Lauderdale County GOP pushes back against county, city ‘cowardly’ efforts to remove Downtown Florence Confederate statue

As is the case for so many cities around the state of Alabama, the rise of the Black Live Matter movement has many local governments grappling with how to handle monuments dedicated to elements of the Confederacy that occupy public spaces now deemed to be racist or controversial.

Such statues have all gone down in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery, by either a protest-turned-mob or by order of the executive branch of the local government. Plans are in motion for the same to happen in Huntsville, as well.

In the Shoals in northwestern Alabama, Florence Mayor Steve Holt and the Lauderdale County Commission are working on a plan to remove the Confederate monument from the grounds of the Lauderdale County Courthouse. However, a resolution passed by the Lauderdale County Republican Party urged both county and city officials to reconsider removal, which it deemed to be an “illegal” and “cowardly” act.

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As it stands now, when the Lauderdale County Commission meets again on July 13, it is expected to pass a resolution stating no opposition to the City of Florence moving the Confederate monument from the grounds of the courthouse. According to a report from Matt McKean of Florence’s TimesDaily, if successful, Holt will offer a proposal to the Florence City Council at its July 21 meeting to remove the statue from the northeastern corner of the courthouse grounds.

A resolution, passed unanimously by the Lauderdale GOP’s executive committee and signed by Lauderdale County Republican Party chairman Josh Dodd, rejected the effort by county and city officials. It questioned the cost burden and public support for the removal, and cited a “current scientific poll” showing 66% of respondents supporting the keeping the monument and 32% wanting it removed:

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED by the Lauderdale County Republican Party Executive Committee that we stand firmly against the removal of the Confederate Monument from its current public location; that to do so is illegal, should be condemned as a cowardly act on the part of the Lauderdale County Commission, Florence City Council, or any political body which would yield to the current radical Anti-Cultural Revolution without regard to the wishes of the general public; and to do so, ignores the lesson of history that appeasement to the demands of petty tyrants begets Tyranny;

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.