My political posts are getting a lot of views these days, with literally hundreds of comments. When I posted about our protest of the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas, where more than 20 Confederate battle flags are flown, a number of commenters disparaged me and my fellow protesters as damn and dumb Democrats.

Conspicuously displayed Neo-Confederate may be a Dem-v-Rep issue in other places. But in Orange, that’s impossible: the district is overwhelmingly Republican. In 2024, more than 80 percent of voters supported Trump. I hate to break it to my detractors, it’s one of the rubiest red places in the country.

And yet, the City of Orange vehemently and aggressively opposed the memorial’s construction in the years leading up to its unveiling.

The town’s Republican-controlled municipal government swiftly passed a law limiting the height of new flag poles (the Sons of Confederate Veterans planned for the flags to be visible from the interstate). They also made it abundantly clear to the Sons that they would not be able to hold a public event at the site because it lacks disabled parking.

I’ve personally spoken to a number of city leaders, all of them Republican, who have expressed their opposition to the site. Whether they oppose it for moral or practical reasons may be up for debate. But they all agree that this racist eyesore counters the winning narrative that Orange is returning to its glory days as a major industrial hub (Chevron just opened a sprawling new refinery there).

The best news: the City of Orange has greenlighted a $50 million mall to be erected at the same corner of MLK Dr. (yes, MLK Dr.!) where the monument stands. I can’t imagine Republican business leaders won’t want this albatross to scare people off. The memorial is in decline, with many of the flags badly damaged. Nearly a decade after it was inaugurated, the old white men who built it are now in their 80s. (The old geezer who manages the site goes to our family’s church and I see him every year at Easter in the pews.)

There is a season… turn, turn, turn.