The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a Republican amendment to restore Arlington National Cemetery’s Confederate monument. The century-old monument, removed in December, depicts an enslaved black “mammy” holding a white officer’s young child while an enslaved black man follows the officer to war. The monument references the “Lost Cause,” a Civil War-era myth favored by Confederate apologists.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), did not pass, but it had very strong support in the House Republican Conference: 24 Republicans voted against restoring the monument, while 192 voted in favor, roughly 89 percent of Republicans who voted.
That’s significantly more Republican support for Confederate symbols than seen in the past decade.
Following the tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015, not only did then-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R) move to remove the Confederate flag in the state, but the House of Representatives also quickly voted on whether to remove the flag from federal cemeteries. In 2016, 84 House Republicans voted in favor of the proposal.
Following Floyd’s murder, congressional Democrats sought to remove the Confederate statue from the Capitol, a proposal they combined with an attempt to replace the Capitol with a bust of Roger B. Taney, creator of the infamous “Confederate Statue.” Dred Scott The Supreme Court decision that allowed slavery to continue. It features a bust of the first black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall. It was supported by 72 Republican members of the House of Representatives in 2020 and 67 in 2021.
(The Republican-controlled Senate did not take up the proposal either time. The Taney-to-Marshall replacement ultimately passed by oral vote in both chambers and was signed into law by President Biden in 2022 after the section about Confederate statues was removed from the proposal.)
There was also major conflict over these issues in the final days of President Donald Trump’s term, when he vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act.
President Trump vetoed the bill because it included a plan to remove Confederate names from Department of Defense property, including military bases. Both houses ultimately overwhelmingly overrode the veto just before January 6, 2021. Although the vote did not specifically relate to the Confederate proposal, 109 Republicans in the House did not toe the line of President Trump and voted to override the veto.
The latest vote is also significant in that it was Republican leaders who voted in favor of the Confederate symbol.
In 2016, then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and other Republican leaders allowed a vote over the objections of many lawmakers. Ryan, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) all voted in favor of removing the Confederate flag from some federal cemeteries.
Senators McCarthy and Scalise also voted to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol after Floyd’s murder. Senator McCarthy explained the move by saying, “All the statues that are being removed under this bill are Democratic statues.” (The South was dominated by Democrats during the Civil War, but is now overwhelmingly Republican.)
But among those who voted Thursday in favor of restoring Arlington’s Confederate monument were every top House Republican, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Rep. Scalise, who currently serves as House Majority Leader.
These votes dealt with different cases, so they are difficult to compare directly: Republicans who thought the Confederate flag was inappropriate in a federal cemetery, or that Confederate leaders should not be memorialized in the capitol of an enemy nation, might feel differently about Arlington’s Confederate monument.
Supporters of the monument have touted it as a symbol of reconciliation and unity after the Civil War, not a glorification of the Confederacy. They call it a “reconciliation monument.” Clyde never said the words “Confederate” or “Confederate States” during his speech in support of the amendment on Thursday.
“Let’s come together in opposition to the destruction of history,” Clyde said. “Let’s fight for the causes of healing and unity, which is exactly what this memorial was built for.” (For more on the history of the memorial, click here.)
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) responded: “The monument in question is a basic paean to the Confederacy, intended to glorify the Lost Cause.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., pledged Friday to make sure voters know about the GOP’s “shameful” vote ahead of the 2024 election.
Whatever its merits, it’s hard to separate this vote from the Republican Party’s growing intransigence on racial issues under Trump, a trend perhaps best embodied in the party’s growing opposition to diversity policies.
Party leaders have clearly been worried about such votes and the impression they give on Confederate issues for the past decade, and on Thursday the party not only brought them upon itself, but decided to stop worrying about them.
