like trump can insert his campaign slogan in place of the national motto on the presidential coin is blasphemy. Compared to everything else this president is doing, this may seem trivial. It's not. It proves that we really have no checks and balances in play. We had them the last time we had a president this bad-- during Watergate. Since then...not so much. Reagan with the Iran Contra Affair and his loyalty to an unofficial leader, Grover Norquist; GW taking us into an invasion of a sovereign nation based on lies-- and the democrat who followed doing nothing to bring him and his crew to justice; and now trump, changing the meaning behind a presidential memento on top of the abominations he does to our nation daily. This is not going to end well for the oldest democratic experiment.
2
Thankfully, there are still more of us than there are of them. The challenge will be to get "us" to the polls in November, assuming there is anything left by then!
3
Landrieu acts as the rare politician with moral courage.
But Goldberg says she still couldn't bring herself to vote for him.
So how can she expect anybody else to?
13
Thanks to the press for parroting Republican rhetoric for so long what we have today are badly skewed definitions of points along the political spectrum. The right wing lunatic fringe are somehow conservatives. People supporting basic Democratic values are radicles.
Centrist today are simply those too confused to distinguish between right and wrong. Centrist are the people who can live with injustice, wholesale environmental disaster, and massive inequality. Centrist have no answers and by their silence give license to those tearing down our republic.
On this very day the press, even the NYTs designate T party radicles conservatives. On the other hand it suggest that liberals are somehow outside of normalcy and threaten the natural order of American politics. It is way past time that the NYTs sort out its designations as what we have now confuses them and all the rest of us. Liberals simply want a fare equitable government.
I suggest people, particularly at the NYTs, open their dictionary, and look up the words, liberal and conservative.
3
Mr. Landrieu, I write only to say that I recognize and appreciate your genuine patriotism. What passes for courage these days is curious. Nobody is putting a rifle into the hands of anyone in Congress and asking them to go off to fight in some jungle or desert far from home. We are only asking that, as political representatives, they stand up for what they believe to be right, even at the risk of losing their job. You have met that standard and, I am sorry to say, thereby distinguished yourself. If you decide to run for president, let me know. I don't know if I would vote for you or not. I would have to learn more. But I would be very glad to have you in the race.
6
He's too centrist for you, Michelle? Since when do we have the luxury of waiting for electable Ivory soap candidates? We have 45 in large measure thanks to Bernie and Jill Stein supporters who found Hillary Clinton objectionable for one reason or another. Now look at what we have.
16
For those (probably few here) who haven't watched or read Landrieu's speech, please do. What his speech does beyond striking a resounding chord of unity and aspiring to a better future together as truly one people, is to educate. To inform about our true history, and to break down misconceptions - and outright ignorance - about our past sins as a nation.
The topics of slavery and race, and how these things were woven into our nation's founding, indeed right into our Constitution and thousands of laws thereafter, and at least as much as any other factors, continued to shape and define us as an imperfectly free country, have been and are still grossly mis-taught to our children and almost literally 'white washed'.
The true brutal nature of chattel slavery is seldom discussed openly. The actual history of Reconstruction and how and why white Americans finally ended it (and started erecting all those confederate statues, btw) isn't either. The rise of Jim Crow segregation and with it, racial terrorism bordering on genocide aren't either.
The result of all this, of course, is that the attitude of huge swaths of white Americans boils down to 'Well, slavery ended 150 years ago, if black people are still poor and/or criminals, it's their own fault', ignoring all of the other legal, institutional and systemic discrimination and repression - including extra-judicial and state sanctioned murder - that has ensued in those 150 years.
2
Ms Goldberg "suspects" that Landrieu is "too much of a centrist" for her and most Democratic primary voters? Well, maybe he and people like him are not too centrist to actually win an election, a quality that might help when pitted against some rabble-rousing Trumpite. Granted, there are some places where moderation might not be a factor -due to gerrymandering, ingrained regional prejudices, etc. - but on the whole, it seems to me that someone with solid principles, someone who can reach honorable compromises, is better than someone who loses. A recent example would be Conor Lamb, who is not 100% to my liking, but attracted enough reasonable Democrats, Republicans and Independents to defeat a dangerous, loony, Trump stooge.
3
The cat is out of the bag. Big shifts have already taken place and will continue to take place. Racists, bigots and other retro-grade style haters will continue to decline like coal mining jobs. Those who mean harm to theirs can have their minutes of fame and sow their discontent only for so long but the true American spirit will ultimately win out.
I am scared but happy we are having these ugly conversations now. I am surprised at how much racism I see in this country but it also illuminates my own omissions and racisms. I for one am happy to be a part of continuing the conversation and learning more. One of the very first things I have taken away is that democracy is not a for sure thing even in the good ol’ US of A.
1
I have spoken to a lady from New Orleans who has relocated to Fairfax County, Va. to be near her family up here and due to disillusionment with politics in Louisiana. She stated, and your noted white percentages of white people opposed to removing the statues support her, that politics there is strictly black and white. I’m talking race here. This women was a white lady, but simply worn out by the situation. She said it was just a relief to move somewhere where government worked. So Mitch Landrieu is a hero in my mind, but any sense of hope that his eloquence and truth will affect entrenched white views in Louisiana and other such pockets of racism, is zero. With Trump in the White House, Bolton heading NSA and decimated State department likely headed by Mike Pompeo, fear is rising and hope is fading fast.
5
White people have the luxury of being 'worn out' by racial issues being debated in our political system.
Unfortunately, black people don't. For black people, using the political system to right wrongs, which is one of the paramount reasons for actually having a free and democratic political system, is quite literally a matter of life and death.
2
How refreshing and how sad. So, we muddle on, trying to find some solution to the race problem that has plagued us for what will be centuries soon.
New information published recently showed that even being born into a wealthy black family is not enough to sustain those of color among us in a life that is comparable to those of us lucky enough to be born white.
So, we stumble on, with people like Landrieu popping up all too infrequently, but failing, time and again, to confront the issue head on because of the corruption that money brings to politicians everywhere and the notion, buttressed by the Supreme Court, that corporations are people.
There is, indeed, a deep state, as Steve Bannon has railed, but it is not the state he sees, it is a state that still thinks of African Americans as two thirds of a person, and who should just "shut up and dribble."
13
Not every American colonist supported independence and revolution.
Not every Northerner supported abolition and civil war.
Not every New Yorker is a liberal progressive.
Not every Louisianan is a conservative evangelical.
Not every white American is born famous and rich.
Who knew?
22
Also:
Not every black American votes Democratic.
...statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse. It seems absurd.”
This argument essentially states we should erase and purge and cleanse our history. Let's erase our money, Constitution, buildings, roads, libraries, art, etc. This makes us no better than the Taliban or derivatives that are destroying their civilization. This concept of removal is fundamentally evil. Learn and create. If we destroy, we will exponentially accelerated America's downfall.
4
I look at this in a different way. Public statues of historical figures are created to uphold the individual depicted as worthy of general praise. I don't think that it's wise to "praise" individuals who were traitors to our country and fought to preserve slavery.
If the goal is protect our history, then place exhibits regarding these traitors and defenders of slavery in museums, with appropriate textual materials that place the individual's actions in their historical context.
If that doesn't address your concerns, then you are being disingenuous; your goal is not to preserve history, but to extol traitors.
4
History has never depended on statues. Get real.
4
The Germans did not throw out all of their art or poetry or music or history. The Germans erased the symbols of a specific political group that caused a dark time in their history when evil took over their country and caused the slaughter of millions of people.
We should do the same.
12
I remember at the time reading Landrieu's speech, most likely via the NY Times, and recalling how ashamed I felt that the president did not praise or even acknowledge his stirring words. My expectations for Trump were always low but it was then that I fully understood the breadth of the moral vacancy at the top of our government.
18
I seriously doubt Michelle Goldberg has ever been to New Orleans...and if so she probably never took one sober step outside of the narrow confines of Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.
New Orleans represents an anomaly in the South.....its purely Deep South....yet also Urban.....which, outside of a few other Southern Places...Atlanta, Memphis, Charlotte.....nobody in the South gives a hoot.
Please, Michelle, dont bring up Miami....that's not, definately NOT, southern. Miami has an old line political structure imported from New Orleans and Mississippi....but its completely overwhelmed by Brooklyn, NY and Havana, CU.
Landrieu is in his element as long as he stays in New Orleans, the nation's 4th largest port city and rival to Houston in the Oil Industry, doorway to the entire interior of the North American continent.
But Landrieu quickly becomes dead meat in a National Contest.....it would be like running the NYC Mayor for President.....great for NYC, but not a good idea for the other 90% of Americans.
I agree that the current NYC mayor wouldn't make an effective president. However, his predecessor (Mike Bloomberg) would. It's a long shot but, if Bloomberg chooses to throw his hat in the ring in 2020, he's got my vote.
1
When I saw this headline, I thought at first it was an oxymoron. But it's not. The mayor had a great interview with Chris Hayes that proved the points in this column. I wish he was in the White House instead of our #FakePresident.
12
Voters have recently two Democrats who are both centerists. Perhaps that is EXACTLY the kind of candidate the party should be seeking and supporting.
8
Michelle, was so sorry to hear that Mitch is "too centrist" for you. if we ever have a hope of returning our increasingly right-leaning country to sanity, we will first have to get back to the middle...and we may actually have to content ourselves with staying there. Recent history has shown that attempts to push a left-wing agenda produces a backlash (see election of 2016).
20
Racism is this country's original sin and it has been a tremendous burden all during the country's history. Many people in the south and other regions have expended a great deal of time and effort to keep dark-skinned people down. When I was young someone told me that the problem with keeping the black man in the ditch is that you end up staying in the ditch with him. Keeping other people down keeps you both down. The racial situation has improved over the years but it is still not good and I don't think it will be anytime soon.
Mr. Landrieu would make a fine candidate for President. There are also several other people such as Steve Bullock (Governor or Montana), Mr. Cooper (Governor of North Carolina) and Mr. Edwards (Governor of Louisiana) who would be good candidates. Most people would consider me quit liberal, but if you want to be active in politics -- the first rule is you need to win elections. So the democrats need someone who can win; That means a centrist of some description. I would prefer any democrat over trump.
Mr. Landrieu could probably not win a statewide race in Louisiana but he might win in many blue states. His only option for a future in elective office might be the presidency.
12
Whatever political ambitions Mitch Landrieu may have for the future, my hat off to his humanity...in coming forth to occupy his place in history, fighting against bigotry and ethnic discrimination and the stupid concept of 'white supremacy' and the harm inflicted, and the inequities that still linger. Trump and it's ilk are a royal disgrace that must be confronted and shamed and eliminated by voting them out of office. If the 'Trumpians' had one ounce of decency, they would admit their incompetence and graft, apologize and get lost; but they won't admit they are a hindrance, always ready to blame others for their malfeasance, and always ready to distract us by finding scapegoats. Sadly, I must admit that vulgar Trump is a master as a liar, and holding his misinformed base captive...by insulting any and all that criticize his misrule, however constructively. Trouble is, Trump never had a chance to grow up, remaining an immature and insecure poor rich guy, demanding unswerving loyalty by edict. But I digress. Mr, Landrieu may not be a hero, as per his own words, but he sure is a breath of fresh air in the stinking swamp of the current presidency.
7
In defending Confederate statutes, Trump has inveighed against removing historical symbols.
Shouldn't that be "statues?"
great piece; sadly reflective that 88% of white louisianians opposed monuments removal. the mentality that the plantation owners instilled with their poor, white labor that 'at least your higher than the slave' in the societal heirarchy (sic) remains pervasive not only in the states that fought for the confederacy, but elsewhere as well. this corrosive message is amplified by the transparent racists as trump, miller, sessions, carlson, hannity, coulter, ingraham and other haters with a megaphone. this racial animus is tearing our country apart.
7
Well, Michelle, I'm sorry to hear he's too "centrist" for you. I'd vote for him in a heartbeat, and I'm an olde-timey over-educated liberal feminist from the Northeast. Why would I vote for him in a primary? Because he can reach people you, me, and Clinton never will. He can make people who watch Fox Fake News stop watching Fox Fake News. Or, at least hit the pause button.
I voted for Bernie in our primary in Massachusetts and then I voted for Clinton. Clinton and I are cut from the same cloth, but she was losing voters who are not like us. I'd hoped she'd wonder why reliable blue state Democrats were not voting for her and adjust her strategy just the tiniest bit. Perhaps doing so would have been enough to garner those 77,000 votes in three critical states where votes for her really mattered.
Mr. Landrieu may not convince all his fellow Southern White Boys, but he will convince some. We all suffer from group-think, but if someone from our group stands up and says, "we have to stop being like this," it just might change things.
And, I'd be willing to bet that Democrats in the three critical states would have no problem voting for him. I hate to tell you this, but Democrats have to start winning. They can do their centrist versus leftist battles on the House and Senate floors when they're back in control.
266
You have provided an anthem for this nation in its time of greatest need.
6
The most important issue confronting our country and the world is rising inequality. I would happily support a centrist on social issues who wholeheartedly embraced economic policies to turn the tide on inequality, including preserving and enhancing Social Security and Medicare, creating a more progressive tax system, raising the minimum wage, beefing up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, supporting student borrowers against rapacious and duplicitous private lenders, and so on. And that is a unifying agenda -- many people who voted for Donald Trump support those policies.
4
If they truly supported those policies they should have voted for Mrs. Clinton.
Like in the tale of the scorpion and the frog, they knew what Trump was when they picked him up.
1
Thank you for highlighting the courageous stance and comments of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu! He continues in the the mold of his father and sister who have bravely worked for years to lead their constituencies to higher moral ground! They are each courageous political leaders who deserve our deepest thanks, appreciation, admiration & unlimited support!
4
"I have no idea if he’d have a chance; I suspect he’s far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters. (He certainly is for me.)"
IMO this is a disappointing stance to take on the cusp of widespread 2018/2020 elections. Do you think the minority of white progressive voters who live in his area were running to vote for Conor Lamb? Did they do so anyway? Yes.
Do you think the black voters in Virginia who voted overwhelmingly for moderate Ralph Northam (in much higher percentages than white voters, arguably winning the governorship for him) agree with him on everything? Sometimes people need to stop thinking about what "I" want 24/7/365 - and think about what is good for the country. Isn't what Mayor Landrieu is doing?
The Pragmatic Tradition of African-American Voters:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/pragmatic-tradition-of-blac...
"...refusal to accept the necessity of compromise in a winner-take-all two-party system (and an electorate where conservatives still outnumber liberals) is characteristic of a certain idealistic style of left-wing politics. Its conception of voting as an act of performative virtue has largely confined itself to white left-wing politics, because it is at odds with the political tradition of a community that has always viewed political compromise as a practical necessity. The expectation that a politician should agree with you on everything is the ultimate expression of privilege."
26
The ultimate expression of (white) privilege. AMEN!!! I’m white and 63. Can’t these purists see their uncompromising attitude as the “entitlement” (which they rightly abhor) that it is?
7
Centrist equals status quo. Although, they can watch a Super Bowl between two opposing teams.
Nothing more than a game.
Hey Michelle, you can't move to the left until.you go through the center.
4
Our "representative democracy" seems to have become incapable of representing anyone but extremists. I think a majority of voters feel like they're locked in a self driving car that's been hacked by a madman.
11
When presented with the new Presidential Coin, artists and critics were compelled to remark:
--"Well, I can't really see it all that well with the reflections under the bright lights"
--"The president's name appears only four times?"
--"I think the coin really symbolizes that the Great period he wants to restore is the Antebellum South"
--"I would've used more gold"
--"Hard to make out the signature. Maybe we could get an M.D. to make it more legible?"
--"Where's the red hat? I don't see it."
--"That bird looks rather emaciated. Couldn't they have found a healthier specimen?"
--"Utterly resplendent in its recrudescence!"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/its-very-gold-the-presidential-c...
3
Are people proud to be racists? Mayor Landrieu's fellow southerners who proclaim they will "never vote for a Democrat" are just doing it for the same reason their grand-pappies would never vote for a Republican. It's not liberalism or conservativism just racism. They must know that about themselves.
9
Stephen Miller is feeble-minded as well as a racist. The Statue of Liberty is an immigrant herself. She was born in France and only became truly American when the Emma Lazarus poem was added. Did I mention that Stephen Miller is an idiot?
32
Stephen Miller is also the child of immigrants.
1
I thought that Mayor Landrieu's speech was very inspirational and hopeful. He wanted to bring hope of a future for all citizen's of New Orleans. I agree with Marty from LI. It is when we fight Together that we 'win'. The Trumpian Win/Lose
zero sum battle gets us as a country nothing except division and increased hate for each other.
Mayor Landrieu was courageous. We definitely need More people like him. His message should be repeated and used as a template for positive change in America. It is precisely the type of message the Democrats need.
5
White Southerners need a new set of heroes. It will take a Southerner to help them find them.
3
Imagine there’s no politics. In governing. Where your constituents are not reduced to polling statistics and demographics. Where your job as governor at senator or mayor or president tries to server the people. All the people. Regardless of what state red, blue , rainbow and stop trying to stir up controversy for controversy sake. Dreamer? Yes. The only institution we have to express the will of the people is a voting booth. How about a few more referendums once in awhile. Like one on these statues. Let those who live with them make that call. Why don’t we have more referendums? Fifteen years ago it would have been nice to let the people say whether or not we want to invade Iraq to destroy the country. How much would it cost. What was the plan. Why not a referendum on assault weapons.
4
Sad to hear a really competent NY Times columnist writing that a centrist candidate wouldn't be acceptable to her. We need to get out of the Left vs. Right ping pong game. The fact is on almost every issue, PC and racist culture are both wrong. The centrist position is the rational answer to most of our problems. The way forward for the Democratic Party and America is not more grievances for minorities to cling to or rights for transexuals. That kind of extremism just gets middle of the road Americans to go against their own best interests by voting for Republican billionaires.
