E.J. Dionne Jr.: After Charlottesville: End the Denial About Trump

[babylonsister]

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/charlottesville-end-denial-trump/

Aug 13, 2017
After Charlottesville: End the Denial About Trump
E.J. Dionne Jr.



It should not have taken the death and injury of innocents to move our nation toward moral clarity. It should not have taken President Trump’s disgraceful refusal to condemn white supremacy, bigotry and Nazism to make clear to all who he is and which dark impulses he is willing to exploit to maintain his hold on power.

Those of us who are white regularly insist that the racists and bigots are a minority of us and that the white-power movement is a marginal and demented faction.

This is true, and the mayhem in Charlottesville, Virginia, called forth passionate condemnations of blood-and-soil nationalism across the spectrum of ideology. These forms of witness were a necessary defense of the American idea and underscored the shamefulness of Trump’s embrace of moral equivalence. There are not, as Trump insisted Saturday, “many sides” to questions that were settled long ago: Racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination and white supremacy are unequivocally wrong.

A president who cannot bring himself to say this immediately and unequivocally squanders any claim to moral leadership.

snip//

The battles over Confederate monuments, in Charlottesville and elsewhere, reflect our difficulty in acknowledging that these memorials are less historical markers than political statements. Many were erected explicitly in support of Jim Crow and implicitly to deny the truth that the Southern cause in the Civil War was built around a defense of slavery. Taking them down is an acknowledgement of what history teaches, not an eradication of the past.

But history is also being made now. As is always true with Trump, self-interest is the most efficient explanation for his actions: Under pressure from the Russia investigation, he is reluctant to alienate backlash voters, who are among his most loyal supporters.

The rest of us, however, have a larger obligation to our country and to racial justice. As the late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer might suggest, it is time to ask about Trump: When will we become sick and tired of being sick and tired?

[Catmusicfan]

1. Bravo

[Scarsdale]

2. It is a travesty

having tRump in the WH. He knows NOTHING about almost EVERYTHING. Mainly, leading this country. A con artist "businessman" pretend multimillionaire playboy, full of his own importance. He is a disgusting example of what happens when a foreign nation interferes with our elections, then has the gop cover it all up. tRump is up to his neck in debt to Russia, and THAT is why he ran for the WH, now they rule this country. These Nazi sympathizers, still wet behind the ears know NOTHING about the fight for decency the world went through. tRump would resign, IF he had one ounce of self respect or decency. No, he stays in office an orange blob making his puppet master (Putin) proud of the destruction he is letting happen in this country. I get physically sick seeing him on TV constantly. He is getting fatter and uglier every day. He is a total, unmitigated disaster for this country, and maybe even the world before he is done.

[dalton99a]

3. +1

[smirkymonkey]

7. +1000

This exactly.

[gordianot]

9. There are more who feel this way every day.

I no longer ask if they voted for Trump or not. You provided a good summation for those who do not like Trump.

[Chipper Chat]

12. I usually refrain from commenting on someone's physical appearance, but.............

he really reminds me of Jabba the Hut.

[Eyeball_Kid]

18. Thank you.

[Butterflylady]

4. Amen

I'm tired of crying every day over what is happening to my country.

[Pachamama]

11. Me too...

[bdamomma]

21. Disgust and the mere stupidity of its citizens (not all just those supporters)

we are the only ones to rise up and hopefully the investigations will force this jerk into submission of leaving the office, or there will be social unrest.

[spanone]

5. K&R...

[Stuart G]

6. Trump is who he is..Change is often very difficult.

Trump would rather play golf, then make any effort to change his actions.

That is who he is. But in acting in his "self interest" he exposes himself in ways he could not imagine.
That is who he is. He is a self serving racist who cares only about.."me" and no one else..

............................. And that is who he is..............................................................

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. People only change when they want to. He doesn't want to. He thinks he is a genius. . nt

[gademocrat7]

8. He has caused so much damage to our country.

I am Trump weary.

[mnhtnbb]

10. Trump has always been a racist. He's not going to change. His racism should be regularly called out

[luvtheGWN]

19. I agree. In fact, I think he has just given

the perfect excuse for everyone in the media to expose him. They need to emphasize -- over and over again -- that the reason he hasn't condemned the white supremacists/Nazis/fascists/alt-right is precisely because they are the ones who voted for him. If those life-long Repubs and Hillary haters are painted with the same brush, all the better. And that goes for every GOP senator and Representative as well.

[uponit7771]

20. +1

[mcar]

13. K&R

[Botany]

14. Donald Trump 'kept book of Adolf Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet'

Donald Trump 'kept book of Adolf Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-books-bedside-cabinet-ex-wife-ivana-trump-vanity-fair-1990-a7639041.html

Donald Trump reportedly owned a copy of Adolf Hitler’s speeches and kept them in his bedside cabinet.

A 1990 Vanity Fair article about billionaire businessman stated that Mr Trump’s then wife Ivana, said her husband owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of the Nazi leader’s speeches.

Marie Brenner, the article’s author, wrote: “Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, 'My New Order', which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

snip

Mr Trump, however, denied he would ever read speeches given by Hitler, saying: “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Trump & his father had to submit to Federal consent decree over their RACIST HOUSING in NYC. nt

[BootinUp]

17. Nailed it. Nt