I saw the president’s press conference live yesterday because I had a premonition that he was going to snap back from what he was apparently forced to read from a teleprompter on Monday.
And he did, to a degree that I didn’t anticipate. President Trump said it plain and clear: The neo-Nazis are ethically equal to the people protesting neo-Nazis.
My publication has a response: No. They are not equal.
On one side there is a group that espouses that white people are superior and all others are inferior. This side fetishizes Hitler and the Nazi regime killing millions of non-“Aryans,” Jews, people with congenital disabilities and gay people. On the other side there are people opposed to killing people and who believe that people are equal.
On one side there is a group who honors the Confederacy, a rebellion that existed simply and solely to maintain slavery. On the other side are people who believe in human rights and that the enslavement of Black people was wrong.
On one side there is a group that cloaks its hate in words like “honoring our heritage.” On the other side are people who know that 55 percent of Black Americans live in the South and that their heritage matters, that Black Lives Matter.
You are on one side or the other. Period. There is no middle ground.
People who draw an equivalence between the violence of Nazis and the violence of people protesting Nazis — or talk of “state rights” — are Nazis themselves. In poker, that’s called a “tell.” There’s no such thing as being “sympathetic” to evil without being evil.
Now we know without a doubt that Trump’s claiming that Barack Obama was not born in the United States — and all of the other vile things he’s said about Mexicans, Muslims, women, Black Americans, people with disabilities, POWs and others — are a pattern that describes exactly how he feels. He is not qualified to be president, and the entire Republican Party needs to take responsibility for this disaster and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
You have the right to ask the people who sought and attained positions of power and authority where they stand, from your town council person to your CEO. Do it anonymously if you feel threatened, but make your voice heard. Let’s make America great.
