Make America grate again?

Hate groups from neo-Nazis to KKK members. (Photo by Alan Smason)

The hate coming out of Charlottesville is regrettable. But the levels of incitement and violence have proven to be far more concerning from the voices of the alt-right, fascists, neo-Nazis and KKK members than that which has come from the protestors on the left, who are far more reactionary than incendiary.

Perhaps more telling was that one misguided alt-right member was compelled by rhetoric or demagoguery into the criminal act of murder. He drove his muscle car into a crowd of helpless protestors to prove a simple point. It’s a point many of us learned during the era of lynchings that took place between the Civil War and the Civil Rights era. It’s the same point that was evident during the rise of the Nazi Party on the streets of Germany when hooligans and street toughs beat, maimed and killed those that got in their way.

With might there is right. Or, perhaps, with might there is alt-right.

It is true that many of these white supremacists, anti-Semites, neo-Nazis and xenophobes are holdovers from the philosophy of Tea Party politics. Rightly or wrongly, they were credited with helping to secure the election of Donald Trump as the nation’s 45th President.

Many of their numbers were emboldened when Steve Bannon was selected to be the President’s chief strategist and policy adviser. When Bannon was editor at Breitbart, that website catered to the alt-right blogosphere and advocated for their peculiar brand of politics.

Despite denials from many quarters of the White House that they did not support these purveyors of hate, there had been little in the form of specific pushback from President Trump. Even when the events of confrontation at Charlottesville turned ugly and then deadly, the rhetoric from the President reflected that the violence came from “many sides.” He neglected to honor the memory of the young woman whose life had been senselessly taken away. After both his daughter Ivanka, a convert to Judaism, and his vice-president Mike Pence, a fundamentalist Christian, came out publicly to deplore the actions of the white nationalists and anti-Semites, Trump was mute. He appeared in no hurry to call out the KKK and the neo-Nazis specifically.

Then, after two days, he apparently changed his mind this afternoon. “Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and other hate groups who are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” the President said.

Finally, after two days, the moral compass of the Chief Executive has risen to where he can now condemn those whose philosophies we fought both a Civil War and a Second World War to defeat.

Thank you, Mr. President. I could not have expected this ineffectual moral leadership, especially coming from a man some have labeled a firebrand. You told us you would make America great again. Instead your lack of words and moral leadership grates on the sensibilities of all forward-thinking Americans who had expected more from you. You are, after all, the President of all Americans, not alt-Americans.

It’s not about it being too little too late. It’s more to the point that it should be “Not on My Watch” and “Never Again.”

Meanwhile, more alt-right protests are scheduled for this weekend. Will we Americans see more of this new Donald Trump or will his rhetoric slide back to what we saw on Saturday, just after attacks?
Even The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi publication, was compelled to comment: “Trump comments were good. He didn’t attack us. He just said the nation should come together. Nothing specific against us.”


That is one statement on which both the Nazis and I can agree.