Trump Finally Condemns Extremist Groups
Monday morning Donald Trump held a press conference condemning white supremacist groups and calling them out by name. This comes two days after the protests and disturbances in Charlottesville, Virginia and many say two days too late.
The President’s initial statement said there was hatred and violence coming “from many sides” and did not specifically denounce white supremacists or any specific organization.
To be clear, Trump said the right thing today, it just came too late and it was clearly in response to backlash of his initial and instinctual response. The problem is that for a President of the United States, condemning white supremacy, any reference to Nazism, and reference to the KKK, it is the easiest decision they have as a leader of this country. What fought wars to stop these groups and ideas, therefore there should be no hesitation in denouncing these groups. Our President completely fumbled this responsibility and opted to straddle the fence, and pander to his base.
Trump immediately coming out and blaming all sides was a dog whistle to those that sympathize with the white supremacists that they were still ok in his book and to keep supporting him. Eventually he caved to the pressure but he showed his true colors with his initial reaction and he can’t take that back.
The other side of this, is the tragedy that occurred. James Fields a Nazi sympathizer, murdered Heather Heyer when he drove his car into a crowd of counter protesters. He was denied bail today and even Jeff Sessions has made it clear Fields will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. James Fields does not represent all white people, he doesn’t even represent all Nazis and white supremacists, but he does represent what happens when hate and evil are allowed to fester. James Fields, Dylan Roof, Timothy McVeigh, these are people from right here in the United States that ingested and suffocated in the lie of white victim-hood and they turned on their fellow citizens, they turned to murder.
Some are calling for the condemnation of “Black Lives Matter” as a hate group, please do we really have to go through this again? There were absolutely people who marched with the Black Lives Matter group specifically in Minnesota that were chanting despicable phrases about “dead cops” and “frying pigs like bacon”. Those chants should have been shut down by the organizers immediately, and those chanting it should’ve been asked to peacefully assemble somewhere else. That group of people does not define the group or the mission. The main mission of Black Lives Matters is to fight for issues facing black people. They are fighting for Blacks to be treated fairly in all aspects of life, and draw attention to situations where black people are most vulnerable and often their actual oppression goes unnoticed.
White supremacists are not fighting for equality, they are not fighting for fair treatment, they are fighting to keep their foot on the throat of anything that is looking to pull even with the white male. There is no oppression of white people in the United States, but according to white supremacists, if white students have to compete with non white students for spots at colleges, white people are under attack! If they competition is an attack, what would they actually do if they were treated like blacks, or gays, or latino people?
White supremacy has to be stamped out before it infects more people like Dylan Roof and James Fields. We can not take the lazy road and throw out some “I don’t like it but, you know, free speech” argument when it comes to white supremacy, because again we saw what happened in Nazi Germany the fringe was allowed to fester and become the majority. Hate speech isn’t free speech, it’s meant to tear us apart. We need to come together, and beat it back under the rock it was buried under.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan as criminals and thugs on Monday, bowing to mounting political pressure to condemn such groups explicitly after a white-nationalist rally turned deadly in Virginia.
Trump had been assailed from across the political spectrum for failing to respond more forcefully to Saturday’s violence in Charlottesville. The head of one of the world’s biggest drug companies quit a presidential business panel as a result, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism, and the chief executive of a prominent sportswear company followed suit hours later.
Critics denounced Trump for waiting too long to address the bloodshed, and for initially faulting hatred and violence “on many sides,” rather than singling out the white supremacists widely seen as instigating the melee.
Democrats said Trump’s reaction belied a reluctance to alienate white nationalists and “alt-right” political activists who occupy a loyal segment of Trump’s political base. Several senators from his own Republican Party had harsh words for him.
Some 48 hours into the biggest domestic challenge of his young presidency, Trump tried to correct course.
“Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,” the president said in a statement to reporters at the White House on Monday.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence,” he said.
A 20-year-old man said to have harbored Nazi sympathies was arrested on charges of plowing his car into protesters opposing the white nationalists, killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer and injuring 19 people. The accused, James Fields, was denied bail at a court hearing on Monday.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
