It seemed like a gimme, a simple thing, say Nazis are Bad and move on.
Instead, our President invented an entire movement and accused them of attacking those peacefully protesting white guys who really really cared about a statute of Robert E. Lee.
I'm waiting for the Republican Party to disassociate itself from this man. I'm wondering what the Kushners' rabbi has to say about all this. I wonder how my Breitbart reading friend can justify the false moral equivalencies his President draws.
But mostly, I was really confused about the whole alt-left thing, never having been asked to join and wondering who amongst us had the secret password to this hitherto unknown cohort. All became clear when Big Cuter shared this tweet from @Scott_Gilmore
Alt-left, violently coming at the alt-right, circa 1944.
'Nuf said.
I didn't watch his press conference but did see the clips afterward (I never watch these things or speeches and prefer to read afterward) but what I got from the clips, which were shoved down my throat on the news programs, was that he said they weren't all Neo-Nazis or white supremacists. He didn't say none were. He said there were also those among them who cared about the monument and the attempt to rewrite our history.
ReplyDeleteI've heard in the last two days a pundit calling Lee a terrorist because he fought for his state and the South and didn't join the North at Lincoln's request. There is talk now of tearing down the Jefferson Memorial because he held slaves. It's making people from that time accountable to today's sensibilities. Nobody today, I don't think, defends slavery (unless it's those who favor illegal immigration as a way to get cheap groceries from those with no rights at all).
What he said about the left in that situation is that among the peaceful protestors came those armed with bats, wearing masks and dressed in black. In short, among those objecting to the idiocy of thinking one race is superior to another, there were those who were looking for a riot.
I avoided seeing all of that as I had grandsons here through the week-end and that meant I kept news off and read what was going on-- it's far less emotionally reactive that way.
I know it sounds like I am defending him and i am not. I wrote about his cowardice and desire to protect his base of support, which owns him more than he owns it, but what he said was not that there were no white supremacists there. He just said not all of the alt-right are supremacists.
We know there is an alt-left by their actions. They are not the ones with the bats, but they do come out to protest speech by anyone with whom they disagree. They don't, so far, run them down with automobiles or shoot them down in churches, but there have been death threats against those like Ann Coulter and it has closed down others from being able to speak on campuses or in mostly liberal communities. They also get infiltrated (did in Portland) by what I consider to be anarchists, who want trouble and can usually stir it up. I don't even know whose side anarchists are on. For years, they've been going to where the world leaders are meeting to discuss economics.
I think we have a segment of the country that is extreme on both sides but it's not even 30%. Probably more like 15% who want communism (the philosophical kind) or on the other side fascism. Most of the country is in the middle and wondering what the hell is happening to us. I don't see how this gets resolved by compromise because the gap between us on issues like immigration is huge. My only recommendation is watch less live TV except when it directly impacts our lives, read books, watch movies, write letters, protest what seems wrong, and let the rest go because when both sides end up filled with hate (never seen it here on your blog but have seen it a lot at FB) somebody wins and it's not us.
I'm trying to stay away from hate, Rain, even when it's coming at me. The torch parade was terrifying even two days later.
DeleteAnyone who attends the rally was trending a rally sponsored by white supremacist groups. Just as I avoided the Weather Underground in the 1970's while still actively protesting the Viet Nam War and Cambodian incursions, polite white people who liked the statue had other means of achieving their goal without allying themselves with Nazis. If they showed up unawares, they could have left when Jews Won't Replace Me chanting began.
I'm sorry. If you marched with them you are with them. If you went there let king for a fight, on either side, you got it. Somehow, though, I have a harder time condemning those who battled the people who hate me... I hope they are around when the putsch begins.
No, I'm not overreacting. I'm remembering that I'd have a lot more cousins if not for the Nazis.
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I understand and live in militia country as much of rural America is. I don't know the people who went to that rally and have read the take on it from the right and the left. I don't personally go to any such rallies and never have. I didn't like the Vietnam War but did no marching, didn't spit on the soldiers who returned, but did vote for someone claiming they'd get us out-- often doesn't work. I do listen to some of the right wing programming and hear how the people there feel about what's been going on. They feel they were sold out. They do not want to destroy Jews or blacks but they feel someone is trying to destroy them. That's where we are today. And then they voted and their candidate won-- only to see the other side start out to destroy him and what he ran on. I am not a right winger but I do know them and they aren't all supremacists but who do they protest with? Someone who blocks right wing speakers? To even speak out as I do for a moderate viewpoint is to be attacked. It is where we are today and it's very depressing. I guess it'd be better to only listen to one viewpoint, stay in a bubble, at least it'd be easier and feel more like I had some friends in this game. I am less and less feeling I do :(
ReplyDeleteIt's very depressing. Big Cuter lives in the bubble in SF and falls more easily into stridency than his older, Arizona based, parental units.
DeleteTonight I wondered where to advertise for "the very fine people" who attended the rally. For me, seeing an event featuring *people who hate me and make no bones about it* and then attending that event ... how can you be my friend? I have people close to me and mine who are Trumpian.... it's so very very hard.
I want civility and kindness and a responsive government on some level or other; my County Supervisor just tweeted that she is tired of apologizing for being white. She's WHITE and proud of it. My Rep. gave a mealy mouthed retelling of Paul Ryan's bland tweet days after I began feeling scared.
I want an election right now.
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And you know that Trump has an orthodox Jewish son-in-law and daughter who he appointed to positions in his administration. He's trying to get away from tribalism but it seems it's not possible in today's poisonous atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteAnd their Rabbi just announced that he's appalled by DJT. I don't think they are there to show his pluralism; they are there because the Trumps are the ultimate (dysfunctional) tribe.
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I didn't think they were there to show his pluralism but because it wasn't an issue to him that his daughter married an orthodox Jew, became one, and is raising her children as one. Anyway, there is no possibility of logic where this is concerned. Our media has gone insane over it as they finally think they can use it to destroy him. Maybe they can but the truth is there is hate on both sides. The left has been winning for years the culture wars and now along comes someone who expresses the other side and people jumped on it.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I found Limbaugh on streaming and listened to him for awhile and his callers. One woman said if she'd gotten to that rally, as soon as she heard the hate rhetoric, she'd have left and she's a strong conservative who didn't want the monuments removed. Maybe ones who felt that way did leave. I have no idea as all I've seen is the fighting, not the speeches, and then the woman climbing up to tear down the monument to some civil war leader (I guess as all the news ran was her doing it and the ones below acting like Iraqis over Hussein's monument being taken down-- what does that say about the ones in our country???).
If this whole thing doesn't end up with a genuine civil war, I'll be amazed as it sure seems headed that way with both sides willing to use violence to topple the other. As for the Rabbi, I don't know his political ideology, which may be a factor. I also never read his statement. Religious leaders though do have political views.
There is hate on both sides, yes. But one side is hating Nazis. That trumps anything, right?
DeleteI'm not looking to be arrested, but I think that I'd be very happy to punch a Nazi in the nose.
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