"It's the latest and dumbest chapter of the assumption of the figure of Columbus into the right-vs-left American culture war, in which the reactive American right has been compelled to champion and obsess over the historical and cultural validity of an Italian explorer born in 1451, who never even physically set foot on the land that would become the continental U.S.A., because the left dared to add context to the historical record."
"Once upon a time, a President announcing the commissioning of a statue of a 15th century explorer would have been the kind of thing received with shrugs and head scratches by the Americans he purports to serve, as they immediately discard that information, given that it doesn't materially affect them in any way. Today, though? Well buckle up, America: Your woes will soon be a thing of the past, because the beneficent President Donald Trump is gifting you with the ultimate panacea,"
Donald Trump announced placement of a large Christopher Columbus statue next to the White House as a high-profile political gesture aimed at pleasing his base. The statue reportedly reconstructs a monument that previously stood in Baltimore harbor. The move intensified the right-versus-left culture war over Columbus, pushing the reactive American right to defend his historical and cultural status. Columbus, an Italian born in 1451, never set foot on the continental United States; his four voyages beginning in 1492 reached Caribbean islands and coastal Central and South America. Columbus died believing he had reached the East Indies and was deeply mistaken about geography.
Read at Jezebel
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