Dave Mason – "We Just Disagree" (1977)

There's only you and me

And we just disagree

We Americans disagree on a lot of things.

But it may surprise you to learn that one of the things we don’t really disagree on is whether statues of Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson and others who fought on the side of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War should be removed.

According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist University poll, 62% of Americans believe statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy should remain as historical symbols, while only 27% believe they should be removed because they are offensive to some people.  (The other 11% are unsure.)

That’s a very wide margin – better than two to one.

Contrary to what you might expect, the numbers are pretty much the same no matter how you slice and dice the poll respondents.

It doesn’t matter much whether you’re a man or a woman, you’re old or young, you live in the South or the Northeast, you make more or less than $50,000 a year, and you graduated from college or you didn’t: the odds are roughly two to one that you oppose the removal of Confederate statues.

According to the NPR/PBS poll, 63% of males, 61% of females, 66% of those aged 60 and older, 60% of those aged 18 to 29, 66% of Southerners, 53% of those who live in the Northeast, 65% of those whose annual income is less than $50,000, 57% of those whose annual income is more than $50,000, 68% of those who didn’t graduate from college, and 54% of those who are college graduates oppose the removal of Confederate statues.  

A mob in Durham, NC, vandalizing
a statue of a Confederate soldier

Only 26% of males, 28% of females, 23% of those aged 60 and older, 30% of those aged 18 to 29, 23% of Southerners, 33% of those who live in the Northeast, 24% of those whose annual income is less than $50,000, 32% of those whose annual income is more than $50,000, 22% of those who didn’t graduate from college, and 34% of those who are college graduates want to get rid of Confederate statues. 

Surprisingly, even a majority of African-Americans support keeping the statues where they are – albeit by a narrow margin (44% to 40%).  

What groups favor tearing down Confederate statues?  Only “strong” Democrats  and those who describe themselves as liberal or very liberal.  It’s no surprise that Republicans and conservatives feel just the opposite – but so do “soft” Democrats and independents and those who call themselves  “moderates.”  (Moderates oppose removal of the statues by an overwhelming 67% to 24% margin.)

Click here if you’d like to see all the poll numbers. 

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Given the broad public support for leaving statues honoring Confederate soldiers alone, why are they  disappearing faster than you can say “Jack Robinson”?

I can’t answer that question.  But the handwriting seems to be on the wall.  

Baltimore workers removing a statue
honoring Confederate women

The real question isn’t whether statues of Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson, and other prominent Confederates are an endangered species – they clearly are – but where we draw the line between which  statues are hidden away and which statues are allowed to remain where they are.

2 or 3 lines is going to explore that question over the next week or two.  If you’ve already made up your mind and don’t want to be confused by the facts, feel free to avert your gaze from my wildly popular little blog until mid-September.

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“We Just Disagree” was the biggest single from Dave Mason’s Let It Flow album, which was released in 1977.  It reached #12 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”

Here’s “We Just Disagree”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: