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The fight over Confederate statues could make or break Democrats

In February of 2003, then-aspiring Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean got applause at a Democratic National Committee meeting when he argued that “white folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back ought to be voting with us.”

More than a decade later, in the wake of the violent white supremacist rally surrounding a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, last wekend and President Trump’s full-throated defense of Confederate monuments, the politics have changed.

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What used to be a series of low-key, local fights has turned into a party-defining wedge issue with Democrats demanding the monuments must be relocated to museums and Republicans arguing that Democrats are destroying history for the sake of political correctness.

“You are changing history, you’re changing culture,” President Trump argued in his press conference Tuesday, saying that some who had gathered in Charlottesville were “very fine people” simply trying to preserve a statue.

Across the country, from city councils to the halls of Congress, an increasingly fractious and even violent battle has begun over the future of the more than 350 monuments to the Confederate States of America — several of which are under the dome of the U.S. Capitol.

On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey announced he would be introducing a bill to remove all the Confederate statues in the Capitol, which include the President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Hamilton Stephens, and, of course, Confederate General Lee.

“Individuals who were treasonous to the United States, who took up arms against their own country, and inflicted catastrophic death and suffering among U.S. citizens should not be afforded such a rare honor in this sacred space,” Booker said in a statement to VICE News on Thursday.

And the issue appears to be turning into a litmus test among the Democratic base, some of whom took it upon themselves to topple a statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina, on Monday. “They are monuments to white supremacy, and every Democrat (and every Republican) should support their removal,” Leah Greenberg, the co-executive director of the powerful grassroots group Indivisible, told VICE News.

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But the politics are not as clear-cut as the moralistic language. Unlike some Trump policy proposals that seem to be aimed at his core supporters, the public is overwhelmingly in favor of preserving the statues for now, indicating hazardous ground for Democrats. Only 27 percent of people support removing the monuments, according to an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll conducted after the violence in Charlottesville. And Democrats are deeply divided on the issue, with 44 percent saying the monuments should remain as a historical symbol and 47 percent supporting their removal.

And Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon told the New York Times and The American Prospect this week that taking on these symbols of the Confederacy was a losing issue for the Democrats. “Just give me more. Tear down more statues. Say the revolution is coming. I can’t get enough of it,” Bannon said.“I want them to talk about racism every day. If the Left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

And GOP strategist Tim Miller, who has been very anti-Trump, seemed to agree:

Even as the removal of the monuments has gained some momentum this past week, Republicans are already beginning to stand firm and push back.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only other black man in the Senate besides Booker, told HBO’s “VICE News Tonight” in an exclusive interview that he did not support relocating confederate monuments. “So I’m not of the opinion that somehow removing these monuments or markers are a way of cleansing history,” he said. “I think keeping the markers and monuments is a wonderful way of reminding us of how dark the human soul can get and how bright the light can be afterwards.”

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And House Speaker Paul Ryan poured cold water on Booker’s legislative proposal, telling VICE News through a spokesman that the statues in the Capitol will continue to be decided by state legislatures.

Democrats carried on anyway. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Booker with a statement saying “There is no room for celebrating the violent bigotry of the men of the Confederacy in the hallowed halls of the United States Capitol or in places of honor across the country.” She has been joined by Democratic politicians across the country, including the governors of southern states like Virginia and North Carolina, who called this week to relocate the monuments.

Trump, for his part, seemed to welcome the fight, taking to Twitter Thursday morning to defend the statues.

And some Democrats indeed seemed more wary of entering into the fray. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a rare split with Pelosi, issued a statement on Thursday that implied the debate over the monuments was a distraction and that Democrats should focus on Trump playing footsie with white supremacists.

“President Trump and Steve Bannon are trying to divert attention away from the President’s refusal to unequivocally and full-throatedly denounce white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and other forms of bigotry,” Schumer said. He added that he’d continue to “work towards the goal” of Booker’s legislation.