Trump Condemns White Nationalists...

Unlike many of my friends, I'm going to give Trump credit for saying that we need to confront white nationalism... hear me out though... Trump has made it his modus operandi of creating a problem and then solving it. So... here he is again, stoking the pre-existing racism in this country into a frenzy and then finally, years later, condemning it. Ok, so maybe he didn't create the racism that I'm essentially giving him credit for but he's also not solving the problem this time either... so... I guess I'm not giving him credit for his statements after all.

Seriously, though, I'm tired of Republican presidents blowing racist dog whistles consistently and then condemning racism when something tragic happens. In the case of Trump, he's been using racist blow horns at every rally and until now has not condemned white nationalists for any of the events that have happened. This statement he had written up for him to read is as empty and as sincere as my offer of credit for it. Now, mind you, all Presidents have statements written for them, the significance here is that Trump has a tendency to say things that are the polar opposite of the written statements when he is off script.

No, not all Republicans are racists, of course they aren't. Yes, there are plenty of racist Democrats. And yes, we've had racist Democratic presidents. But the racism that Trump has stoked since even before his run for the presidency and through to just last week (and likely in the next campaign rally or potentially the next press briefing) dwarfs what we have seen in recent history. Add to that, the frequency of bald-faced lies Trump and his team hold firmly to and you can see why I don't believe for a moment that Trump actually feels that we need to confront white nationalism. At best, he's trying to make it ok for his supporters to support him. At worst he's trying to deflect and cause more chaos, as is his underlying main modus operandi.

Is Every Trump Supporter a Racist? Does it matter?

There's been a lot of talk of whether Trump supporters are all racist.  The Right keeps saying this is nonsense, that you simply can't paint his supporters with that brush.  Perhaps we should start with some facts though.

Fact one: Trump is a racist, or at a minimum, he plays one on his reality tv show that he's going going on: "The President."  He plays one to such a degree that his rally-goers chant and proclaim racist statements all the time.  He plays one to such a degree that it's not a question of whether he knows what the dog whistles have underlying them.  And he has played one to this degree for well over a decade (go look up The Central Park Five, where, after the true murderer admitted his actions, Trump continues to say the 5 falsely accused were guilty).

Fact two: Racist acts and hate crimes have been on the rise since Trump became president.

Fact three: Trump's supporters are, for the most part, unwilling to say something about Trump's racism in public.

Fact four: When Obama was president, there were plenty of Obama supporters who called him out on a variety of issues.  The most common ones I saw were overseas military actions (bombings) and deportations (note, this is deportations, not separating children from their parents when they come asking for asylum).

Alright, so, for the non-fact-based portion of this thought experiment... let's acknowledge that you can support someone without supporting all of what they do and say.  Obama is a great example given the fourth fact, above.

There is the potential that people aren't willing to acknowledge that Trump is a racist because "racism" is such a negative by the general populace that they think they lose every argument attached to Trump if the acknowledge it.  In most cases, that identifies that the thinker of this feels that the racism being promoted IS THAT BAD.  I suppose there could be the idea that the general populace thinks racism is bad but that the thinking doesn't believe the general populace is right.  Certainly, there are many on the Left that feel that it is that bad and cannot be tolerated, though we haven't seen a scenario play out yet where we have someone on the Left being racist in this manner without being called out in any way by the Left.  We have had individuals be racist, but they tend to be called out as such.


All that said, one of the biggest tactics Trump uses is racism to divide the country.  He does this in so many different ways and so openly.  He sometimes tries to claim he's not using it, like when he initially claimed to the news that he had didn't like the "Send Her Back" chant at one of his rallies.  What's really amusing about these attempts is that he has nothing to stand on so when he makes these claims, anybody with a memory and access to the video of the earlier event or his twitter feed can easily see that he's lying.  In the case of the "Send Her Back" chant, he initially claimed that he tried to stop it by talking very quickly.  A few things about this claim:
1) It's false.  He didn't start talking quickly.  He in fact stepped back and let the chant wash over him like a victorious speaker appreciating the crowds cheers.  Only after the chant died down did he start talking again, and at that point he didn't talk quickly.
2) That's not how you stop a chant!  You only have to go back to when Senator McCain ran President Obama to understand what a dignified individual does in the face of a crowd throwing racism about.  Senator McCain, say what you will about him, and I can say a lot, on a number of occasions did not stand for the crowd bringing racism into his race for the presidency.  He would receive a question from the crowd and immediately take control and explain calmly but sternly that Obama was not whatever the crowd member was suggesting and explaining that while the two have differences of philosophies, Obama was a citizen of the US or was a dignified human being and not someone to be "scared of."  If you're going to try to say that racism is wrong, you say it.  You don't just continue with your rant trying to talk over a chant and you CERTAINLY don't just step back and listen to the chant.  You call it out.  You tell your supporters that they're wrong to use that language.  But Trump doesn't believe that they're wrong to use that language and he doesn't believe that the racism involved is reprehensible.

Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent there.  Again, it's clear that Trump is racist or is, at a minimum, ok with playing the racist.  And his supporters are ok with his doing so as well.  So, back to the question, does being ok with your leader being a racist make you a racist?  I would suggest that it's a matter of degrees but that, if you are ok with your leader being a racist and you don't complain about it and point it out every time he does something racist, that makes you an accomplice at best.

I have yet to hear or read of a Trump supporter acknowledging the obvious racism publicly though.
 So, yeah, Trump supporters may not themselves be racist, but as long as they're not speaking up, they might as well be.

PS - Racism isn't the only dividing issue Trump plays on.  He also is very much a sexist and plays into anti-LGBTQ tropes.  The last bit is somewhat interesting to me because he pretended at the Republican National Convention in 2016 that he was proud of the party for being welcoming of his pro-LGB-rights messages.  So add these to the lists of things Trump supporters are buying into if they're not openly upset by. It's astonishing to see this culture war being pushed openly by the Right when they have been pushing most of it a little more descretely (though still obviously for those who could read between the lines and understood the tropes and dog whistles).

Quick Summary of Charlottesville Rally on 11-Aug-2017 and the events that followed

• Charlottesville, VA decides they're going to take down a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate monument (I'm genuinely curious if there are many other countries where the losing side of a conflict have so many memorials to "protect heritage")
• A white supremacist organizes a "Unite the Right" rally.  Let's pause for a moment.  This is someone claiming to speak for the right wing of the country and saying that his position is one that the rest of the right wing should rally around... that position being white supremacy.  I haven't seen many right wing people concerned about this.  Alright, let's go on.
• The city of Charlottesville votes to revoke the rally permit.  
• The permit is reinstated by a federal court the week before the planned date for the rally.
• The rally begins and there are images and tapes of white supremacists, carrying torches ... tiki torches, but torches all the same, performing the nazi solute, and chanting things such as "Jews will not replace us."  During the rally, David Duke (former head of the KKK) says "This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That's what we believed in. That's why we voted for Donald Trump - because he said he's going to take our country back."  O.k., that gives you some idea as to what the rally was really about... not just "protecting heritage" but rather about stating that the racists are back and willing to be way out in the open. 
• There is a counter-rally with people shouting offensive things at the white supremacists.... though to my mind, you don't really consider a match to be a flame when someone is holding a blow-torch nearby.... none-the-less, there is a reason I mention it.
• After the rally, the groups collide and violence ensues.
• James Alex Fields Jr drives his car into the counter-rally goers, killing 1 and injuring 19 others.  He later explained his actions as being his response to people abusing his car.... This is a scenario similar to stand your ground, I imagine, where if you feel endangered, you can commit murder without expecting repercussions.
• President Trump responds 
• At first by saying that there was a lot of hatred "on all sides"... here's where we come back to the counter-rally folk holding up their matches when others are holding up literal torches.
• He comes back on Monday, after many calls for him to be more vocal about denouncing racists and does exactly that... he denounces racist groups... "Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans,"  Read that carefully because he doesn't actually walk back what he said previously.  He leaves the door open for many of his supporters to consider the counter-protesters to be members of hate groups.  Many believe Black Lives Matter, for instance, to be a hate group, even though the group is about trying to raise awareness of the violence toward blacks and the inequity and racism that still exists in our country.  This is like suggesting that someone calling attention to a house that's on fire is doing so in an attempt to light other houses on fire.
• On Tuesday, President Trump returns to the reporters to talk about infrastructure and, as you might expect, gets more questions about Charlottesville and his responses.  He states again that there is blame to be found on both sides and starts equating General Lee to President Washington, asking that since Washington had slaves, should we be taking down his monuments.  This is commonly referred to what-aboutism, where people respond to a question with "what about this other thing?"  The other thing tends to either not be nearly as problematic as the original element in question or tends to be on a completely different topic.  Furthermore...
• Lee's monuments were put up nearly half  a century after the end of the Civil War and were there to justify Jim Crow laws.
• Lee's monuments are in remembrance of Lee's actions in the Civil War, standing up against the big bad United States of America (and the rights of states to allow slavery), in contrast to monuments to Washington which are in remembrance of his support and leadership of the United States of America (with no direction within this rememberance, one way or another, regarding slavery)... subtle difference there, right?
• Free Speech rallies are planned in 23 states.  One of the first to be held is in Boston, MA.  The Boston event showcases rally goers in the 10's and counter-rally goers in the 10,000's (estimates put the counter-rally protest at between 30,000 and 40,000 people).  Police arrest 30 of the counter-protesters for violence... remember, that's out of 30,000 people who attended.  The rest of the rallies are replaced with online gatherings rather than in person rallies.