American ingenuity

It turns out that many, if not most of the "beautiful" statues and monuments Cheeto Jesus is worried about were mass produced, mostly by northern manufacturers just in time for the Jim Crow south to disenfranchise and continue the oppression of the black population.  A manufacturer in Bridgeport, Connecticut advertised a "silent sentinel" soldier statue in a zinc alloy for $450.00 .  they had a Union and Confederate version and could get one erected at the village green or courthouse in a matter of weeks from ordering.  Larger monuments like the General Lee at the center of the Charlottesville controversy took a few months longer, but were far cheaper than a marble or stone statue would have been.  As a matter of fact, the creator of the Lee statue was a native of the North Country and a contemporary of Frederic Remington.  tRump loves him some Remington, so I guess there is a tenuous connection of these statues to art.  Nevertheless, as always, Americans are ready to profit from any cause, lost or not.