Questions and Answers in the Aftermath of Charlottesville

One sentence stands out as a unifying principle in the aftermath of a bleak weekend in Charlottesville. After that, everything devolves into the pandering and posturing which are the daily din of the current age. So here’s that statement, and a Q and A flowing therefrom:

The intentional vehicular murder of protesters Saturday was an act of domestic terrorism, seemingly motivated by supremacist hate. Such acts need to be identified as such by every American, starting with the President of the United States.

Q: If that’s so obvious, why didn’t President Trump dwell at length on the racist/supremacist/Nazi flavor of that violence? Is it because he secretly harbors those views, or basks in the welcome support of those who do?

A: No. It is because he knows his haters stood ready to beat his brains in if he didn’t exude precisely the right flavor of revulsion, not just toward violent racists, but toward the ill-defined “alt-right,” or portions of his own staff who have been conflated into supremacist, even Nazi status by the left. His calculation was to deliver broad criticisms of bigotry and hate, which could be criticized by no one, thus driving his most inflamed critics crazy.

A: Not well, due to one problem: Basic human decency, as well as proper presidential decorum, required a calling-out, by name, of precisely the ideology that led to the murder of Heather Heyer. This was a particularly glaring omission from a President who spends a lot of time (rightfully) busting the chops of anyone reticent to identify radical Islamic terrorism by name. Other Republicans did it effortlessly; they should have been led by the President of their party.

Q: So did critics go after him with skill and precision?

A: Of course not. Democrats in particular overplayed their hand exponentially, suggesting Trump has a Klan base he wishes to satisfy, and a racist heart he wishes to conceal.

Q: But isn’t it problematic that a portion of the Trump base harbors those poisonous views?

A: Of course. Every politician would love to be supported by nothing but virtuous souls. But Republican voter rolls will contain the occasional racist, just as Democrat voter rolls will contain the occasional Communist and a bevy of violent radicals they rarely distance from at all.

Q: So is Charlottesville evidence of a growing wave of active racism rearing its head, energized by Trump?

A: Hardly. Most of the protests taking place at confederate monuments around America are not foremost about race. They are a response to the voices who seek to erase every vestige of the Confederacy as if failure to do so equates to wistful nostalgia for slavery. If a black man walked into a crowd at a Robert E. Lee statue and said, “I’m no fan of this guy, but I don’t think we should erase every Southern monument,” he’d be met with handshakes.

Q: So are there non-racist reasons to support leaving the monuments alone?

A: Of course there are. Most of the people arguing against their removal do not wish the South had won the Civil War.

Q: But if the monuments are becoming a rallying point for actual Nazis and supremacists, isn’t that a reason to dismantle them?

A: This was a point made by National Review’s Rich Lowry and others, and it is highly regrettable. You don’t let a sliver of idiots determine public policy on monuments, or anything else. If a broad and thoughtful debate leads to the removal or relocation of some statue or another, that’s one thing; knee-jerk haste is another.

Q: “A sliver?” How widespread are the people who embody the actual racism and virulence on display in Charlottesville?

A: A tiny minority, and it continues to shrink. An unfortunate by-product of the Trump ascendancy is that the micro-culture of ugliness within his base feels a spark of energy of late, bringing them out of the caves into which they had been chased in recent decades. This is how you get idiots like David Duke on video talking about the Charlottesville protests as “fulfilling the promise of Donald Trump.” (After the President’s Saturday condemnation of bigotry, Duke lashed out at Trump for “attacking” the original protesters.)

Q: So what’s the best thing President Trump can do now?

A: Show up a little late with what he should have shown up with at the outset—a specific rebuke to racists, and a clear statement that while some of them may support him, it does not mean he supports them.

Q: And what’s the best lesson for the nation?

A: That while our society’s racial enlightenment has been a remarkable journey, not everyone has traveled that path. When real hate is discovered, there should be no delay in identifying it and denouncing it by name.

But we should also be aware that the vast majority of Americans have long displayed exactly that behavior, and there are Trump-haters afoot, trying to paint him (and thus his millions of voters) as partners in that vile intolerance. This cheap political opportunism must also be resisted at every turn.

This event was staged with 2 leftist groups attacking each other. NAZI's are socialists, as is the Antifa group and BLM

That's exactly right. The answer is Trump's: reject violence.

