My worst fears about the President are proving to be true. He is an incompetent President who is guided by whim and little else. The latest and perhaps the most egregious manifestation happened yesterday at a press conference that was supposed to be about rebuilding this country’s infrastructure – something has the support of both political parties. Instead he could not help himself and spoke about the violent clash between white supremacist hate groups (which included swastika carrying Neo Nazis and members of the KKK) and counter protesters.
It was an astonishing reversal of his unequivocal condemnation of those hate groups the day before. Yesterday he decided to double down on ‘blaming both sides’. Thereby leaving the impression of moral equivalency between hate groups and those protesting them.
The President was rightly attacked for those comments by a wide variety of people on both sides of the political aisle from all walks of life. There is no moral equivalency between the two sides. Hate groups pure are evil. Counter protesters were on the right side of the issue.
The President added fuel to his fire by saying that there some good people on both sides. That it wasn’t only hate groups protesting but good people. People that simply were protesting the removal an iconic Confederate statue. And not motivated by hate.
I’m sorry. Anyone that stands with Neo Nazis for any reason is not a good person, even if they were there to express a legitimate grievance that had nothing to do with hating anybody. You don’t stand with Nazis for any reason. If you do, then you are standing with evil. That a President can come anywhere near to saying something like that, let alone saying it outright, is beneath the dignity of his office in unprecedented ways. It besmirches not only his own reputation, but that of its people and this this nation whose principles reject racism and bigotry.
I am still stunned that this man was elected President. And yet he is.
That said, if we examine the truth, I have to agree that there was violence on both sides. And I even suspect that it may have been started by the ‘good guys’ – those who were there to protest the Nazis. They in effect played right into the hands of those neo Nazis who came prepared for violence – hoping it would come so that could bash a few heads in. They got their wish and that is exactly what happened.
I say now as I said then. Had the counter protesters asked me, I would have told them to stay home. But they came. Some of them came for a fight – to physically fight evil with violence. Now I’m sure that is most of them came to protest the neo Nazis peacefully with some very loud voices. But a small segment of them were not going to stand by idly and let these hate groups march. They attacked them. I don’t think that there can be any argument about that. I believe the Charlottesville police department actually confirmed that.
So in effect, Trump is technically right. But saying that in this context where it will be seen as granting these hate groups moral equivalency with the counter protestors is a foolish and stupid thing to do. Because that is clearly the reaction of every observer. Including people like former KKK leader David Duke who was one of the few people that praised the President’ for having the ‘courage’ to tell the ‘truth’! This will no doubt embolden these hate groups to carry on their racist crusade for ‘white America’. Which is what their protest last week was really about. That was evident by their repeated refrain of ‘Jews will not replace us!’ –as they marched carrying torches. Which was reminiscent of images recorded during the Holocaust of Nazi soldiers carrying torches marching in Germany.
Being right about a particular fact does not justify what Trump did. He seems incapable of seeing the bigger picture. He does not seem to have the intelligence to make those kinds of judgments. Or worse he is doing it to retain the ‘hate group’ vote – as some have suggested.
I happen to think it is the former. Because he has not recanted his unequivocal condemnation of those hate group that he made the day before. He reiterated it when challenged by a reporter yesterday. He also made clear that the driver that rammed his car into the crowd of counter protesters killing one young woman is a murderer. But that was almost beside the point of his rant which sent the message of moral equivalency. It was equally foolish to criticize people that were there to protest these hate groups, most of whom came there to do that peacefully.
I continue to be disgusted by this am more embarrassed by his presidency than ever. His oversize ego is so huge he actually believes he can do no wrong and that every word out of his mouth is a pearl of wisdom. He thinks that every word he utters should be taken as gospel. A man that insults his enemies with lies, half truths, and innuendo - never taking the blame for anything that goes wrong. Frankly I don’t know how his children put up with him. Nor can I understand how his chief of staff John Kelly can continue in that role after this.
And yet, as much as I would like it to be so, I don’t think Trump has committed any high crimes and misdemeanors for which he can be impeached - and then removed from office. I don’t believe that Special Counsel, John Brennan will find what everyone is hoping he will – a smoking gun showing that Trump himself colluded with the Russians to undermine his opponent during the election.
This man is here to stay for the rest of his 4 year term. Let us pray that he will be defeated in the next election. We will just have to hold our collective noses until then and hope the country will survive. I think it will. We are stringer than one man – even the President. The polls show his approval ratings at historic lows for any President. If that is any kind of indicator, he will be defeated in a landslide. On the other hand, polls have been shown to not be very unreliable predictors of how people will vote. Hillary Clinton will tell you that. God help us all.