Charlottesville

I've been asked to comment on the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia.  

Charlottesville shows the Confederate element in the South is still alive and kicking. It's the foundation of their conservatism and why they went Republican and have stayed that way.


Trump's statement saying there was over zealousness on both sides was despicable in putting those demonstrating for love and acceptance on a par with the violence and hate spewed by Nazis, Klansmen and Confederate flag-waving racists.

This is what he said:  "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time."

See reaction to Trump's statement here. Even Republicans like Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio castigated him for not decrying the hatred and violence of these intrinsically malevolent hate groups. These groups paraded down the street carrying the flags of entities that killed over a million Americans in the Civil War and World War II based on the execrable principle of racial supremacy. They chanted anti-Semitic and racial slurs. Some wore Klan robes. Many wore red "Make America Great Again" hats and chanted Trump's name. Many gave the Nazi salute. They attacked peaceful counter demonstrators. They even killed one woman. There are not "sides" here. There is decency and there is evil.


The neo-Nazi Daily Stormer praised Trump's statement for not criticizing them at all. My view is that Trump's campaign emboldened these elements and brought them out into the open. Trump's statement is clear evidence he doesn't want to offend his base, and he knows exactly who they are.