Asheville’s one-party, well-oiled political machine was chugging along, as usual, deconstructing the Vance Monument —  the crown jewel of downtown Asheville since it was completed in 1898 — even while the case by those wanting to save the landmark was still being litigated, when it suddenly was thwarted and ordered by the state Court of Appeals to cease the demolition at once and safeguard the blocks and capstone until a decision is rendered..

As H. Edward Phillips III, the attorney for the preservationists, told the Daily Planet in a recent interview, the city appeared to be following the admonition of “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” perhaps thinking that the litigation would be dropped when the monument no longer existed. (And we hasten to add that Phillips, on behalf of his clients, said the Vance Monument is clearly not a Confederate monument — rather, he said, it represents civic leader George Willis Pack, who gave two/thirds of the money ($2,000) to build the monument to honor his friend Vance’s many civic contributions.

As as of this writing, the city has stopped the monument demolition, with only the base remaining, and is storing the blocks and capstone in undisclosed locations until the court decides the monument’s fate — probably many months from now.

All of this leads us back to words of wisdom — “History is not there for you to like or dislike, Jedediah. It is there for you to learn from” — from Lt. Col. Allen West during a June 13, 2020 interview on the desecration of Confederate monuments and other historic symbols that one may not like. 

In the interview, West warned that Americans toppling Confederate statues or defacing infamous historic symbols were missing the point of that time in U.S. history. During the interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” with hosts Jedediah Bila, Pete Hegseth and Griff Jenkins, the former Florida congressman advised that angry desecration of longstanding monuments to racist historical figures is not the path to take.

“The right thing is for everyone to understand — and George Santayana once said — ‘Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,’” West pointed out.

Following weeks of protests against police brutality and allegedly unjust killings of black Americans like George Floyd, many -- including state government officials -- have turned to look inward at their own communities. They’ve responded by toppling depictions of figures like Christopher Columbus in Minnesota, removing Kentucky’s Jefferson Davis, and graffitiing a Virginia memorial of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

“No,” West said of destroying or desecrating historical monuments in general. “History is about learning from it. I don’t want to see us become like the Taliban or ISIS. Those are the people [who] destroyed history.”

We stand with West and demand that history — whether pretty or ugly — be preserved.

This column was posted on June 24.

Once again this week, the media got it wrong. 

After Republicans invoked the filibuster to block consideration of S.1, the “For The People Act,” most news outlets reported it as a major loss for Democrats and a huge setback for voting rights.

Now, I admit, they were not totally wrong. To protect every American’s right to vote, it would have been better had the bill passed. But that’s not the full story. What really happened was this: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set a trap – and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell walked right into it.

Let’s be honest. Schumer’s real goal in scheduling a vote on S.1 was not passage of the bill. Everybody knew it would never get the 60 votes necessary for cloture. His real goal was two-fold. First, to prove that voter suppression is at the heart of the Republican Party agenda. Mission Accomplished! Not only did Senate Republicans oppose any attempt to protect the vote, they wouldn’t even let it come up for debate, amendment, or vote.

Second goal: to prove that the Republican Party is, basically, against everything and for nothing. Again, Mission Accomplished! In the Senate so far this year, there was not one Republican vote for the COVID stimulus. Only six Republican votes for creation of the January 6 Truth Commission. And now, not one Republican vote for voting rights.

It’s clearer than ever that no matter how many times Joe Biden or Senate Democrats try to reach across the aisle, this gang of Republicans has zero interest in working together to get stuff done. They’d rather filibuster than legislate. Republicans have made the case themselves, stronger than any Democrat could. The only way forward, the only way for the Senate to get anything done, is to kill the filibuster.

For the life of me, I can’t understand the eagerness, even on the part of many Democrats, to defend the filibuster. It’s not in the Constitution. It’s only a Senate rule, which can be changed, anytime, by a majority of senators present and voting. In 1975, perhaps most famously, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, known as the “Conscience of the Senate,” successfully led an effort to reduce the number of senators required to invoke the filibuster from 67 to 60.

The filibuster has an ugly past. First adopted as a Senate rule in 1806, it was rarely used until the ’50s when it became the weapon of choice for Southern Democratic senators to kill civil rights legislation. Strom Thurmond still holds the record for the longest individual filibuster, speaking against the 1957 Civil Rights Act for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

But that’s when a senator actually had to stand at the podium, talking nonstop, and other senators had to sit, or lie on cots rolled in for the occasion, and listen. Of course, that’s no longer the case. Today’s filibuster is a farce. Nobody has to speak, not even for five minutes. All opponents have to do is “declare” a filibuster and, unless supporters can round up 60 votes, the bill is dead.

Today it’s even worse than that. Now Republicans use the filibuster, almost exclusively, not to kill a bill, but to prevent its consideration. Supporters have to round up 60 votes just to bring legislation, even with some bipartisan support, to the floor for debate. Which is, of course, a self-fulfilling defeat. Because, with no debate there is no opportunity to amend or improve the bill to round up whatever additional votes might have been needed for passage.

In effect, McConnell and today’s Senate Republicans are saying: We don’t want to do our job. We don’t want to govern. We don’t want to legislate. We will simply use the filibuster to shut the Senate down, which they have succeeded in doing, and will continue to do so, as long as the filibuster survives.

Some Democrats want to keep the filibuster, because they think they’ll need it, next time they’re in the minority. But they’re simply perpetuating the tyranny of the minority. The filibuster is inherently undemocratic. It’s wrong, whether invoked by Republicans or Democrats.