Charlottesville
I have spent a lot of time in Charlottesville, first for college and then numerous visits later. It is a lovely city, home to a fine university that pursues reason in the Enlightenment tradition of its founder. So it was that yesterday, as I saw the still photographs of the violent demonstrations by white supremacists and alt-right thugs in Charlottesville, I let out a convulsive sob. How could this kind of thing be happening in our country, much less in Charlottesville? On the pretext of protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park dedicated to the emancipation of African-American slaves, these hate-mongers slithered out from under their rocks and paraded around as if they were respectable. Something has emboldened this ugliness. That something is Donald Trump.
It is painful to see the thugs in public dressed up in uniforms reminiscent of the fascist past, complete with Nazi emblems. But because of the First Amendment, the polestar of our democracy, this kind of thing is lawful as a form of protected speech. That has been the law of the land since at least 1977 when the American Nazi Party was granted a parade permit in Skokie Illinois, home to a large number of Holocaust survivors. We have decided as a nation that freedom of expression, particularly of political matters, carries a higher value than the pain that speech may cause to listeners. In this we are unique among nations. But we do not have to be silent in the face of hateful speech, thereby letting the haters mistake our silence for our assent. Yet that is precisely what our President did yesterday in his tepid response to the Charlottesville events.
Donald Trump has never made outright statements of support for the alt-right movement, but that movement clearly feels he supports their views. During his campaign he urged supporters to rough-up protesters at his speeches, which promptly happened. He doesn’t need to give the thugs overt support. He gives them a wink and a nod — which they recognize. Former KKK leader David Duke, who was in Charlottesville said at a rally that the events there were to “fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” to take back America. Take it back from whom? You guessed it — African-Americans, Jews, Muslims and immigrants.
On the day it occurred, Trump made a brief live statement condemning the violence but not calling out the white supremacists and alt-right fascists who caused it: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. Many sides.” Trump can be very specific when he wants to criticize someone or something. In this statement he pulled his punches. Where was the specific condemnation of the movement whose fundamental mission is the spread of hatred and bigotry? The alt-right surely must see this as a public relations success. One alt-right demonstrator interviewed by an Atlantic magazine reporter called the Charlottesville events “a tremendous victory.”
Two days after the horrific events in Charlottesville, under tremendous pressure, Trump finally specifically mentioned white supremacists and neo-Nazis. But many consider this too little too late. Writing in the Washington Post on August 14, Alexandra Petri remarked:
Here we are in the year of our lord 2017 and the president of the United States lacks the moral courage to condemn Nazis and white supremacists. And they are not even making it difficult. They are saluting like Nazis and waving Nazi flags and chanting like Nazis and spewing hatred like Nazis.
Donald Trump did not at first specifically condemn the white supremacists and alt-right haters because he sees them as political allies. It is as simple as that. This man — our President — has no commitment to what is morally right rather than politically expedient. It is hard to imagine a less presidential statement when the country needed our leader to stand up to bigotry and hatred. He allowed a false moral equivalency to be created between the two sides of the conflict. But, as Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor at Large, pointed out this morning:
both sides don’t scream racists and anti-Semitic things at people with whom they disagree. They don’t base a belief system on the superiority of one race over others. They don’t get into fistfights with people who don’t see things their way.
This is a sad moment in our country. Not only do we have the death of one innocent person and injuries to others in Charlottesville to mourn. We have the revival of the alt-right knuckle-draggers to fear. We have a further debasement of civility and our social fabric, which we cannot afford. And, if we needed further proof, we have a President who is morally bankrupt.
