Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis have both promised that, as president, they will restore the newly christened Fort Liberty back to its previous name of Fort Bragg.
DeSantis said, “It’s an iconic name and an iconic base and we’re not going to let political correctness run amok.”
Diversity and tolerance are PC run amok and must be stopped. But racism and white supremacy are to be celebrated?
Braxton Bragg was a Confederate general who many consider to be among the worst generals in the Civil War. Most of his battles ended in defeat. Bragg “had been court-martialed and convicted, had been censured by the Secretary of War.” (Grady McWhiney, “Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat”)
According to one Confederate private, “none of Bragg’s soldiers loved him…He was looked upon as a merciless tyrant…He loved to crush the spirit of men.”
This is the icon that DeSantis and Pence hope to elevate in their battle against political correctness?
Several southern states, in their rationale for secession, wrote a “Declaration of Causes.” In Mississippi, “our position is thoroughly identified with the position of slavery…a blow to slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.” In Texas, “the servitude of the African American race, as existing in these States…is abundantly authorized and justified by the existence of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator and recognized by all Christian nations.”
Bragg was fighting (albeit poorly) for these states, for the Confederacy, for white supremacy. Pence’s and DeSantis’ plan to restore the Bragg name as part of their attacks on political correctness and “wokeness” is simply thinly disguised white nationalism.
Bragg is not an iconic name to be venerated. While a rose by any other word would smell as sweet, here it just reeks.
In naming the base Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army seeks to be more welcoming to Black service members. That is not political correctness. That is how our country should be, full stop. DeSantis’ and Pence’s words are a telling warning that they have no compunctions demonizing political correctness and glorifying an incompetent, racist historical figure in their push to retain conservative white power over an increasingly diverse, multi-hued United States of America.
Deborah DiMicco lives in Newtown Borough.
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