(Washington Insider Magazine) -Over the past several years, Columbus Day has become increasingly polarizing, especially among those on the left. Progressive Americans have argued that Christopher Columbus’s legacy largely consists of oppression and exploitation. As a result, they have pushed for Indigenous Peoples Day to be celebrated on the day that Americans have traditionally celebrated Columbus Day. Two GOP House Representatives stepped into the midst of this controversy recently when they introduced a resolution in support of Columbus Day, a federally recognized holiday.
Reps. Andrew Garbarino (NY) and Mark Amodei (NV) proposed the measure as an expression of support for Columbus’s “impact on the Italian-American community.” Garbarino went on to explain his support for the holiday in a tweet, writing, “Columbus Day honors not just the contributions and ingenuity of Christopher Columbus, but also of the generations of Italian Americans that followed. It is a day of great pride and celebration for the Italian American community.”
Other members of the GOP have expressed support for the continued celebration of Columbus Day while acknowledging the dark side of European colonialism. Last year, President Trump warned about those who “have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy.” He went on to say, “Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister.” This push for celebrating the best of America’s history while acknowledging and learning from its faults was echoed by Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) who wrote, “I believe America has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world. Do we have our faults? Certainly. Including especially the oppression of Native Americans & our original sin the grotesque evil of slavery. But our IDEALS transformed the world.”
President Biden attempted to walk a similar moderate path this year, issuing presidential proclamations celebrating Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. In his statement, he wrote, “It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them.”
Meanwhile, many on Biden’s left would prefer he put Columbus Day finally to bed. In fact, several progressive cities and states have already pushed for officially replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. In addition, Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) have introduced bills to do the same at the federal level.
