Video: Virginia House Committee Rejects Bill to Allow Localities Authority to Move Confederate Monuments

This morning, the Virginia House of Delegates Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns voted 6-2 to reject Del. Mark Levine’s HB 1097, which would allow localities to “relocate [monuments or memorials] to a museum of the locality’s choice.” Del. Levine quoted William Faulkner (see below for video) that “the past is never dead; it’s not even past,” while pointing out that in the 2017 gubernatorial election, all three candidates — Republican Ed Gillespie, Democrat Ralph Northam and Libertarian Cliff Hyra — stated that they believed localities should be able to make these decisions. Despite that seeming bipartisan (tripartisan?) agreement, the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns voted earlier today NOT to allow localities a bit of autonomy in this matter. Among other things, this demonstrates yet again that Republicans are NOT the champions they claim to be of preferring government closest to the people. (except, of course, when they don’t want to fully comply with Democratic legislation like the Affordable Care Act or important environmental measures or voting rights or whatever)