DISGUSTED: day 1069: the klan and the man

I was deeply disturbed and nauseous about the Charlottesville rally yesterday, walking around in a daze, wondering how we find ourselves here, where we have a president so bigoted and racist and insulting to practically every group, that white supremacists and Nazis are now bold enough to forego the hoods, and blatantly  show their faces loud and proud. This is what happens when you elect a president who models intolerance, who has deemed it ok to fly your Confederate flags and swastikas out in public and ram a car into a rally of people who don’t believe what you believe (killing a young girl, injuring more than 19 people).

And what did Trump have to say about this grotesque fiasco, this unamerican little get together? Quoting the NYT, “During a brief and uncomfortable address to reporters at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., he called for an end to the violence. But he was the only national political figure to spread blame for the “hatred, bigotry and violence” that resulted in the death of one person to “many sides.” MANY SIDES. There you go, the 34% of you who still support Trump. Here’s your country. Here’s your president, a man who cannot call it as it is. Why? Because white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers and the alt. right ARE A BIG PART OF HIS BASE. Remember, it’s all about the votes, not the people.

MANY SIDES. There you go, and still 34% of the public still supports Trump. I say to that 34%, here’s your country. Here’s your president, a man who cannot call it as it is. Why? Because white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers and the alt. right ARE A BIG PART OF HIS BASE. Remember, it’s all about the votes, not the people.

And make no mistake, David Duke, grand poobah of the Klan said of the Charlottesville rally, “This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back,” Duke said. “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back.”

Back from? Back to?

We fought a war against Nazis once and we won. People gave their lives to protect us from wiping out the whole population of Jews. This is how it begins. Free speech is a tenet of this country, but people with hate running through their bodies instead of blood, that is not.

My gratitude goes to the man who is calling it what it is and saying it straight, Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, who said,

“I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today. Our message is plain and simple. Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.

You came here today to hurt people, and you did hurt people. But my message is clear. We are stronger than you. You have made our Commonwealth stronger. You will not succeed.

There is no place for you here, there is no place for you in America.”

If only our president could have such clarity and humanity.