White supremacists held a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12. Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old white woman, was killed during the rally, leading to a massive outcry across the country and bringing attention to the actions of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the country.
In the immediate aftermath of this bigoted display, President Donald Trump tweeted “We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!” Condemning hatred and unnecessary violence is important in the country’s current racial landscape, and President Trump did a good job of being ambiguous enough for his statement to be not awful.
However, in his statement on Tuesday, he attempted to shift the blame from neo-Nazis to anti-fascists as well. Former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke tweeted the president, saying, “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth.”
President Trump should not blame ANTIFA for responding to the Unite the Right’s violence toward counter protesters. Like Dr. Cornel West said, ANTIFA prevented counter protesters from being “crushed like cockroaches” by the Unite the Right’s violence. Hatred and violence from neo-Nazis needed to be condemned by the President. The idea that the so-called Alt-left needs condemning as well is silly, at best, and empowering to neo-Nazis, at worst.
It’s confusing how the party of Reagan and the current Republican president cannot come out and oppose neo-Nazis. Our grandparents went to war to stop these people, so how hard is it to understand that those kinds of people are cancers to our country? There is nothing redeemable about neo-Nazis and Klansmen, there is nothing redeemable about pure hatred and there is nothing redeemable about any forms of white power.
The Republican heavy hitters shockingly came out against Trump in grand scale. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted his disgust in Trump for only giving white supremacists half of the blame. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called white supremacy “repulsive.” Even Texas Sen. Ted Cruz chimed in, saying the white supremacists were “idiots” and killing Heyer was a “grotesque act of domestic terrorism.”
These are three guys not known for liberalism, equality or Civil Rights taking President Trump to town for not explicitly condemning the Nazis and Klansmen at the rally.
President Trump needs to take this trick from Ryan, Rubio and Cruz’s book and lead the country in the proper direction by solely condemning neo-Nazis. He shouldn’t appeal to the alt-right specifically but to the all Americans who, whether he likes it or not, have become his constituencies. There is a time to appeal to your base and attempt to get re-elected, and there is a time to lead. President Trump needs to learn when to pick the latter. If he doesn’t, everyone in this country will be in for a long four years, especially black, brown and LGBTQ Americans. Get it together, Mr. President.
Miles Jordan is a 19-year-old liberal arts sophomore from New Orleans, Louisiana.
