The White House is one of the most fascinating buildings in the world. It's the seat of power for the most advanced and powerful nation on the planet, but what sets it apart is the fact that this doesn't represent the power of one man, or even one party, but you and me.
The building has been around since the early 1800s and has been the residence of every American president since John Adams. Even from the beginning, additions and changes were being made to it. Thomas Jefferson added terraces and colonnades. After the war of 1812, when the British burned it down, Madison rebuilt it in the neoclassical design. Then, almost 100 years later, Theodore Roosevelt created the West Wing, and 40 years later, Franklin D. Roosevelt added the modern East Wing, including a bomb shelter and underground passage.
After Roosevelt, Truman would gut the entire thing, add a steel frame inside, and a balcony to the South Portico. Jackie Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would go on to add their own changes to the White House.
Now, we get to Donald Trump, who is demolishing the East Wing to replace it with a much larger ballroom. If each change brought about various qualities to the White House, Trump's latest addition isn't out of place. He's adding capacity, and no doubt, a touch of his style, love it or hate it. I do not doubt that after he's gone, other presidents or their spouses will make changes of their own.
The point is, the White House was never some holy artifact that has to be preserved down to every piece of wood and iron. At this point, the White House is like the Ship of Theseus, in that so much of it has been built, replaced, and restructured while still being the White House.
It was always bound to evolve just like our country evolves. It goes through changes, trends, varied economic situations, cultural movements, and technological advancements, all of which create various needs like alterations to security, tech upgrades, and more. Just like a living, breathing population, the people's house is a living, breathing structure that changes with the times.
And it's here that I come to the Democrats and their cherry-picked view of what history is and isn't important.
For instance, I would say that our Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, is a far more important thing to keep intact and preserved, as it serves as the foundation for our entire nation's existence. Yet, Democrats are consistently trying to change it, or at the very least, are always attempting to undermine it.
As Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pointed out, the left has made it a habit of tearing down any statue they can that celebrates American history and the people who played a large part in it. Every blue moon, the left will become indignant about Mt. Rushmore and demand its destruction for all sorts of ridiculous reasons, including the idea that it celebrates "white supremacy" on "stolen land."
All of American history, which the left largely considers terrible and filled with great evils, is fully subject to destruction or change, but remodeling the East Wing goes too far? That's too disrespectful?
As Bonchie wrote on Friday, the Democrats' indignance has no ground to stand on, seeing as how they consistently used the White House with utter disrespect, be it Bill Clinton getting dirty with an intern or the Bidens...er....someone...leaving behind bags of cocaine.
Democrat hypocrisy knows no bounds, and as I wrote on Thursday, this pearl-clutching around the East Wing remodel is, in my opinion, just a distraction from the fact that Democrats are currently holding federal workers hostage through a shutdown that they admit is being carried out because it's the only piece of leverage they have against Republicans right now.
Read: Democrats Are Only Pretending to Care About Trump's Ballroom So You Won't Watch Them Closer
The White House is simply going through its natural course of change, which has been happening since it was first constructed. It will continue to change long after Trump is gone, and may look radically different 100 years from now. As America evolves, so too does the house that represents it. So long as the renovations and changes are respectful and done well, then there should be no problem here.
It certainly wasn't a problem when Democrats were making changes, but as I've said repeatedly, the Democrats' unofficial motto is "It's okay when we do it."
