U.S. Sen. Rick Scott burnished his right-wing bona fides Tuesday with a late-afternoon ode to statues of President Andrew Jackson.
Jackson, best known for signing the Indian Removal Act, has been memorialized on statues and in the names of cities throughout the country.
In 2020, the Jacksonian legacy has led to impromptu historical reconsideration by groups of activist citizens, many of whom have taken action against the statues.
These attacks strike Sen. Scott, a first-term Republican from Naples, as erasures of history itself.
A Tuesday afternoon Tweet found the Senator defending monuments against the depredations of “liberal politicians” and “the mob” they enable.
“How are [Washington D.C.] Mayor [Muriel] Bowser and liberal politicians around the country allowing the mob to commit these crimes with impunity? Anarchy is unacceptable,” Scott said.
“We will not tolerate the Left’s continued attempts to erase our history. Where will it end? We need to bring order back to our country.”
Scott was reacting to a slideshow of photos of protesters taking issue with a statue of Jackson in Washington D.C.’s Lafayette Park, posted on the conservative National Review Online.
While the D.C. defacement looms largest in the national consciousness, a city in Northeast Florida likewise is wrestling with lionizing the increasingly problematic historical figure.
Jacksonville’s Andrew Jackson statue continues to be vandalized with red spray paint, a signal that it may be decision time for city leaders regarding the edifice.
“Remember May 28 1830,” Tuesday morning’s paint job read, a reference to the aforementioned Indian Removal Act, a genocidal edict that pushed Native American tribes onto the Trail of Tears, where many who started the journey west died en route.
Scott, a Senator who typically does not stray too far from President Donald Trump, issued these comments in the wake of the President’s vow to defend monuments.
The President promises an Executive Order to reinforce current law prohibiting the defacement of monuments on federal lands.
How are Mayor Bowser and liberal politicians around the country allowing the mob to commit these crimes with impunity?
Anarchy is unacceptable. We will not tolerate the Left’s continued attempts to erase our history. Where will it end? We need to bring order back to our country. https://t.co/5NzSRt8s5g
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) June 23, 2020
