White nationalists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend against the removal of Confederate statues in public spaces. White nationalists attacked counter-protesters on Friday night, punching and kicking them and (reportedly) pepper-spraying them. One counter-protester was killed and several were injured when a car rammed into them after accelerating for over a block.
President Trump blamed both sides.
–Dara Lind
Donald Trump Refuses to Name the Problem of White Supremacist Violence
Image cropped from one at WhiteHouse.gov. Should be in the public domain but might be licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Brian Beutler went further this morning. He noted the connection between the president saying “cherish our history” and the ostensible reason for the Nazi rally, the proposed removal of a Lee statue. In effect, Trump sided with the Nazis.
I don’t know if Trump is a racist (he certainly believes in his own genetic superiority) or just a bully who admires all other bullies. I don’t care. The fact is his rise has emboldened the thugs among us. The people who want to be cruel and vile, for whatever twisted reasons, and feel unfairly stifled by the demands of common courtesy — what they label “political correctness.” My last boss gleefully said shit that would get you thrown out of a decent bar, much less a family restaurant. He feels his time has come. And in Trump, it has.
Yeah, I read the Beutler article. There’s no doubt that Trump was siding with the racists. And it is because he’s a racist. Consider just two points. First: the way he managed his father’s real estate. It was patently racist. Second: The Central Park Five. Even after DNA evidence exonerated them, he can’t relent. But his newspaper ad was totally racist. Do you think for a minute that he would have done the same thing if they had been white with blond hair and blue eyes?