The outrage began with the calls for removal of the Confederate Flag and exploded to assaults on John Calhoun, Woodrow Wilson, and most recently on Thomas Jefferson. My purpose here is not necessarily to defend the merits of these individuals, as I find some more deserving of recognition than others. Rather I argue that the protests calling for the removal of affiliations with these historical characters or movements very closely resembles mob rule, and that these protests are founded on the snare of “historical presentism” whereby one applies contemporary moral judgments and worldviews to those of the past.

James Madison’s fears of mob rule and majoritarianism is a well explored topic. Suffice it to say that in Federalist 10, he wrote to the citizens of New York that “measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force…