He took no responsibility for the current rise in racial tensions and the recent hubris of Klan types and neo-Nazis. He didn’t even blame Obama and said that this kind of stuff has been going on for a long long time. He said the most important thing was to re-establish “law and order,” which – before it was a TV show – was a phrase most used by Richard Nixon and usually had a racist tinge. Trump, uh, wants our children to feel safe to play.
This stuff all comes from Bannon, Gorka, Miller. It’s the kind of stuff fascists say to prepare the populace for martial law and the Clampdown. It’s the kind of speech a Putin gives.
Ain’t gonna happen.
But that’s what the Trump crowd wants and I wish I could subpoena some emails to find out whether Richard Spencer and other alt-right scum were acting under the direction of Breitbart scum in the White House. I know Bannon et al are happy about Charlottesville and hope for other such events.
Here’s the good news. When you pull the camera back … and you start counting bodies …. the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally wasn’t exactly a rousing success. It was fucking scraggly. A few hundred neoNazis tops, whose primary cultural contribution heretofore has been to reintroduce the buttondown shirt to college age kids. They can’t be “replaced” because they haven’t done anything worth replacing. And never will.
In addition, the racist assclowns were far outweighed by anti-fascist protestors … including Black Lives Matter folks and what looked to be a contingent of anarchist youth. The violence has been minimal compared to other such events in our nation’s history. Unlike the events at Ole Miss in 1962 and Skokie in 1977, for instance, most of the locals in the surrounding community appear to have stayed home and watched it on TV. And, surprisingly given Trump’s closing remarks, no one seems to have brought their small children to a Unite the Right rally. So they stayed safe. This time! But for how long?!
In terms of white riotry, Charlottesville is very small potatoes. The alt-right is not making the transition … even with major supporters on the President’s staff … from internet hysteria and bullying to an organized “National Front.”
So let’s condemn Charlottesville without feeding the sense of “national crisis,” which the Trump crowd is seeking to foster. They want us to believe things are out of control, in disorder, so that we’ll welcome the efforts of Strong Man Trump to put things right. And make America not just great again but safe, too. They are playing fascist games, wishing and hoping, so we need to be aware and beware.
But we also need to keep things in perspective, historical and otherwise. And never feed into their lies.
randall smoot 