Epic Fail II

I wrote about the epic failure of Congress to get the new health care bill that they had been promising for 7 years passed last month.  You can read it here.

Now there is another epic failure that the Trump administration is dealing with and it is arguably worse by several magnitudes.  And this one is entirely self-inflicted.  Unless you're living under a rock, you've seen all the stories, analysis and outrage coming out of Charlottesville, VA.  The Reader's Digest version is that a disparate group of white supremacist assholes had a two day rally in a park where there was a statue of Gen Robert E. Lee to protest the removal of the statue.  I'm sure you've seen all the hubbub about removing statues, memorials and really traces of the Civil War from everyday life.  I also wrote about that here and here.

So predictably there was a big backlash and an effort by "antifa" groups to disrupt this event.  Now make no mistake, the antifa are a group of violent, anti-government thugs who aim to disrupt and in many cases do harm.  But on this side of the aisle there were also a lot of peaceful protesters who abhor the Nazis, neo-Nazis, KKK, and all ther other groups purporting to be only preserving the white race.  And also predictably, there was violence and in an ultimate tragedy, the loss of life.  One of the white supremacists drove a car through the protesters, injuring many and killing one.

And let's not forget the role (or absence) of law enforcement.  This was the first epic fail of this whole sordid mess.  They stood by and did very little to stem the violence.  It's no secret that Charlottesville is a bastion of the Democrats and is certainly a hub for anti-Trumpism.  So it is natural to speculate that there was a method in their madness.  Who knows.  All I know is that they could have prevented it.  They could have taken action.  And that they didn't resulted in a death.

But then we come to the epic failure.  Trump came out relatively soon and condemned violence "on all sides".  And of course this was met with scorn and outrage from the media, politicians from both sides of the aisle, and a large number of the populace.  A few days later he had clearly been schooled by his staff on what to say and came out (on teleprompter) and condemned the KKK, white supremacists, Nazis, etc.  But is sorta didn't seem sincere.  And then yesterday during a confrontational and rambling press conference he reverted to his original statement that there was violence on all sides.  He said there were peaceful people on both sides trying to protest or support the issue.

And then it went nuclear.  CEOs resigned from his Industry Board.  Politicians are moving away from him as fast as possible.  His staff is in perpetual spin mode.  Talk radio is exploding.  Long time conservative voices are now wondering what they got themselves into.  Check out this article by a very respected conservative journalist.  Of course, he is digging in.  He is railing about fake news and despicable journalists.  He is disparaging the CEOs.  He is trying to change the subject.  In other words, he's being Trump.

So here's my take, for what it's worth.  The white supremacist, neo-nazi, KKK, alt-right bigots don't deserve the time of day.  They deserve to be shunned and vilified.  They need to be made a pariah of decent society and ridiculed into the ash bin of history.  Full stop. Some want to make this about protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in a park in Charlottesville.  That is a smoke screen.  If you have any doubt, check out this poster advertising the event.  This has little to do with the right.  This has to do with neo-nazi scum and perpetuating their sick views.  If you're a normal American and you wanted to attend an event that would include a rational discussion regarding the idea of removing Civil War memorials, you would not choose this event as one in which there would be any reasonable discussion.  Because this is about hate and oppression.  The other issue that is a smoke screen the issue of the First Amendment.  Everyone has a right to speak.  Well, I agree.  But the city doesn't need to give them a platform and a place that is ultimately volatile.  Don't let them spew their hate where it will instigate violence or is a place that is hard to control.  Put them in a box.  Let them talk, but put them someplace that can be controlled.  I don't know how to say it any stronger, these people are abhorrent and need to be shunned.  And when a light is shined upon them and they are shunned, no one would show up to their event and it would become irrelevant.  As I've said previously, we have examples of how to do it.  Martin Luther King jr, Nelson Mandela, etc, etc, etc.  It can be done.









Now what about the antifa?  Well, they are a bunch of thugs who use violence to achieve their goals.  The ends clearly don't justify the means.  If you don't really know what the antifa is, there is a pretty good article here.  I'm all for stomping out fascism.  I just finished a biography of Churchill and it was clear that if English leaders had listened to him in the 1930's, Hitler wouldn't have wreaked the havoc that he did.  But these antifa assholes are beyond the pale.  No decent citizen would support their activities.






I've already mentioned the failure of law enforcement, but that can't be mentioned enough.  When these violent groups come together, there has to be a controlling agent that provides structure to ensure safety.  That is fundamental.  They didn't do that.  In fact, it could be argued that they let it happen.  That is unsat.





So the white supremacists are terrible and the antifa are terrible.  So what's wrong with Trump's language?  What's wrong is that by saying both sides had violence he making a moral equivalence between an abhorrent and fundamentally anti-human (and certainly anti-American) group and a group of protesters that most likely did include some who were there to protest peacefully.  To most people, as bad as antifa is, there is no moral equivalence.

There is an expectation that our President will inspire us and will uphold the values that most Americans find vital.  He didn't do that.  He has been confrontational and unequivable in his belief that he was right.  He's not.  Many have said that things he's done could doom his Presidency.  I didn't believe that before this episode.  But this could mushroom out of control, if it hasn't already.  He needs to correct this wrong and put it behind him.  In my view he should do two things.  First is that he should come before the American people from the Oval Office and in a clear and calm manner condemn the alt right in no uncertain terms.  There can be no equivocation.  Second, he needs to dump Steve Bannon.  As long as Bannon is around, this issue isn't going away.  I fear it might already  be too late, but this is a time for a huge mea culpa if ever there was one.