WELL IT APPEARS WE'RE GOING TO WAR

Not in my county. We have no BLM, no KKK, etc. Not going to happen. Of course the outsiders might try to make it happen.

And that outcome could be avoided by Trump instructing Sessions to do his job. Crush these Antifa types without mercy. Prosecute them, send in the 82nd, whatever but they have to be crushed.

he set back the cause of peaceful coexistence between people of different races for decades.

He definitely tried. But there are blacks marching under confederate flags too (civil war reenactments). The lesson from history is that the PTB are always eager to start wars.

But much like Trump's peace-through-strength strategy with NK, we can demonstrate peace through political strength.

Prosecute them, send in the 82nd, whatever but they have to be crushed.

Rule of law: if someone brings a bat to a peaceful protest they need to be locked up. If they show up without weapons to counterprotest, then they need to be protected from violence (e.g. some idiot with a car). It's very simple, either rule of law, or rule of the jungle. Trump always wisely chooses the rule of law.

That's also the reason he doesn't perp walk Hillary. If there's a crime there it will get prosecuted properly and quietly sooner or later.

All this talk about the RESULT...nothing in the CAUSE. What caused this? The damned Democrats in the Charlottesville city council caused it by voting to remove a statue of Robert E Lee and changing the Confederate name of a park. This CAUSED the problem.

The Democrats erected those statues and named those parks, and now these are a tangible sign of THEIR DIRECT LINK to their support of slavery. So they must eliminate these to revise history to disassociate themselves from their participation in slavery, the KKK, etc. what we are seeing is DEMOCRAT judges and city groups eliminating THEIR links this sordid past.

The Confederate memorabilia are reminders of our our nation's VICTORY over that part of our past. Eliminating them hides the victory. History is TRUTH, revision of history is a LIE!

The Confederate memorabilia are reminders of our our nation's VICTORY over that part of our past. Eliminating them hides the victory. History is TRUTH, revision of history is a LIE!

Removing, destroying these reminders of our past by the left is as evil as ISIS destroying monuments in the middle east.

Yeah, well Obama gave Hillary control over a chunk of the deep state. Her underlings were all granted immunity by Comey. There's nobody following the law that can do much about that immediately. Also her husband will never be prosecuted for sending hi tech to China, because there's a certain amount of automatic political deference to former presidents. (they will remove that rule for Trump)

However my belief is that the corruption in DOJ/FBI and some deep state problems can be slowly fixed, one quiet promotion at a time (the only way to get rid of some people is up). Or reorg their org into some meaningless org. But that's slow, no silver bullets.

It's an op-ed, not a News report.

Do you know what a op-ed is?

The op stands for opinion The author wrote his opinion about the events in Charlottesville, to which you can agree or disagree.

And meanwhile the streets aren’t safe for people who support Trump. In some things patience is a virtue but I suspect in others it may very well be a vice. Tolerance of evil breeds evil and right now the perception is that a whole lot of evil is being tolerated. My patience is about at an end.

I'm an open Trump supporter and work in leftist land (Arlington/Alexandria VA). I got a little harassment after the election but not much since. Can't bother worry about someone scratching up my car, although I would worry about being assaulted. But it hasn't happened.

I believe in peace through strength and being open in my support is my message of strength.

A: Because Trump is not 0bama, and 0bama would run his mouth before the facts are revealed, making everything worse.
Also, the Civil Lawsuits are going to be dropped (Celino&Barnes, injury attorneys, $$$$$what’s your case worth$$$$)
Best to stay above that fray and not be accused of tilting the scales of Justice

I've taken the CCW class (mandatory in VA) and practiced a little. But I have not gotten enough practice to get the CCW and carry. It is on my to-do list. The main thing I learned from the class is that deterrence comes from being properly trained and prepared. The deterrence value goes up as more people carry. The number of actual uses of a weapon is not really relevant.

I think more people wearing MAGA hats is also deterrence, but I can see arguments either way depending on location and circumstances.

The author cannot be bothered to question the premise of the news coverage - no matter how many instances of anti-right bias have been identified in the past.

There are more facts that need discovery, but the author appears to be willing to accept the narrative at face value. That is a failed analysis.

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