4
Now that they've talked to Mr. Landrieu, is the New York Times going to stop stereotyping white males? Probably not.
Charlesalpha, most of my fellow white males, especially those from our home state of Georgia, do a fine job of stereotyping themselves.
3
He’s got my vote. I’ve never seen a clearer ,more honest and convincing case against divisiness in our country. He’s dead right the confederacy was on the wrong side of history...they fought to destroy America...in favor of slavery. His low key and articulate but hard headed explanations could blow Trump off the stage in any debate. I pray either he or someone as good comes along to beat Trump into the ground.
6
It knowing much about Landrieu, I wish his purportedly disqualifying “centrism” was explained. Is he against abortion rights? For unregistered gun ownership? Against raising minimum wage? Pro- corporations? Adverse to limits on political contributions? A climate-change denier? What?
4
Too bad Mitch failed miserably at fixing the streets, the police department, and worst of all the incredibly incompetent sewerage and water board. He does give good speech, though. Centrist? Hmmm. I think not. Good guy? Definitely.
3
Landrieu, like several other Democrats living in former slave states, is indeed a "profile in courage."
There once was a time when Republicans such as Everett Dirksen also were heroes. No longer, modern Republicans are far more likely to be white supremacists, Nazis, traitors and crooks than heroes. So Sad.
5
I grew up when Senators like Democrat Paul Douglas and Republican Everett "Honey Tonsils" Dirksen could disagree but relate as colleagues. So, too, did Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. Even when they disagreed, their mission was to find out where their circles overlapped. For country, they wore their responsibilities relatively well, even if we disapproved of one or the other. We live in a very different country today.
Such accommodation is no longer the norm for political behavior. Compromise has given way to condemnation, the former increasingly viewed as weakness and lacking in virtue. We should worry that the message this sends will establish a philosophical touchstone for future generations who are growing up with this reality and who may, accordingly, shy away from accommodation in favor of acrimony. Yet, there are hopeful signs of late, with respect, for example, to responsible gun control, as the next generation begins to takes its place at the table. Today's nationwide marches bode well.
It is unfortunate, and bad for our country, when voices like Mitch Landrieu's are drowned out by the poison that permeates politics and our society generally. Zero-sum politics appears, for now at least, to be winning, and that means the prospect of living in a country united by common goals is a diminished likelihood. An entire generation is growing up seeing this as the new normal. Whether they take exception to it, and redirect America to a better place, remains to be seen.
5
Landrieu is exactly the presidential candidate Dems should unite behind. It's very heartening that a smart female progressive like Goldberg should laud him. Let's hope lots of smart feminist progressives also got the message of Conor Lamb's victory, among other things. We Dems need a charismatic white male Southern candidate who can put "the economy, stupid" first and foremost for ALL American workers (as Bernie did, making him STILL the most popular politician in America in the polls, and the one who would have crushed Trump in 2016), while also being strong and principled on race, gender, sexual preference etc.
Well we sure found out in 2016 that a Democratic woman can't win the Presidency. I think that goes for any Democratic woman, no matter how experienced or qualified. The Facebook/Fox/Cambridge Analytica machine paid for by Republican billionaires will find something, or falsify something, to pick apart any Democratic woman who has the nerve to aspire to break the last political glass ceiling.
The first female President will probably be a Republican, because the Democrats just won't fight as dirty as the Republicans will.
2
I have benumbed myself to what an anti-American abomination this bigotry-based neo-fascist regime really is. Thanks, Ms. Goldberg, for the harsh but necessary reminder. I will bestir myself tomorrow to support millions of angered and aroused youths of all colors and backgrounds-- the hope of our eventual salvation --in their marches against gun violence and the insane anti-culture that supports it. E PLURIBUS UNUM!
1
Taking down the statues was an aesthetic assault, which lies on a continuum with ISIS blowing up the Roman ruins of Aleppo (albeit, obviously, at the opposite end). The statue of Beauregard mounted on a horse in front of Bayou Saint Jean was (past tense) beautiful. It would have been much more powerful to install plaques that explain the extent of complicity of the memorialized figure in enslavement, treason and murder and how generations of whites venerated (and still do) enslavement, treason and murder. Taking the statues down was not brave but cowardly. It helps to erase history and forget the enslavement, the treason and the murder.
2
They were taken down, not blown up. That's the difference.
1
The fact that 88 percent of white Louisianans were opposed to the removal of these heinous symbols of white supremacy says all.
Those statues had nothing to do with their phony “heritage” and were all about hate. Most of them were erected in the 50s and 60s in defiance of the Civil Rights Movement.
Mayor Landrieu must be praised for his actions but let’s not go overboard here. He’s just a token example of white decency in a filthy pit.
5
The true trump motto: "Make America Hate Again."
5
“But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.” I think Spike Lee as Mookie made that point in his 1989 film, "Do the Right Thing," a film I saw in Paris when France and the world was celebrating the French Revolution's bicentenial. For the less revolutionary, simply not doing the wrong thing anymore is also an act of freedom. It is not a First Amendment right to use government funds and space to give air time to those who would deny both history and the present it's turn to speak. Trump and his white nationalists just want to silence others.
6
Michelle, if you think a Sanders-like liberal could win the general election for president, I've got a bridge to sell you.
8
I don't see why explaining what his body looks like has anything to do with this. let's keep in mind that potty describing is rude no matter who you do it too.
That Landrieu can garner such attention by stating what politicians used to consider standard fare speaks volumes about how far we have traveled to fascism. His comments would have previously been considered boring and lacking creativity. Now they are precious in their rarity. Those of moral integrity treasure his words.
Echoes of the 1930s. It can happen here. It is happening here. We ignore them at our peril.
11
In these Alice in Wonderland times some deem it right to replace e pluribus unum with make America great again. Why? It’s unpatriotic because if you want to make America great again it implies it no longer is great.
2
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of Louisianans who voted for or against removing the statues based on education levels.
There was no popular vote. The City Council voted to remove three statues and one monument. You would be surprised at the number of well educated white folks who had a fit about this. On the other hand, without any empirical data, just my view, it seemed like the vast majority of people here in New Orleans didn't care one way or the other. Agitators from outside the city were here with their Confederate flags, but the locals for the most part couldn't have cared less, myself included. I'd say much ado about nothing.
6
I think the vast majority of people that live in the metro New Orleans area cared very much. I thought it was a wonderful decision and I applaud Mitch Landrieu. I unfriended family members and friends on Facebook over this issue, particularly over a horrible meme of Landrieu (Google it). Every African-American I know cared very much. And to my dismay, but not surprise, many white people I know were very opposed to the removals. I don't know of anyone who did not have a strong opinion about the removals. Mitch Landrieu's courage deserves your consideration, Michelle, in deciding for whom you would for.
2
Reading about Mitch Landrieu gives me hope that given time honorable people like he could rescue America from the trumpists and could reverse the decline of thrust and respect for Washington as the leader of the free world.
3
Keep up the great reporting on Mayor Landrieu...the more exposure he receives the better!! Intelligence, humility, grace, wit, perspective...he has presidential stuff. C'mon NYT, get behind him.
3
Landrieu, among many others, proves that it is unfair to portray native white Southerners, with a broad brush! And antagonizing fellow Americans doesn't help, in such a delicate situation... Let's move forward!
5
If Landrieu were to run, he would be mercilessly picked apart for the condition of the most unique city in America, New Orleans. NOLA is rife with murder and other violent crime and has deteriorated since its' near destruction by Katrina. It's an impoverished city of poorly educated people due to the horrible school system, high taxes, and very hard living. It has gotten worse under Landrieu, not because of, but in spite of, him and his Mayoral efforts. His opposition would question how he could run this country when his city is such a shambles. All one has to do is look to Landrieu's predecessor, Ray Nagin, the imprisoned former mayor, to grasp the level of corruption that is endemic to south Louisiana politics. Landrieu would be tied to that history not because he has continued it, but because he is a descendant of it. I love my former city as it was pre-Katrina, when crime and murder were still pretty bad, but won't go back because of the cesspool it has become from emboldened thugs. His opposition to the national stage would point to the condition of the city as an example of Landrieu's failure, albeit not his fault despite his best efforts.
38
As a fellow N.O. ex-pat, I can say this is partly true, but crime and murder fell precipitously in New Orleans after the terrible 1990s, and continued to decline through the 2000s, including after Katrina. It has risen again in the past few years, unfortunately, but it's not near where it was in the 90s; the violent crime rate appears to have little to do with Katrina - it is a much older and persistent problem.
New Orleans is more accurately a city with a high degree of economic disparity, with a good bit of wealth and a lot of impoverishment. There are fantastic schools in New Orleans, and terrible schools. There are thousands upon thousands of well-educated people and thousands upon thousands of poorly-educated people. Sales taxes are high, property taxes are not.
But no argument that high expectations accompanied Landrieu's election, and he did not deliver. There is a great start-up and entrepreneurship culture, but New Orleans continues to fare abysmally in gross economic metrics, and be overly reliant on tourism/low-tech and low-pay service industries. The crime rate should be unacceptable. Most friends and family I talk to were already upset with Landrieu about the number of potholes and his inability to make the city's bureaucracy more functional - his confederate monument removal, while admirable, was seen as grandstanding for a national audience, and a recapitulation of Bobby Jindal's endless politicking for higher office while mismanaging his then current job.
