The following was submitted by Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
President Trump just can’t bring himself
to unequivocally condemn and repudiate white supremacy and its modern-day
equivalent, the “alt-right.”
He can’t bring himself to acknowledge
that terrorism committed by white supremacists is, indeed, terrorism.
The president’s tepid response yesterday
to the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, was telling. He denounced
the hate and violence but spread the blame to “many sides.”
No, Mr. President, there are not “many
sides” to what happened in Virginia.
Not when we see hundreds of white
supremacists marching with torches at night in an American city.
Not when we see people killed and
injured by a white supremacist using his car as a weapon.
Trump’s initial, milquetoast response
left racists feeling just fine. Amid its blog posts celebrating the day’s
events, the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer wrote that Trump’s comments were
“really good,” adding that the president “didn’t attack us … no condemnation at
all.”
Reacting to the national outrage, the
White House issued another statement today – not even attributed to Trump –
that said “of course” his condemnation “includes white supremacists, K.K.K.
neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.”
But Trump himself was silent.
I’m sure white supremacists remain
reassured that they have a friend in the White House. A president who spews
vitriol and heaps scorn on his enemies virtually every day – and who has no
trouble calling Mexicans killers and “rapists” – still can’t break off the
unholy alliance with bigots that he’s been cultivating since he first claimed
President Obama’s birth certificate was bogus.
And I suspect the alt-righters believe
they can count on Trump to continue pursuing the same white nationalist
political agenda that’s been so plainly evident throughout the first six months
of his administration. And why wouldn’t they think so – with alt-right champion
Stephen Bannon whispering in Trump’s ear?
No, Mr. Trump, there are not “many
sides” to this. There is white supremacy, and there is America. There is good,
and there is evil.
It’s not a hard choice.
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