It is both motivating and distressing to have things one cares about under attack. Motivating because it provides a real purpose for writing to challenge the senseless destruction of art and history. Distressing because those who advocate for it seem to be winning. Most disturbing is that many important voices are missing.

Where are the leading Republicans or conservatives arguing that the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery is off limits? Fox News covers Kid Rock’s campaign to save an antebellum mansion that a country music star once owned but has little if any coverage on The Naming Commission or Moses Ezekiel’s art. Is it that they have ceded the definition of the Confederacy to those who hate it? Is it too hot to handle?

If that is the case, they are not as smart as they would like us to think. These conservatives and Republicans have no courage either. They do not realize that by not defending Southern history they are implying that the Confederate States of America had nothing right. The truth is that the Confederacy represented some values that are deeply American which will likely be lost if things continue as they are. Here are some things the South stood for that are worth preserving:

• The notion that states are powerful and that power erodes over time if it is not exerted.

• A strong central government is something to be wary of and unchecked it robs us of rights.

• The Constitution is clear about what power the states allocated to the central government.

These items represent a political view that existed at the founding. There were those for and against a strong central government. It was contentious. Now we almost accept that the Federal government is supreme in all things. Even a cursory look at history shows that this was not always the case. Lose the Southern history of the United States and we lose much of the intellectual foundation of American conservatism.