6
I was in New Orleans twice in 2016, taking my granddaughter back to college there and then visiting when she became ill. I was out alone early and late from the hotels I stayed in on and near Bourbon Street. A vibrant and beautiful city when much to recommend it, and although the partiers left it messy each evening it was interesting to walk and photograph the workers cleaning (and literally scrubbing the streets with soapy water) at six am. At age 76 and white, I had no fear and would go back any time. A black carriage driver I hired one day told me that New Orleans was not a Southern city. It is and always has been different. Suggest you go back and open your eyes and heart. Like many of the great (or once great) cities of the world it is terrible and wonderful at the same time.
8
John, I'm glad you say 'in spite of.' Louisiana is known by all as a hot-bed of corruption. It also tends to be a state with a lot of family politics. I believe Mr. Landrieu has relatives who have held office who will be picked apart as well. But, look at what we just elected to the presidency. I no longer think the condition of New Orleans will matter all that much to voters. Most people in this country know how hard it is to fix things.
Force of personality wins now. I'm a person who ten years ago would have scoffed at a Landrieu candidacy. But, I scoffed at a Trump candidacy, and here we are. I'd work hard to get out the vote for a decent person who tried but failed to fix his city because of entrenched systemic problems because any decent person would certainly be better than a failed real estate developer who managed to salvage enough 'brand' so that he could make money off foreign made ties, a TV show, and a bogus university. A person with zero integrity, competence, and scruples.
We are certainly in a really weird place.
3
" I suspect he’s far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters. (He certainly is for me.) " Character matters and this man, according to the way you tell it has it in spades. Yet somehow he's just not good enough? The ability to compromise and to reach out and at least try and find common ground with those who disagree with you is fundamental to a healthy functioning democracy. For a such a person to be despised by the right and deemed unacceptable by the left for me sums up all that is wrong with western politics today.
8
“But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. "
This statement pretty much sums up why our GOP Congress cowers to (and defends) Trump, or at a minimum just remain silent.
6
If you have not seen Mitch Landreau's speech on taking down the monuments, please do. It is without a doubt the most inspirational presentation of America's real core values that I have seen or heard in many years. He may be accused of being a centrist but a centrist is exactly what this country needs right now.
Go Mitch!!
24
The battle over taking down Confederate monuments and the like is a symptom of a much broader problem in this country, and that is so much in politics is being based in myth and nostalgia, not reality. In the post reconstruction world, the myth that was promoted was that those fighting for the confederacy were not fighting for slavery, they were fighting for 'their country' and the Confederate leaders were not fighting for slavery, they were fighting for "states rights" that they felt was the core of the constitution (leaving out a)the 'states rights' they were fighting for was slavery and more importantly, slavery expanded to new territories and states ad b)the constitution makes clear that the federal government is the country, and states' powers are limited by that). So those fighting weren't committing treason, they were 'fighting for their freedom' (can you imagine how schools down south would frame if slaves revolted for their freedom?). Add to this the myth the white working class clings to, that the 1950's were a golden age that was lost to the EPA, high taxes,unions, federal regulation and affirmative action, that if we just brouight back 1950's America all would flow (leaving out a)1950's was a height for both union power and taxes on the rich and b)1950's America had no competition in the world, literally last man standing). Myth has replaced reality, and is the root cause of many of our problems today.
9
Sure, it depends on what one means by "centrist," but a look at history shows that on the Democratic side, centrism is not at all disqualifying (for better or worse). The last two Democratic Presidents were centrists, as was the last Presidential candidate. Where is there any shred of support for the notion that a centrist could not win a Democratic primary? There is far more support for the argument that the party's centrism prevents truly progressive candidates from flourishing anywhere except deep blue pockets of the country.
11
Centrism can't succeed in a rigid two-party, winner-take-all system where party comes before country. We should create an environment where multiple parties can be relevant. A ranked voting system, where no third-party vote is wasted, would be a game-changer. More ambitious would be a parliamentary system with coalition governments and - just imagine! - no-confidence votes.
3
Until Donald Trump, I couldn't see a Mayor as a viable Presidential candidate, but Mr. Landrieu has changed that. New Orleans is not only back from Katrina but gaining population and is on a roll. Even Mr. Landrieu won't take all the credit, but he has made a lot of people believe in their unique city. Problems with crime remain, but at least that statistic is coming down.
Mr. Landrieu's problem is the rest of Louisiana away from the Gulf Coast. White, evangelical and "Trumpian". Sad, as we need a leader like him on the national scene, but, hey, wait a minute. Why not run? I certainly would vote for him and I think a lot of others would as well.
One demur, Ms. Goldberg. For those of us who know New Orleans, we know it is not the"South" as it is generally understood. Catholic, outwardly looking, tolerant and, yes, a lot of fun. The cuisine is a lot better as well.
12
About that poll that found a majority of people in Louisiana oppose taking down Confederate monuments.
The poll found 73% said they opposed removing the Confederate memorials; 88% of whites opposed removal, AND 47% of blacks also opposed removal.
That bears repeating: almost half of Louisiana's blacks opposed removal !
Malcolm Suber, an organizer with Take Em Down NOLA, a protest group demanding removal, said the poll demonstrated the need to challenge Confederate history.
"The history we are taught is a Confederate history and glorification of all things Confederate is part of the history of this state," Suber said.
Thomas Taylor of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Louisiana, said the poll shows how people "care about history."
"Are we going to erase four years of history?" Taylor said, referring to the Civil War. He added: "These aren't just monuments. These are works of art."
What we have in America is institutional and regional brain damage caused by a massive failure of education, public policy and a collapse of basic ethics.
Germany is doing pretty well without Hitlerian 'works of art' littering the streets.
You don't see any Jews supporting monuments celebrating the Third Reich in Germany or anywhere else.
History is remembered perfectly well without statues of bigotry, spite and racism.
These statues create a fake history, glorifying evil and disgrace under the image of Southern honor.
We still need to take the South's head out of its cultural toilet.
161
If the best argument you can muster is based on some absurd comparison between the Confederates and the Nazis, you really need to rethink your comment.
4
@Chris,
Why not? Both Confederates and Nazis viewed entire classes of people as sub-human and worthy of brutal exploitation and repression and eventual extermination when they were no longer useful.
3
Socrates, Silliness and nonsense.
1
A sentence rarely mentioned in Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech was his admonition to the crowd, which while predominantly Black had a substantial number of White people, that "we cannot do this alone, and we must remember, as evidenced by their presence here today, there are white people who mean us well, who are with us, and we should join with them." Or words to that effect. While the South is a cauldron of hate, seething with resentment and ignorance, there are important numbers of educated, well meaning White people living in those red states who are appalled by what they see every day. They may not be able to swing their electoral votes, but they are important voices, and they show more courage every day in their resistance to hate than those of us living in White bastions where expressing liberal views requires no special courage.
23
While I, too, admire Mitch Landrieu's eloquence, and see him as a Republican antidote to the horrors of Trump and the racist, nationalist rhetoric and praxis of the violent white alt-right, it is telling that the whites in his state and party don't. It would have been helpful if Michelle Goldberg had mentioned what percentage of non-whites in Louisiana approved of him, but of course they are not so ignorant as to be a part of his constituency at all.
5
@hr
Mitch Landrieu is a Democrat! I would imagine that the majority of non-whites in Louisiana are part of his constituency!
4
"reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity."
This, Ms. Goldberg, is a salient point that has seemingly been missing in the debate about Confederate statues. It seems to me that most people downplay the "fought to destroy country" component in this argument. The main focus, of course, should be on slavery's attempt to "deny the humanity" of the enslaved race of people. But a frontal and premeditated an direct attack upon the seat of one's country? No other word applies: treason. I think this aspect has been glossed over for far too long.
It seems apparent that those who defend the Confederacy have, at bottom, such a hatred for Africans (or African-Americans) that they were willing, without giving any thought to the destruction of their country, to destroy the fundamentals of the American experiment. They were more than pleased to hazard the future of the nation upon a philosophy of white supremacy and the hegemony--political, commercial, social--of the planter class. Imagine asking a Jewish American to walk to school or to work everyday, passing by a replica of Auschwitz.
Mayor Landrieu is to be commended for his high-minded, practical acknowledgement that this particular evil must be uprooted. But how? Attitudes live on, passed down from father to son. Accommodation to present (and past) historical reality seems less important than defending a symbol of evil and corruption.
This mindset elected Donald Trump.
270
Excellent
observations !!!
8
Well said. I would point to a particular phrase you used-"passed down from father to son." We all love our fathers. We don't want to denigrate them, whether they are alive or dead. But even though my own father is the greatest man I've ever known, he is not perfect. He's made mistakes. And I know he wants me to be a better man than he is, as I hope my son is better than me. We all have limitations on our moral strengths. It is our duty as sons and daughters to recognize the sins of our fathers and be better people than them.
