The result was a direct assault against counter demonstrators with the consequence of 35 injuries and 3 deaths. One death involved what appears to be an intentional attack by automobile on a group of counter demonstrators located a distance from the site of the unrest.
Let me tell you this post is not about Conservatives and Liberals. There ought to be a fair and open place for dialogue in our country for debate and decision about policy and direction. There is also room, intrinsically, for having high regard for past "heros"of either side of the War Between the States, or other figures of the history of country. Being Liberal or Conservative does not make you an evil or bad person. Although the first amendment guarantees one's right to admit and advocate such prejudice, racism, religious hate and bigotry, have no place in civilized public or private discourse. This post is about that latter problem and those who espouse it. They are up to no good.
Regardless of your opinion of Gen. Lee, here is one of his quotes quite relevant to today's violence: "A nation that does not remember what it was yesterday does not know where it is today."
So, do you remember how many of your relatives fought or died in defense of liberty in the war to defeat the Nazis, and what Nazism stands for?
I ask this in light of Lee's comment and my subsequent comments.
What many of you may not appreciate is that a large number of clergy gathered in a local Charlottesville church Friday night to prepare for observing the events of Saturday. While they were assembled in the church, a crowd of several hundred predominately young, white men carrying torches ("tiki" torches) made no bones about their ideology. They marched by the church with their "torches" shouting "Blood and Soil" and "Jew will not replace us."
Let me remind you of the meaning behind "Blood and Soil." It is a slogan drawn directly from the German Nazi agriculture department and related literature that argues for eugenics (extermination or birth control of inferior races), and a "romantic" racial ethos that a nation's land carries the blood of those native people who worked it and therefore own it. (I ignore the irony of Americans saying that.) It led to Hitler's concept of Lebensraum," or "living space," used to invade Western Europe and Russia.
I wrote about the "Big Lie" in an earlier post. I wrote it partly out of disbelief anyone today could fall for this old Nazi strategy to manipulate public opinion and the voter using enormously outrageous lies. Unfortunately, time after time we see this strategy at work today in our Government and embraced by these ultra-nationalistic groups. People seem to believe anything that "sounds possible" regardless of facts.
The POTUS yesterday used that Big Lie strategy to avoid criticizing these hate groups by name. Rather than call out the racism, bigotry and ultra-nationalism of these groups tied to the old Nazi screeds, the POTUS came on TV Saturday afternoon and blamed "many sides" for the violence. (The person who allegedly drove the car that killed the woman told his mother he was going to a "Trump Rally.")
Why would the POTUS deflect criticism from these people who represent the antithesis of American values, and who came to Charlottesville prepared for and apparently instigated the violence? I can only presume his self-interest and that his advisor Steve Bannon influenced his remarks, particularly since several "alt-right" blogs and posts have said there would not have been any violence and deaths if the counter demonstrators had simply not shown up!
There are two frightening things about these events. First, the reluctance of the POTUS to call out these hate groups that fomented the violence suggests the thinking of these groups is pervasive in the White House AND that the POTUS sees these folks as part of his voting base, witness the alt-right uproar over the firing the conspiracy theorist from the National Security Council, Rich Higgins.
Second, it becomes increasingly difficult not to see the Big Lie strategy at work as the political strategy POTUS desires to use to flame hysteria and build support in his base at the expense of justice. Perhaps he will speak out and correct me.
It has been said the only stabilizing thing in a democracy that stands between order and chaos, or justice and oppression, is confidence in the law. It is far easier to go down the steep incline of loss of confidence in law and government than to climb out. The alt-right seems dead-set on pushing us down that incline.
Now is the time for all good people to speak up for justice and against the tyranny of bankrupt demagoguery. Otherwise, we may wake up one day to our own "Kristallnacht," or worse, to a government looted of its economic and moral values.
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