16th August 2017, 10:06 PM
Recent events -- the neonazi/neo-Confederate march on Charlottesville and such -- have been bad, but personally I'm not shocked, or as surprised by this as some seem to be. I mean, Trump ran for President on an explicitly racist agenda. He race-baited, said racist things, and more, over and over and over. He only ever ran for President in the first place because Obama is black. He has always refused to condemn racists who support him, both because he is one and because he knows that they are some of his most loyal supporters. Etc.
So that this agenda, which is now even more openly visible to everyone thanks to his horrendously racist and uncaring comments after that alt-right guy killed a protester with his car, led to a hate rally? Yeah, that makes sense. The right has been emboldened by Trump and knows that he supports them, and rallies like this are one result of that.
I do find one thing interesting, though -- the people in that march, going by the pictures, mostly just look normal; they aren't skinheads, in KKK robes, etc, they just look normal-ish. I saw one article saying that this is an intentional strategy, done to appeal to people in a way that those more obviously identifiable ways don't anymore. That makes sense, I just wish they were having less success... because for all the blowback this has gotten, clearly a significant minority of people agree with those views at least enough to continue supporting Trump, and in some cases going to these rallies. The neonazi evil is growing faster thanks to Trump (and Bannon).
It is nice to see even some more Fox News people turn on Trump over this, though -- see this clip from usually extremely Trump-friendly Fox & Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SQCzhv1kfI
So yeah, the most important thing is stopping this new right. Trump seriously needs to go, by impeachment, Article 25, or something like that; even other significant Republican lawmakers are sane enough to not openly support white supremacists, so no Trump would make a real difference here. Sure, other Republicans absolutely support the far right with some of their policies, but Trump;s very overt support is a big step farther that is helping their cause, and removing Trump would help a lot.
Failing that, we need to win that election next year somehow, because seriously this administration needs to fail!
And most importantly, in the interim people need to push back against the right. I'm definitely not a supporter of the more violent wings of the left, it's wrong and illegal and I don't want to see any validity appear behind the lies some less overtly racist on the right are saying about how "but both sides are bad". Peaceful protests are important, though, and more -- contacting congresspeople, etc.
So that this agenda, which is now even more openly visible to everyone thanks to his horrendously racist and uncaring comments after that alt-right guy killed a protester with his car, led to a hate rally? Yeah, that makes sense. The right has been emboldened by Trump and knows that he supports them, and rallies like this are one result of that.
I do find one thing interesting, though -- the people in that march, going by the pictures, mostly just look normal; they aren't skinheads, in KKK robes, etc, they just look normal-ish. I saw one article saying that this is an intentional strategy, done to appeal to people in a way that those more obviously identifiable ways don't anymore. That makes sense, I just wish they were having less success... because for all the blowback this has gotten, clearly a significant minority of people agree with those views at least enough to continue supporting Trump, and in some cases going to these rallies. The neonazi evil is growing faster thanks to Trump (and Bannon).
It is nice to see even some more Fox News people turn on Trump over this, though -- see this clip from usually extremely Trump-friendly Fox & Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SQCzhv1kfI
So yeah, the most important thing is stopping this new right. Trump seriously needs to go, by impeachment, Article 25, or something like that; even other significant Republican lawmakers are sane enough to not openly support white supremacists, so no Trump would make a real difference here. Sure, other Republicans absolutely support the far right with some of their policies, but Trump;s very overt support is a big step farther that is helping their cause, and removing Trump would help a lot.
Failing that, we need to win that election next year somehow, because seriously this administration needs to fail!
And most importantly, in the interim people need to push back against the right. I'm definitely not a supporter of the more violent wings of the left, it's wrong and illegal and I don't want to see any validity appear behind the lies some less overtly racist on the right are saying about how "but both sides are bad". Peaceful protests are important, though, and more -- contacting congresspeople, etc.