10
...and we're watching him let it destroy the country. The Republicans in Congress? Every one of them a profile in treason.
11
'I suspect he’s far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters. (He certainly is for me.)'
It's not what's good for Goldberg that sensible voters need to take, it what's good for the country.
Goldberg's views on events and personalities is dangerous. Particularly to progressives. She's divisive and self-indulgent. We saw that with her views on Senator Franken. Unfortunately, she has the big megaphone in her role as a opinion writer.
9
If you haven't listened to the speech Ms. Goldberg references, I'd recommend you seek it out on YouTube and give it a listen. It is excellent oratory. Might even give you some hope for the future of America
11
Ms. Goldberg, many southerners don't see the legacy of the Confederacy as a sin but a past that they hold dear and remember with nostalgia. They don't see that the statues and flags celebrate treason, secession and open defiance of and warfare against the United States. Martin Luther King lost his life because he was willing to do the right thing. Heather Heyer lost her life because she was willing to stand up racism and everything Confederate symbols stand for. The president could learn something about courage from Mitch Landrieu.
206
Let us not forget that the reason for the treason and secession was the "States' Right" to use other human beings as farm animals.
9
The Southerners who feel that way are being purposefully obtuse. The fact is that those were the arguments made when the monuments were erected and it's well known now it was to reassert white supremacy.
6
The president could learn something about anything from a group of bright twelve-year-olds...
5
Honorable man.
When will your civil war ever end? Ask Mr. Landreau to move north before the breakup.
3
Brave words from a person separating politics from morality. I lived in New Orleans for a year in the late '70's and passed those statutes every day. I'm white. Still, this monuments toldd me that I'm no longer at home in the Notheast amd that different "rules" apply down here.
7
A breath of fresh air. Are many Americans ready to change their breathing habits? For the sake of the world I hope so.
2
For a long time now, the image of America that we project to ourselves has seemed largely rural, agrarian, and small town. What Palin used to refer to as "real" America. Reagan did it, Bush did it, Clinton advertised that he was from a small town called Hope. The city had only crime, drugs, decay, and liberals. Ironically, Trump is supposed to be the big New York dealer who will take advantage of the rest of the world for once, and who is now advertising big city politics as thoroughly corrupt and ignorant. Its nice to read about America through the lens of optimistic, big hearted, deeply patriotic and wildly diverse cosmopolitanism as a source of American greatness.
6
“...for all his buffoonish ignorance, symbolism is something Trump understands better than most politicians.”
I agree that Trump understands symbolism all too well, but disagree that his comprehension is buffoonish. It is malign. He does not care who is hurt or destroyed as a consequence of his words or actions.
4
If you travel, say around New England, you realize the monuments there do not say "Civil War," but "the War of Rebellion." That is what the Confederacy was all about--secession and slavery. The monuments in the South are to men who were called "rebels" and were, in fact, traitors to the Union. To call them "heroes" and to dignify those who support them, as President Trump did in his comments about Charlottesville, is a blasphemy on all the men--white and black--who died defending the Union including the father of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln. Mitch Landrieu is a Southern who knows his history and has "done the right thing." Whether he's in the mold of "Jimmy Who?" Carter or Bill "the Comeback Kid" Clinton, other Southern moderates who came out of nowhere to seize the Democratic presidential nomination, remains to be seen. But, it would be interesting for him to make his case.
5
In the South, they call it "The Northern War of Aggression".
Don't you think 150 years is long enough to GET OVER IT?
Racism is our original sin as a nation. Slavery was so ingrained in our culture that we wrote it into the Constitution. The south rejected the humanity of their slaves but needed to count them to maintain power. We fought a civil war over the battle to hang onto and expand slavery. When the south lost the civil war they resorted to lynching and intimidation to keep former slaves in line. After the civil rights movement the southern strategy was adopted to remind white people who should remain in power and what party would make sure that happened.
How do we combat such a legacy. By having more people like mayor Landrieu tell the truth about our history even though it's not the romanticized version we normally tell ourselves. It's no accident that we followed the first black president with the most openly racist president we've seen.
Trump has brought to the surface a truth that has always lingered beneath the surface of our country. We are and have always been a racist nation. He just gave people permission to take the mask off and speak that truth.
Wouldn't it be nice if we followed Trump with someone like mayor Landrieu who has the courage to acknowledge our past history and a willingness to try to make it right even if doing so offends the sensibilities of those who don't want to face our nation's history. We're so divided right now we could use a centurist who understands the mindset of both sides of this ongoing debate.
263
Newsflash: racism is part of the human condition, with only the extent shifting it from part of being human to the socially uncouth. We do not have a unique burden - just ask any country dominated by the Japanese, in WWII, the Spanish Empire, the Roman Empire...pretty much any non-culturally homogeneous state. I plain don't buy that we have some unique obligation, nor do I care if we do...look forward, not backward.
2
Beautifully said, great comment!
This guy is the goods.
I usually laugh out loud when any Washington politician is venerated in the press as doing something "courageous", as if perhaps doing something that might cost you your job was brave as opposed to something you are simply supposed to do.
But the stance Landrieu has taken with those statues and the things he has said are courageous, because he has not only put his career on the line but more importantly his physical safety. That kind of conviction is not only rare, it's unheard of in today's politics.
I'd vote for this guy in a heartbeat.
27
Mitch Landrieu is indeed a profile in courage.
It's so sad that taking sensible moves and being the mayor of all New Orleans residents takes such courage.
8
Mitch Landrieu's speech should be a mandatory listen for every Republican in the House and Senate that fail to understand the damage the Trump ideology is doing to the country.
Landrieu easily won a statewide election for Lieutenant Governor in 2003. (That was, of course, before his speech about the monuments).
Everything is in play after the Doug Jones win in Alabama and Lamb win in CD-18 PA. Don't forget, Trump couldn't win his home state or county.....or even district!!
Not saying he is a national candidate at this point, but he is very popular in N.O. He is a solid human being.
26
"But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing."
I'd vote for him just for that one sentence. Sometimes I wonder if there is ANYONE in the entire Congress who can say the same.
80
Many cheers!
Your article describes well the twin paths of nature: survival and diversity. Survival is measured in size and power–like the dinosaurs–and seen in all aspects of Make America Great Again. But if you want to measure the health of any living system–ANY LIVING SYSTEM–your best measure is its diversity. Landrieu's focus seems to be: Let's Make America Healthy Again.
21
I am unaware of large numbers of southern Whites longing for a politician that will defeat Trump and tear down every last Confederate Memorial.
I would like to be in the audience when Mayor Landrieu echos the belief that there is too much "Whiteness" in America. That speech would be given at the most liberal college in the country(TBA).
He sounds like he wants to follow Hillary's strategy and corner the market on minority, un married women and millennials. Maybe it'll work this time, if he doesn't cough through a speech.
3
And what’s your problem with minorities, unmarried women and millennials? They vote too, you know, and want their interests represented. The Trump cabinet and Republican party surely are lily white and predominantly male, and they reek of corruption.
7
It is essential American citizens from every socio-economic background to speak up in the face of reactionary babble and misinformation. It is equally essential those with influence, including 'the pen,' to honor those among us that actively embrace the ideals this country was based. So a thousand kudos and thanks to Mayor Mitch and an equal number to Michelle Goldberg!
2
As much as I admire Mr. Landrieu, I would urge him not to run. As Jerry Brown is quoted saying in the profile of him in the current issue of The New Yorker, the nation is now more polarized than at any time since the Civil War, and as the extremes assume ever greater control of the national dialog (to the extent there is a dialog at this point) the nation becomes increasingly ungovernable. Landrieu should do what millions of us are doing, watch closely the results of the upcoming election, and go from there. If more moderates are not seated in Congress this November the future looks extremely bleak. If they are, it may be an indication that this distressing period is drawing to a close, and a dangerous corner turned. Hopefully it will prove cathartic, and we can become one nation again. But, right now, hope is at a premium.
5
Mitch Landrieu has courage and logic, Trump has audacity and fake news.
Trump's appointment yesterday of Jon Bolton as National security advisor puts our country closer to senseless war. The neocons that pushed Bush to 2 unfinished wars after 16 years, are alive and well in the Republican party. By the way Mr. Bolton has never served our country in the military, but he had and probably has no difficulty sending our children to fight and die. The chicken hawks are returning to roost in the Trump administration. Be frightened!
21
Landrieu only has "courage and logic" if you believe that the Taliban and ISIS have courage and logic.
1
When I read Mayor Landrieu’s speech last May I was so move by his powerful and eloquent articulation of our nation’s founding principles and the united people we must become.
I met and spoke to Mayor Landrieu and his daughter Emily last June at the Aspen Ideas Festival, on the lawn during a late afternoon appetizer hour. What struck me was how polite, engaging and genuine they both were. When I thanked the Mayor and complimented him for his speech. He humbly replied that “it needed to be said”.
It would be refreshing and wonderful for our country to have such a calm, measured, intelligent, decent and honorable family man like Mitch Landrieu as our President. And the entire world would exhale a collective sigh of relief.
