Here’s the question plenty of people have been wrestling with. We’re tearing down statues, monuments and plaques left and right these days, but what’s going to replace them? Few older icons are safe from the chopping block. Even George Washington is getting flushed out of one church for making people feel “unsafe” inside. What to do?

Clearly it’s time for some fresh blood and a new approach. Perhaps some more “regional” heroes could be memorialized in each city. Never fear, citizens. The District of Columbia is leading the way. If all goes as planned, there will soon be a new statue there commemorating the glorious reign of none other than former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. (American Thinker)

What a glorious reflection of heroism on our fair capital city. Coming at the time when statues and plaques of Robert E. Lee are being taken down, erecting a new statue to the crack-smoking, whore-mongering, tax-cheating mayor certainly is the embodiment of “progressives” and their values. Presumably, the plaque will memorialize Barry’s most famous quotable line: “B—- set me up!”

Frankly, it defies belief. Barry was the emblem of the crime-plagued shambles the capital city became as the Democratic mayor beginning in the late 1970s and extending through the 1990s. He started out as the first emblem of the civil rights movement to be elected to the city’s highest office and was given quite a pass for his failings as mayor because of it. The city turned into a one-party state, and from there, the blight followed. Barry himself was caught smoking crack cocaine with a woman not his wife, and when he was caught, he became forever famous for his candid-camera hollering: “B—- set me up!” Then he went to the can.

On some level I can understand the need to celebrate someone who might stand out as a model of redemption. The fallen sinner turns his life around, makes good and gives back to the community. But even if that’s where we’re setting the bar, is Marion Barry that role model? As noted in the linked article, even after getting out of prison on the drug and corruption charges, Barry didn’t exactly cover himself in glory. He returned to public service in various offices, but he wound up trashing the city’s budget, later getting in trouble on charges ranging from tax evasion to stalking.

And yet the locals kept on electing him over and over. They had more trouble quitting Marion Barry than that cowboy did in Brokeback Mountain. Still, I remain as gobsmacked as the author over at the American Thinker was. We’re not supposed to have reminders of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Columbus, but this guy gets a statue in our nation’s capital?

According to WMAL, it’s all true.

Vince Gray, the councilmember for Ward 7 and former Mayor of DC, said he expects the council vote to be unanimous in favor of installing the statue. “It’s the right thing to do,” Gray said.

I just don’t know anymore. Maybe this whole democracy thing was oversold to begin with.