Confederate statues should NOT have been up in the 1st place

but they are

I don't disagree. But they are there, so move on.

I'm not for putting up additional statues, but when you start tearing down stuff that maybe shouldn't have been built in the first place, it's hard to stop.

I downvoted even though you may be correct.

However, people shouldn't be surprised that other people wanted to memorialize their dead.

Not mad about them at all.

To be honest growing up in NOLA, I never gave them a second thought.

Couldn't care less.

But I'm open minded enough to see how they could be seen as offensive to a lot of people.

Now MAGA

Statues erected by democrats.

Now part of history.

Some such as the Obilisk in New Orleans should have been removed.

Others such as Lee were purely historical. Lee did not fight for or against slavery. He fought for his home state of Virginia.

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the Confederate statues were put up to give the finger to the US gov't;

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I don't understand how this isn't obvious. People clinging to the Confederacy for the sake of heritage, are likely the same that criticize immigrants for failing to assimilate in the US.

Lincoln's post civil war theory or plan of Reconstruction was instituted by Johnson.

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-the Confederate statues were put up to give the finger to the US gov't;

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Meh - there was a degree of reconciliation going on. Obviously, Longstreet tried, but was vilified by the Lost Causers. Lee spoke out on it. Beauregard and even Forrest participated in it.

There is a certain sentiment of a "worthy foe" - and as I've discussed before, many of the Lost Causers (who did win the late 19th Century war of ideas in the South) assuaged their wounded pride the "we fought the good fight" - which the victors were more than happy to accommodate. They knew they would need Southern manpower for agriculture and future conflicts.

The South held up their end of the bargain, becoming some of the most patriotic citizens, most productive farmers and most reliable recruiting base for military volunteers in Earth's history in the intervening 150 years.

But, yeah, go ahead and continue to endorse that Confederate monuments and memorials are 100% racist, oppressive and treasonous in intent. I don't dispute that white supremacists and neo-Nazis have glommed onto the symbology, but the South extant cannot be blamed for that, IMHO.

Another way I am looking at the situation is this: whether or not you agree with a Confederate statue, in a lot of cases the statues themselves have become historical items - part of the landscape of the city. I would not have had as big of an issue with their removal if it had been put of to a vote, and not this nighttime cloak and dagger crap.