28
"Landrieu is too far a centrist for Democratic primary voters" - the important word here being "primary". Democrats need to start focus on winning elections by nominating a center-left pragmatist with a bit of charisma (much like Obama). At this time in our history, progressive themes need to be secondary to getting a majority of Democrats elected in Congress in 2018, and Trump out of office in 2020.
If this doesn't happen, we risk returning to the pre-civil rights era, continued destruction of the environment, and the obliteration of our democracy as we know it. And little chance for progressive values to evolve into mainstream values (as they historically have, e.g. slavery, suffrage, civil rights) for many, many years, if ever.
26
I'd vote for Mitch, we need someone with that kind of courage.
22
We are not "a nation of immigrants." The overwhelming majority of Americans were born here. That is an incontrovertible fact. But you say, "Your parents or your grandparents were immigrants." That is not true either, in my case. My last ancestors to immigrate to the United States were two of my fourth great grandparents and their daughter, my third great grandmother, who arrived from Canada East (Quebec) in about 1847. I have ancestors of European ancestry who arrived here as far back as 1620, and I have DNA evidence that I am part Native American, which places my ancestors here for millennia. None of this makes me either more or less Americans whose families came here more recently. To call us a nation of immigrants implies that those who are not immigrants are somehow less legitimate than immigrants. You say, "Well at some point your ancestors immigrated here." That's true, but true of almost every point on Earth, which makes the statement meaningless. More importantly, none of this says anything about what our immigration policy should be. I believe we are stronger for the infusion of different cultures into our larger society, but I also believe that we must control our borders and not allow people to come here irrespective of our law and policies, and that it is cruel to incentivize people to come here illegally forcing them to live in the shadows.
7
You sound worried about losing whatever social status you perceive you have. Are immigrants really taking that much from you? What we spend on all migrants here is much, much less than what we spend on other things like ill advised expeditions into the Middle East, which (surprise!) create more migrants.
8
Context is always the most important piece in a debate.
Two sides debate and reveal in a court case… yes the accused hit the other person, causing grievous harm.
A crime… except that the other person was attacking at the time with the possibility of great injury.
Still a crime?
Context.
Search US policy in Central America, during the 1980s, and you'll understand today's migration of people who run for their lives from countries we (your taxes and mine) deliberately destabilized and ultimately rendered ungovernable - a mess of official corruption and lawless gangs.
Our stupid, paranoid policies pushed parts of Central America to become unlivable for millions. We are seeing the results.
Search it.
That's the context and that's the truth.
Oh, and just for kicks, fully half of people in this country in an illegal status are people who didn't pass through our Southern border.
They start as legal travelers from many nations who merely overstay their visa time frame - they simply don't leave.
Half of the so called "illegals."
What about them?
Dangerous?
Pipe up about that.
3
But the question Landrieu addresses is: are we a nation of traitors?
7
We need to take a deep breath and find a better way. Why not reimagine our parks by building new monuments as a powerful counter-narrative to their Jim Crow-era celebration of the Confederacy — neither forgetting the past nor accepting its grasp on our present and future. The current memorials lack context. Rethinking the memorial landscape would be a sensible first step. We need to stop measures that divide us more, we have enough of that...and embrace strategies that will unite us. This could be an extraordinary teachable moment if done right. Civilization should be constructive rather than destructive, we have enough space to erect new statues. This senseless effort to erase from our public spaces all historical figures who were racist in some ways is a very slippery slope. After all, our Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe — were all great Presidents, who were slave owners. Where does it end? Instead of removing such memorials, isn't teaching future generations about the immorality of slavery the best way to honestly account for their failings. I understand the rationale for removing Confederate statutes...but I think the effort while well meaning will backfire if not implemented thoughtfully. Remembering is powerful. Remembering forces us to become wiser.
2
This line sticks out like a sore thumb in the midst of an otherwise excellent essay: "I suspect he’s far too much of a centrist for most Democratic primary voters. (He certainly is for me.)"
Tough times call for tough measures. They also call for selflessness. I think we have one basic priority for next election: restoring honor and integrity to the White House and flushing the moral filth out of congress. A Centrist is probably EXACTLY what we need in order to achieve that.
119
Why is it that democrats are ALWAYS the ones who have to compromise? It’s never the other way around.
How many truly “centrist” or liberal republicans do you see in Congress? How many pro-choice republicans?
5
A smart, plain-spoken candidate who's clarity and conviction, reasonableness and common sense distinguish him or her can make a big splash, even in a crowded field of candidates.
Those refreshing qualities, along with a strong self confidence and humane demeanor make a person stand out, make people perk up and wake up… take notice.
Add in a look…take a look at Mitch Landrieu…and the stew starts to taste good.
To quote the line from "Hamilton" as young Alexander thrusts himself into the chaos of pre-revolution New York and his words/manner match the boiling, yearning in his audience, "Let's get this guy in front of a crowd!"
That's when the chemistry begins.
And, you never know where it ends.
32
Mitch Landrieu has a quality we sorely need but that apparently puts a scare into fellow Democrats like Ms. Goldberg: When he runs for office, he wins. We cannot afford to fall in love with a Lost Cause candidate who, much as we might love what they say, has zero chance of winning e.g. Bernie and Joe. It's a wonderful thing to be inspired. It feels even better to win.
62
Joe and Bernie would take exception with your statement. And, Hillary has NOT said she won't run. Sorry, Mitch, it is HER turn(again) to win.
1
Most polling had Bernie beating Trump head to head.
2
You believe that Bernie or another like him cannot win because the mainstream media repeats that at every opportunity. Still, Bernie is the best liked (maybe only liked) politician in this country. He ran far beyond the margin of error (+11 points) in polls right up to Nov. 6, 2916 against Trump. He still draws overflow crowds in bright red states as well as blue ones. Read The Guardian occasionally for a different view. They are not in thrall to the Wall Street crowd.
A courageous centrist may be the only type of person who can be elected in the next election.We have been to one extreme and find it uncomfortable.A principled mayor who can govern a historic city which has faced the darkest of times during reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina is a politician with special skills.His concern about monuments and willingness to have them removed shows a sensitivity to both the sentiments of the past and present.I am intrigued.
67
He is a hero and is courageous in fighting bigotry and in realizing that monuments reflect our values and ideals.
What is wrong with white Louisianians? They should rejoice in having a politician with some ideals to do what is right. They should invite him to run for state office rather than elect political hacks who tell them what they want to hear. Moreover they should care deeply about the views and station of African Americans who are their fellow citizens. No policy is decent that ignores the views and interests of any group.We are all Americans and should be judged on how we treat others. We are only strong when we are together- one out of many sharing ideals of freedom and equality.
268
"No policy is decent that ignores the views and interests of any group." Does that include seniors? Because pretty much both parties have ignored seniors views and interests for decades. The last POTUS who did ANYTHING for seniors was Gerald Ford when he allowed the implementation of a SS COLA. Sadly, this improvement has essentially been cancelled/done away with over the past 10 years, Dem POTUS notwithstanding.
3
What's wrong with white Louisianians is that they are Southerners still fighting the Civil War, rather than patriotic Americans striving to make this country better for all its citizens.
6
IN: When your are raised mean and full of hate, you tend to remain that way.
4
Thank you Michelle for quoting this, "“But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.”
Our GOP defines 'freedom' as the ability to carry an assault rifle into a school full of children. What a difference!
34
"“But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing." Didn't Jeb? say something to the effect of, "I will win by losing."
That strategy isn't catching on.
1
Mitch Landrieu worked to be the mayor of all the citizens of New Orleans while Trump is only interested in being the President of the white people in red states who voted for him.
27
"existential assault" Yes, that is exactly how I feel. Everything that is good and great about America is being trashed by this creature.
36
Well, Landrieu is too much of a centrist for me, too. But- we can stand on our high horse and be stuck there so long we'll starve if we don't pay attention to what happened in Pennsylvania. Lamb's victory in that district shows the nation that standing somewhere near the center is a recipe for victory. I actually believe THAT'S what the nation is starved for. All of the histrionics on both sides, and yes, some of it Russian instigated, has brought us to this crazy place of believing that if each side fights hard enough, that it can win. It's only when we fight together that will happen.
594
Thank you that line made me really annoyed the rest of the way through the article, and youve said more eloquently my feelings on this inclusion.
11
Apparently you weren't the only annoyed reader. Ultra liberals have electing conservatives for ling enough, thank you. Reagan was elected by Ted Kennedy. George W. by Ralph Nader. Trump by Bernie. Can't you liberal darlings play nice with sensible people? If you don't we will have Trump II, and Michelle can keep whinin and complaining.
3
Where is all this "centrist" stuff coming from? I don't see it and he's my mayor. I don't get that perception. He's very much left of center. Maybe because he's from the South, he's automatically considered centrist?
5
There are two ways to look at American history: one being that the Civil War was the point where America faced its racist demons to try and expunge them from this nation. The other: it was the point where America's racist demons were forced beneath the surface. Still there, just waiting for the right time to reveal themselves again so those who believe in them can stop having to pretend slavery and racism are wrong. Watch what happens if someone proposes a monument to Obama be raised. There will be outrage. Led by people like McConnell. Then there will be an attempt to place one to Trump. Which Republicans will cheer on. If you can't see the fact that many Americans' willingness to eliminate Obama from history while at the same time elevating Trump to political sainthood, then you can't really see how far we still have to go.
