Did anyone see the full clip? Duckworth was asked in an interview whether or not statues of George Washington should be taken down, and her answer was "We should have a conversation about that." Aside from the fact that this is my most-hated political platitude, how f**king hard is it for Democrats to say "Hey, there's a difference between a person who became critical of slavery later in life and freed his slaves upon his death, and a person who actively fought for the preservation of slavery"?? And maybe there's also a distinction to be made based on the fact that George Washington had, you know, a few notable accomplishments in his life outside of fighting for slavery-- something the Confederates can't say for themselves?
I used to like Duckworth; I thought she was a decent Democrat and a good VP choice for Biden. But this is an unforced error that is clearly the result of influence from the internet activist left. Either Duckworth actually believes that #cancelling Washington is worth discussing, or she is too scared of reprisal from dumb millennial Twitter twits to actually speak her mind. Either way, this whole thing is disheartening and it has made me lose even more faith in the Democratic Party's ability to restrain its worst elements.
