I submit the more important factor is the fact that "the other party" consistently got more votes and that is the real problem. It is the people. The statues have been up for 100 years or so and in that time a majority wanted them left up. That's a people problem. In many ways, we are the evil of the world that is properly represented by Trump and the Republican Party. While it is more comfortable to blame "gerrymandering" and "voter suppression" and various other "dirty tricks", the fact remains that it is We, the People of the United States who are in large measure what's wrong with the country.
A handful of years before he died, I was driving my father to the VA in Asheville. It's a lovely part of the country and he loved it. But less so as he aged. He was looking out the window at his beloved mountains and after a while he said, "This is such lovely country." I replied, "Yes, it is." Then he said, "It's too bad the people fuck it up so horribly." That's as true today as it was when he said it.
A handful of years before he died, I was driving my father to the VA in Asheville. It's a lovely part of the country and he loved it. But less so as he aged. He was looking out the window at his beloved mountains and after a while he said, "This is such lovely country." I replied, "Yes, it is." Then he said, "It's too bad the people fuck it up so horribly." That's as true today as it was when he said it.