24
Mitch Landrieu is a hero. all he did was speak truth.
13
As a Southerner, I’ve always thought it perverse that so many people could simultaneously pay lip service to being patriotic Americans and revere monuments to the men who sought to rend the country in half. These people claim (disingenuously, in my opinion) their reverence is rooted in “heritage, not hate,” but watch their reaction when someone proposes simply moving their beloved monuments to museums, where interested people can be more thoroughly informed about the heritage with which they’re so besotted. The historian’s mask of high-minded respect for their forebears’ Lost Cause slips, revealing their actual motive: maintaining public symbols of an era of African American subjugation.
590
Clear as a bell.
Great!
Thanks.
11
The North and LA saw worse riots than the south.
Roman and Greek statues remain; despite the slavery, hedonism, and paganism of those generals. How can MLK be better than Lee? Both served their people honorably to the best of their ability.
Destroy history and it is bound to repeat itself. Remove these statues at your peril.
3
One was a traitor—the other was fighting for basic human rights. BTW—the 1800s want their perspective back. Please leave and give it to them.
4
Landrieu is certainly to be commended for his courage in removing statues revering men that tried to destroy the Union.
Have never understood why those that put themselves in the service of a cause to destroy the Union have statues erected in their honor as well as streets and schools named after them. Honoring those that helped tear this country apart in a war seems perverted.
Of course, we now have a POTUS who praises and congratulates a foreign leader that is trying to do the same thing as those that worked to destroy the Union in the 19th century.
14
Alas, the legacy of Slavery will never be laid to rest in America the beautiful. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has found freedom as a white Louisianian Mayor, would be a fine president of us all. But Landrieu is loathed by his southern countrymen for his centrism, for being a Democrat, and for tearing down Confederate monuments in his sweet home New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu has given 14 years of loyalty and service to his beloved Louisiana, and has shown us how he is so much more than "The White Southern Anti-Trump". What a silly title for your piece, Ms. Goldberg! Mitch Landrieu has the humanity, empathy, brilliance and political experience to be an American leader, to inspire e pluribus unum rather than divisive and agonizing politics that are causing America's ruin under the Republican Party and President Trump today.
446
It's unlikely Goldberg titled her own piece; the Times has headline writers who do that job. Other than that, I recommend your comment.
3
Nan, you are absolutely right but I think I read once that the columnists don't choose their own titles, others do. Am I right, NYT?
2
I don't believe the columnists have much control over the titles of their pieces. The Times would do us a service by clarifying the process.
1
Landrieu's statement that people be willing to lose your job to do the right thing should be heeded by all, particularly the congressional people who stand by Trump's bigotry.
55
Thank you, Michelle Goldberg, we need more columns like this. And we need more leaders like Mitch Landrieu.
6
Do the right thing. Fight the power. Thank you for highlighting Mayor Landrieu in your column, Ms. Goldberg. He is an inspirational example of the ability for someone in a position of privilege to engage in empathy for others. He is a true public servant.
On a much smaller scale, I have lost jobs for refusing to go along with cruelty or injustice. And, yes, it is freeing. Mr. Landrieu has the support and loving energy from those of us who get it. Racism is a disease. We each have to be part of the solution.
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Mitch Landrieu is indeed inspiring.
But he sure does seem to represent a minority of the South. In truth, racial politics brought us George W. Bush, and Trump. If Lincoln had simply shrugged when the South said it was going to leave, and said, "Don't let the border hit you on the way out", America would have been a much stronger place, a much more rational place.
But sure, I would love to be able to vote for Mitch Landrieu and Kamala Harris for a Presidential team to sit in the White House, if there is a White House after Trump.
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Yes, if Lincoln had just let a significant portion of the country leave and take with them the two powerful economic engines of cotton and tobacco, leaving the U.S. a shrunken, marginalized nation producing goods no one else needed to buy from them, American would have been much stronger. Sure. It never fails to impress me how little people know of that time, of the war, or of what came after.
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It's all very well and good to single out the South as filled with racists. As a native North Carolinian, I would like to point out the flaw in your premise. You say racial politics brought us Bush and Trump. Cast an eye on the electoral map and tell me what motivated so many regions outside the "weak, irrational" South to vote for those two men.
All the talk about Southern racism is ignoring the racism in the rest of the country. I see it all the time, and because of the lingering drawl in my speech, many people think it's safe to confide their views about "those people."
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This is a nonsensical position. As a Southerner, what I hate most about our (deserved) reputation for racism is that it allows people who live outside of the South to pretend that their part of the country is not complicit in the oppression of minorities. As if the South has a monopoly on racism! "Native Son" is set in Chicago. Michael Brown was murdered in the Midwest. The Central Park Five were wrongly convicted, because of their race, in the "liberal bastion" of New York City. Bitter Southerners like myself struggle against institutional racism down here everyday - don't think that just because your neck of the woods doesn't have "y'all" in the vernacular it ain't part of the problem.
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At some point you ave to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing.
It's a pity that Republican Congressmen and women do not share that belief with Mayor Landrieu.
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He’s mayor of Nola, a very diverse democratic city. His job is safe.
However, his chances statewide are nil... Too many racists to go around.
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He is no longer the mayor of NOLA
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A true American patriot in a time where few are visible. He may not win in Louisiana but his eloquence and centrist pragmatism would be attractive across a weary America and breath of fresh air after the awful stench of trumpism.
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Thank you for informing us about Landrieu. Before your column I was unfamiliar with him. We need to learn more and more about the existing alternatives to racism and hate in preparation for both November 2018 and 2020 so that we can make fully informed decisions as voters. Ms Goldberg this is one of the reasons I race to read your column.
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“I’m not a hero, and I’m not particularly a courageous person,” he told me. “But at some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.”
He just told us the problem with nearly every politician in America.
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Looks like the last president who didn't care about coifure, Dwight Eisenhower. We could use some of Ike's stability and reasoned approach to governance about now.
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One expects that there is a concurrent majority of white citizens in the South who reject the Confederate legacy and consider themselves to be moderates.
It takes a lot of courage, however, for rational people to step forward in face of rabid peer pressure from "Conservatives."
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Most under rated and under estimated individual. Yet he shines and shines. May he spread his kindness compassion nation wide.
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What absolutely mystifies me, a now non-believer, is how the evangelical "Christian" clergy in this country has embraced Trumpism. Led by white men, as in Franklin Graham and many others, they turn their eyes away from the rampant sexism and racism of its following and turn their back on their own New Testament writings. Bad enough Trump has no ideology, but ministers, OMG.
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As long as we do not see the whipping in the black's people back as whipping on the back of every American, we will not see the statues of confederates, high in their horses, as holding the whip against the very idea of America. The moral core of the civil war was about this idea. A war that the losing side keeps fighting as a guerrilla that takes many shapes. Landrieu's stand is a lot more than presidential posturing.
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"At some point you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom.” In other words virtue frees a politician to be a statesman.
Virtue is very scarce in politics. And our country's ills reflect its scarcity. To get funds for their campaigns, too many politicians sell their souls to a few wealthy people (also corporate "people") and then serve those few at the expense of the many they are supposed to represent. Republicans bowing to the NRA is an egregious example of how a few dictate their twisted will over the many. There is no virtue in the NRA leadership, none in the Republican Party leadership or membership.
Lack of virtue is the bane of democracy. The Republican Party once had some leaders with virtue but their party weeded it out. Their dear leader is the antithesis of virtue. Together they have turned American values upside down. Republicans now promote/admire dishonesty, boorish behavior, bullying, name-calling, breaking laws, race baiting, minority bashing and spitting on the Constitution.
Republicans lie to the people and appeal to hatreds to gain office. Democracy is vulnerable to their ilk and their ilk is an existential threat to democracy which cannot function on lies. And that is where we are today. We have a "leader" who with the help of Republicans is destroying all the good and the promise of better that America once represented.
If we want our republic to survive throw Republican out in November.
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Your first line says it all. It's a life philosophy and one of principle. Yes, a change in election November!
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Serving in Congress has become far too cushy and privileged a job, far more than the Founders intended it to be. As a result, rather than drawing candidates whose intention is to serve their country out of a sense of duty, it attracts second-rate hustlers looking to live large on someone else's dime.
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How can you expect to compromise with 40% of the population that disagrees with you when you disparage and demonize 60 million people and declare them an "existential threat to democracy" in your tirade against the entire Republican Party?
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Too much a centrist? She writes that his speech, and presumably the man himself, is big-hearted and deeply patriotic. There doesn’t seem to be anything centrist about that today. That’s a fringe attitude when so many hearts are closed.
I’ve tried to read parts of Landrieu’s speech aloud to people. It’s very hard to do it without a lump in my throat. I once thought of the Country as he does. But I lost faith. Listening to him makes me feel that a dying loved one has breath in her yet. We once responded to a man from Hope, and to another guy’s father’s dream. I think we are always hungry for a vision to unite us.
