#Let the city vote on Teddy Roosevelt

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The board of directors of the Museum of Natural History have decided to remove the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt which had been the target of vandalism as recently as October 2017.
Robert Miller

The board of directors of the Museum of Natural History, who I imagine run the ideological gamut from super-woke to ultra-woke, have resolved to remove the statue of President Theodore Roosevelt outside that institution; Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio agree.

I fully understand that the museum is a private institution. Still, I think the fracas offers a useful test case — and an opportunity for a compromise in the statue wars: Why not hold a referendum in November and let the people of Gotham decide whether the statue should stay or go?

After all, it’s New Yorkers who enjoy the sight of the statue — or maybe are deeply offended by it. Why not find out how large each group is? The equestrian depiction — Roosevelt on horseback flanked by the proud-but-not-horse-riding figures of a Native American and an African — is public art. Why not give that public a say before banishing it?

The board’s assumption is that vast swaths of New Yorkers feel offended, even threatened, by the statue. But do we know if that’s, in fact, true? While the statue’s supposedly problematic nature has been discussed for some time, it has never been some enormous point of contention in the Big Apple.

I’m willing to bet good money that the not-offended would far outnumber the offended. And there is a reason why. It’s the same reason that statues all over the country are removed by arts councils or mobs — but not by referenda. Consider polling on Con­federate statues. A HuffPo/YouGov poll recently put approval of removing them at 33 percent. A Quinnipiac poll came in higher, at 52 percent.

Majority support is narrow to nonexistent for removing memorials to men who literally betrayed America to maintain slavery. It’s that much less likely, then, that a majority of New Yorkers would support removing Roosevelt, a progressive champion.

But we won’t have a referendum. The far-left, mostly white elites who make these institutional decisions know that their views don’t represent those of most New Yorkers or Americans.

The members of this “expert” class are sure they know what is best for those of us without advanced degrees, whatever our race. To hold a debate and vote over the statue would be anathema to their goal of protecting us from dangerous statues, images and ideas.

I offer this challenge directly to the board and the city: Hold a referendum. Maybe you win, and the statue takes a dirt nap. But if you lose, not only should the statue stay, but the wokesters intent on destroying history will know they don’t represent the people’s will. The mobs tearing down so many statues across America would be sent the same message.

Teddy, of all people, is no stranger to testing the popular will. He would win this election, as he did so many in his lifetime. And that’s because New Yorkers are fair-minded people who can hold several complicated thoughts in their minds at once. They can celebrate Teddy’s achievements — national parks high among them — while deploring his warmongering side. And they can appreciate that a statue built three generations ago may not reflect precisely today’s racial sensitivities.

Would an artist today make the statue the same way? Probably not. Does that mean it should be stolen away by elites to protect naïve eyes? Absolutely not.

The American people aren’t stupid. We don’t look at statues of men and women from the past and say, Homer Simpson-like, “If they have a statue they must have been perfect.”

The progressive elite know they can’t win a fair debate about statues or over how to teach kids about American history; they try to ban “Gone With the Wind” on HBO, and it surges to No. 1 in Amazon sales. They know they will lose. That leaves only one option: silence the other side and pretend that they must decide for all of us, lest we resist their cultural Marxism.

But this is America. This is New York, goddammit. Let’s have a vote. Let the people decide.

David Marcus is The Federalist’s New York correspondent. Twitter: @BlueBoxDave