Charlottesville: The Last Straw

Last weekend, the stench of racism that’s been simmering below the surface of the American landscape bubbled to the top for all to see and smell. The white supremacist movement that’s been building, waiting for the right time to wreak havoc, showed up in Charlottesville, Virginia with tragic consequences. Three Americans senselessly lost their lives as a result and 19 others were injured.  In the process, President Trump showed convincingly why he lacks the moral authority and statesmanship of a President and why the American people and their other leaders must find a way to remove him from office.

The loss of life in Charlottesville should sadden and concern every right thinking American.  In terms of a response to Charlottesville, we first, as we think the President should have, honor and mourn Heather Heyer, the young woman killed in an act of domestic terrorism by an apparent misfit now charged with second degree murder and other crimes for ramming a car into a crowd, and Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper Berke M. M. Bates, Virginia law enforcement officers killed in the crash of a police helicopter patrolling the area.  None of them would have been where they were but for the wretched, despicable acts of hate mongers who converged on Charlottesville to protest that city’s effort to come to grips with America’s original sin by removing a monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

It’s Not the Statues: After Charlottesville, no longer should anyone entertain the fiction that opposing removal of confederate monuments and statues merely reflects dedication to cultural heritage, separate from its racist underpinnings. Nor should the argument fly that removing the monuments represents a misguided attempt to rewrite history.  The white supremacists demonstrated the monuments constitute an integral part of their campaign to thwart the efforts of decent Americans of all colors to recognize slavery’s stain on our nation’s history.  The monuments aren’t recordings of history to the white supremacists. They are essential tools in conveying their message that this should remain a “white country” in which white people call the shots and out groups – blacks, Jews, Muslims, immigrants -- remain just that.      

Trump Speaks: It was the response of Donald Trump that produced the real outrage and presents the test his Republican Party must meet, along with the rest of the nation. Trump initially appeared, uncomfortably, on camera, making a statement that (1) failed to specifically and unequivocally call out the white supremacists whose presence precipitated the Charlottesville tragedy and (2) made a disappointing try at equating those who protested the white supremacists with the hate mongers themselves. Trump said he condemned “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides.”  This attempt at equivalency made no moral sense to us.  The fact he felt compelled to say it suggested Trump believed he had to do so to avoid alienating white supremacists, many of whom openly admit Trump’s election emboldened them and claim he’s on their side. Trump’s tepid, misguided response to Charlottesville brings the country face to face with a fundamental question:  Having elected Trump on a promise to make America great again, will America say to him, “Mr. President, you aren’t great, you aren’t even good.  In fact, you’re harmful to our national aspirations?”

To their credit, some Republicans called out their party’s leader. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch’s Tweet seemed particularly appropriate.  He said, “My brother didn’t give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.” That’s a good start, but the GOP has much more work to do if it’s to avoid being tarred by the brush with which Trump and his supporters in the white supremacist universe paint.  Until Republicans, both the leadership in Congress and the statehouses, and the rank and file, say out loud they will not tolerate support for or from white supremacists, we have more difficult days ahead.  We’ve already seen that. Trump, under pressure, Monday made a more Presidential sounding statement about the evils of racism, but undid it all Tuesday by equating the counter protesters with white supremacists. “There’s fault on both sides,” he claimed.      

A Perfect Storm: Charlottesville may have been inevitable,  given Trump’s election and the strength the white supremacy movement claims it gave them.  A similar event was going to happen somewhere. The city’s decision to remove the Robert E. Lee statue became an excuse for the white supremacists to gather there.  Charlottesville’s reputation as a college town (home to the University of Virginia) and a relatively liberal place (Hillary Clinton won 80% of the vote there in 2016) probably assured pushback against the intrusion by a large group of outsiders spewing an ideology at odds with the predominant community ethic.

But Charlottesville didn’t have to become the tragedy it did, not if we had a President who understands and appreciates the America so many of us long for – a place that’s imperfect, that has many sins to atone for, but one brimming with promise for becoming what it has always had the chance to become – a beacon of hope and opportunity for anyone willing to help it achieve its highest aspirations and, therefore, share in its bounty and blessings.      

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