Fear and Loathing in Charlottesville

Political violence of any kind is always counterproductive.  Reasonable people should understand that adopting the tactics of radical Islamic terrorists by driving vehicles into crowds of people will not cause people to sympathize with your argument.

 

That’s exactly what happened at a “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.  Many of the participants included Neo-Nazis and KKK members; whose ideas sharply contrast with the self-evident truth laid out in the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal.”  The 20-year old driver of the Dodge Challenger that caused one fatality and injured around 20 others had Nazi sympathies; according to his high school social studies teacher.  He now faces charges of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death. Unfortunately, the “Unite the Right” rally certainly did not result in a more united political right; or a more united country. 

 

Many attending the rally disapproved of the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to remove a Robert E. Lee statue.  As the President correctly pointed out, “not all of those people were Neo-Nazis.” The city had already changed the name of the park where the statue is located, from Lee Park to Emancipation Park. The antifa counter-protesters who attended the event obviously supported the City Council’s decision.  It should come as no surprise that Emancipation Park was the epicenter of this weekend’s unrest. The debate over the merits of taking down all Confederate monuments is certainly a valid one.  It’s too bad we can’t have this debate without the use of torches, clubs, baseball clubs and pepper spray.  In my opinion, this debate has gone too far; as illustrated by TV networks refusing to air reruns of "The Dukes of Hazzard" because the car driven by the characters has a Confederate flag painted on the top.             

 

 

On Saturday, President Trump weighed in on the chaos from his golf club in New Jersey; condemning the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”  The President’s critics in the media, on the left, and some on the “right” criticized the President for not explicitly condemning white supremacy. 

 

Maybe he learned this strategy from the Democrats.  Over the weekend, Jesse Watters showed old video clips of Democratic politicians reacting to the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise by a far-left extremist.  Did the Democrats explicitly condemn left-wing rhetoric?  No they did not; instead, they blamed the rhetoric of “both sides”or “all sides.”  After all, the Democrats probably did not want to alienate their far left base.    

 

 

In the case of the Trump Administration, actions speak louder than words.  The Justice Department has already opened a civil rights investigation into the crash.  The investigation will look into whether the suspect “crossed state lines with the intent to commit acts of violence.”  Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom the left loves to paint as a cold-hearted racist, condemned the “unacceptable, evil attack” and promised that “justice will prevail.”  Yet despite the actions of Trump’s Justice Department, the left will always remain convinced that a bigoted white supremacist currently sits in the oval office.    

 

For the record, President Trump traveled to the White House on Monday; where he explicitly condemned “the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”  He also added, “No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God.”  It probably would have been a better idea for him to come out and say this on Saturday but the media probably still would have found something to complain about.  Donald Trump Jr. accurately pointed out that “There is no right answer/response only a moving goal line that can never be reached.”  During his visit to the White House, the President met with Attorney General Sessions and newly appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray to discuss their progress on the Federal investigation into this weekend’s events.  On Tuesday, the President gave a press conference at Trump Tower where he further ruffled the media’s feathers by bringing up the actions of the “alt-left” when asked about the “alt-right.”  Many in the media and on the left have been letting the left-wing protesters completely off the hook; despite the fact that Rolling Stone magazine, hardly sympathetic to the right, reported that Antifa protesters “carried sticks and clubs.”  New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg agreed, saying “The hard-left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right.”  To no one’s surprise, the media showed little interest in asking about the President’s infrastructure plan; which was supposed to be the subject of the press conference.  Only about a minute of the fifteen minutes of questions following the press conference focused on the infrastructure plan; the rest focused on Charlottesville.      

 

In order for our country to avoid breaking out into another Civil War, we must encourage more civilized debates on the issues facing our country. These debates do not necessarily have to include political candidates and/or elected officials.  One month before the 2012 Presidential Election, “The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly and “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart participated in The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium; held at George Washington University.  While O’Reilly and Stewart have very different political views; they both have mutual respect for each other.  They had frequently appeared on each other’s programs where they engaged in less formal yet equally robust debates.  Both participants donated half of the profits from the debate to a number of charitable causes. Perhaps similar debates need to happen on the hot-button issues that divide much of the country such as immigration, abortion, and/or foreign policy.  Unfortunately, debate has become much more difficult as much of today’s youth have been taught to shout down and defame their opponents; rather than engage them in an actual debate.

 

Four days after the tragic events in Charlottesville, the nation’s emotional temperature remains at the boiling point.  Even after the emotional temperature starts to cool down, the cultural civil war that our country has been fighting since long before the election of President Trump will continue.  As shown by the toppling of a Confederate statue in Durham by left-wing activists as well as the overnight removal of statues in Baltimore, the debate about Confederate statues will continue for the foreseeable future.  I can only hope and pray that all future debates about this issue will remain civil and not escalate into violence like Charlottesville did.