Pitts: DeSantis, Pence idea to bring back Bragg name just dumb

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis appeared at the N.C. Republican Party convention on Friday and declared he would undo the name change for Fort Liberty.

He said he looked forward to restoring the name Fort Bragg — and drew loud applause from the delegates in Greensboro.

A day later, Mike Pence, former vice president and another candidate, said he, too, supported changing the name back to Bragg — after Confederate general Braxton Bragg.

I am a native of Fayetteville, home of Fort Liberty. I could only sigh at these two candidates’ political pandering.

But let’s talk about how dumb their idea really is.

Both Pence and DeSantis, the Florida governor, know the U.S. president cannot wave a wand and change Fort Liberty back to Bragg.

Bragg’s name change was not done in isolation. It is one of nine Army installations that shed their Confederate names as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, aka the defense bill. It is the law, passed by a bipartisan vote of Congress and signed by Donald Trump.

U.S. Congress would have to vote to change these names back — and that is not happening. Congress promises to be closely divided after the smoke clears in 2024, whichever party comes out with the majority. A House majority for backing the Confederate names would be a tough stretch; 60 votes in a divided Senate would be next to impossible.

Why? Because there is no real constituency in Washington to offer visible support to Confederates and the racism associated with them, most especially the immoral institution of chattel slavery.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts pushed for the renaming of bases and other military assets in 2020, as the country was still navigating the fallout from the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis, Minnesota cop Derek Chauvin.

Since that time, Fayetteville and Fort Bragg have journeyed through a long and public process of deciding on new names, with community conversations among diverse groups of people. Neither DeSantis nor Pence were part of those conversations, far as I know. A similar process played out at installations in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia.

Of course, not everyone is happy. I personally wanted to see the post named for one of our many heroes. Other people around here vow they will call it Bragg until their dying day.

But now it is done. Reigniting debate is a path to a lot of anger, for absolutely no gain at all.

More: 'Part of this tradition': Sunset march ties Fort Bragg's past to Fort Liberty's future

More: Fort Bragg officially becomes Fort Liberty as post breaks ties with Confederacy

A hard-right tone in Greensboro

More troubling is the hearty ovation DeSantis received for his dumb idea from delegates at the convention. Why were people in the year 2023 cheering rolling the post name back to a regime that fought against our country and on behalf of slavery? That convention moment may not have been intentionally racist on all hands, but it wasn’t the stuff of King’s dream, I will tell you that.

The moment was however in keeping with the apparently hard-right tone of the festivities in Greensboro. Trump, fresh from his 37-count federal indictment, appeared on Saturday, too, to take shots at his long list of enemies. At the event, Trump told Mark Robinson, the state's staunchly anti-LGBTQ lieutenant governor, that he would endorse him in the governor’s race — but not yet.

For a cherry on top, the state Republican Party censured Thom Tillis, one of two GOP U.S. senators, because of his occasional lapses of bipartisanship.

Channeling Trump

The whole scene showed why DeSantis and Pence felt the need to dredge up the Fort Bragg issue.

They were trying their best to channel Trump to appeal to his MAGA voters. After all, Trump also claimed to support the rebel base names and vowed to protect the names — before he, months later, signed them out of existence with his executive pen.

For DeSantis and Pence to want to reopen wounds solely so they can toss out red meat — meat that is well past its sell-by date — I don’t have a lot of regard.

Even if I know they are just playing a game of pretend.

Myron Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: In time for Juneteenth: DeSantis Pence want Confederate base name restored