I imagine I wouldn’t agree with Landrieu on every policy. That’s ok. I’ve decided to become a single issue voter. I want to vote for a person who can present a vision of a great shining city on a hill, or whatever. If the vision is clear, the policy will be acceptable. And if it’s a little bit of a mess here and there, that’s ok, too. I’ll work for this guy.
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Mitch Landrieu, as a person, as a mayor, and perhaps in many of his other identities and behaviors, not noted in this article, is willing to take personal responsibility, accountability, for what he says. And does.A rarity in our daily culture. And country. The article's heading focuses on his being "Anti-Trump,"
which inadvertently feeds into part of our daily, toxic, infectious,WE-THEY violating reality. Tweets against! Words against! Deeds against. Locally. Nationally. Globally. Against selected "the other." Dehumanizing people. Civic enabling norms. Values of equitable sharing of limited human and nonhuman resources so necessary for individual and systemic wellbeing.In safe environments."Against" is mantrafied! And what are the remaining US "for"
which can be begun. Continued. Anchored. By mutual help between kin, friend, and strangers. Mutual trust which can overcome faithless principles of faith sustained by targeting "the other!" By moving from constrained either/or
based knowing to spectrums of understanding. Insights used to expand sites for safe qualities of living. Mitch Landrieu is a much-needed example for each of US as we meet today's divisive challenges. Risking being accountable. To ourselves. To others. Those whom we know, as well as to those whom we do not, but may yet choose to know in our various roles in our range of daily environments. Thank you for this OP-ED.
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On one hand, you criticize mayor Landrieu for being too much of a Centrist. On the other hand, you worship the phrase e pluribus unum. Which one is it going to be? We will not come together as a country until we begin to unite again in the middle. If Democrats would like to ride the biggest wave in the elections this fall, they will run and act as centrist candidates as the recent Congressional election in Pennsylvania demonstrated.
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Sanders was the liberal candidate and Hillary was the middle of the road candidate Democrat. She lost to right wing Wack-a-doodle Trump. I suspect if Sanders had won the nomination Sanders would be president. Playing the safe card with a middle of the road but uninspiring candidate isn’t always the smart choice.
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But Dr, Huffer, who gets to say where the center is, who is a centrist? FDR? Trump? Hitler, Obama, Ike, Ivan the Terrible, Bernie, the Kochs? I would really like to know.
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John
Hillary lost because the right wing had been slapping her around for 30 years and because the media gave the Wack a Doodle millions of dollars of free publicity and op-eds engaged in ceaseless "false equivalencies."
Bernie would have been buried by the Trump campaign as a communist and they would have found tons of pics and stories from Bernie's own mouth to bury him with.
Dems need to find the LBJ/JFK/FDR/Truman center and they need to STOP being a circular firing squad.
Especially the Bernie "Old Man Shakes Fist at Cloud" Sanders supporters.
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"On the presidential coin — which presidents hand out as mementos — “E pluribus unum” has been replaced by “Make America Great Again.”"
Ugh. I didn't know that. Next thing we know, Lady Liberty will be torn down and replaced by a statue of Trump surrounded by a high wall, so all you see is his unsmiling face.
I watched a recording of Mitch Landrieu's speech, which soared with a poetry and passion so sorely missing today. I remember, thinking, "this man should be president".
Of course, any sentient leader with humanity and the ability to see how symbols are crushing his city, state, or country is something to be applauded in this intensely ugly second year of the Trump Administration.
America is learning what it means to be without sound, strong leadership--cultural, moral, government and military. I don't know about many, but my heart longs for it--for somebody who can take the miseries of the day and transform them in a meaningful solution for me, and my fellow citizens.
Like an electric car, our country seems to be self driving, but as we saw a few days ago, even electric cars kill.
America has faced challenges together before, but now, polarization is killing us--every bit as much as the president's policies and behavior are.
Will we ever regain the ability to recognize and fight a common threat together?
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"Will we ever regain the ability to recognize and fight a common threat together?"
Christine, your last line resonates with me.
I'm afraid that Fauxtus, who continually manufactures threats where there are none, will never publicly recognize Putin and Russia as the threat they really are.
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Please, please, please, Christine, learn the difference between electric car and autonomous car.
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@wmferee: whoops, sorry! My bad. I meant, clearly, self-driving (autonomous) not electric. Thanks for pointing that out.
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As a New Yorker who see New Orleans only through the lens of the news, Landrieu has seemed a portrait in courage. I am aware of the difficulties N.O. has had politically throughout the ages and since Katrina, but as far as it is possible for their mayor to work with integrity in a difficult political environment, he seems to be doing a good job. It's nice to see an anti-Trump in the south. Next president? No, thank you. But let's get him out there making positive changes on the national scene.
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Thank you. We attended a lecture here in Savannah last night by Dr. Anne Bailey on her book "the Weeping Times" It concerns the largest slave auction ever held in the United States. Locals came together and we now have a National Historic Site marker at the site. A first. Her insight is that we all need to work together to lay this legacy to rest forever. Together.
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It is unfortunate that in this hyper-polarized time, someone holding centrist views is deemed unelectable to higher office. Each side in this polarity wants the other side to be "more reasonable" and understand their perspective, but refuses to do the same. The disappearance of centrists is a major contributing factor to our political gridlock. Without centrists, our government is left to oscillate between extremes. To everyone's detriment and dismay.
I would also posit that President Obama was at the core a centrist, who physically embodied the radical notion that an African-American male could be elected president. As such, he was deemed liberal enough to nominate and elect. I'm not encouraging Mitch Landrieu to become a candidate for his party's nomination; I am calling for each party to add "conciliatory, reasoning and empathetic" to their litmus tests for candidates.
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Both parties have been moving further to the right to please their donor base; some of us would like the Dems to readjust and start working for us, We the People, and provide healthcare access, gun controls, and reduce the Defense budget so that our "entitlements" can be shored up. The difference can be seen in the Chuck Schumers of the party versus the Bernie Sanders - ask them what the party should be and I think only one can give you a clear answer.
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I really hate labels like liberal, conservative, and especially moderate and centrist. Where exactly is this center? Is it fixed? Does it move?
I am a mathematician. If I say 2 + 3 = 5 and the other guy says 2 + 3 = 23, is a centrists somebody who says 2 + 3 = 14? After all, 14 is in the center, halfway between 5 and 23.
I much prefer labels like realists and ideologue. A realist is someone who values facts, data, history, and logic. An ideologue is some who holds beliefs that are not supported by facts, data, history, and logic or even are contradicted by them. A common example of ideologue is the religious ideologue, some who believes men and dinosaurs played together. But there are plenty of other kinds. There is the economic ideologue who believes that it has always helped the US economy to significantly pay down the federal debt. There is the gun ideologue who believes that having a gun in the house reduces the probability of a firearm death. And so on.
So, Steve why not offer your support to those who maintain the 2 + 3 = 5 rather than those who say that 2 + 3 = 14?
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Please cease and desist with the false equivalency between sides. Extremism on the right is the fundamental problem - you just can't "be reasonable" with some folks.
Skip "conciliatory," keep "reasonable and empathetic" as the litmus test - give me a candidate who will speak with moral clarity, not a soothsayer who ineffectually tries to please even the psychopathic fringe that has taken over the GOP.
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I would take this one step further. Indianapolis has more memorials than any other city except Washington DC. They are not the Mya Lin style that in their design reflect the reality of the loss of men in war. They are huge, stone and imposing. They throw a pall over the landscape of the city that has relatively no parks where there is any celebration of nature and the changing seasons except as backdrop for those monuments. To put it bluntly, the city feels weighed down in war history. I have no intention to denigrate or disrespect veterans, but does a whole city need to be dedicated to war and glorification of their carnage to show gratitude?
I grew up in Georgia and was dismayed at the scaring of Stone Mountain as a child. I can't be the only one to feel we are the people with the problems we have today as a result of what we've memorialized and surrounded ourselves with.
There are better things to extol, to be inspired by. Like taking care of our veterans still living and attending to the scars on families of the fallen. If we take care of our culture, our culture will take care of us. As it stands, war is the theme of our environment and it's killing us.
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I don't care who you are and I don't care what the monument is for, I hate that people feel the need to carve up mountain. Stone Mountain, Mount Rushmore, and wherever that guy is carving Sitting Bull into a mountain - I wish all of them didn't exist. Ugly and arrogant
.
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That would be Crazy Horse in South Dakota.
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The quote, "you have to be willing to lose your job to do the right thing. That’s the only time you really find freedom" says it all for me. It is a position that I took in every job and it pays off. The imagined responses of those in power has been worse than anything that actually happens, and for the most part, is just the opposite. If one stands on principle, he will be respected by the opposition and honored by those who live in fear of reprisals. Cheers to Landrieu. He is an example to the current Congress and helps one to understand why America has no checks and balances in that spineless group.
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A job, any job, is small potatoes compared to the loss of one's integrity. We are witnessing a mass abandonment of integrity by politicians interested only in their position and power. When enough of these reprobates govern us, we become the moral detritus that they are.
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