That title of this blog is not a sick joke. It is real – which is a lot more than I can say about the New York Times’ “The Hate He Dares Not Speak Of” editorial in today’s paper.
Here is most of it – in rust, with my comments in blue:
Let’s discard the fiction that President Trump wasn’t placating white supremacists by responding so weakly to the neo-Nazi violence that killed Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old counterdemonstrator in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. The neo-Nazis heard his message loud and clear. Great start. Condemning all sides – not just the White supremacists and neo-nazis, but also the left wing shock troops who were there to make sure a violent confrontation would occur, is equivalent to siding with the White supremacists and neo-nazis. That pretty much tells you where this editorial is going, doesn’t it?
“He didn’t attack us,” crowed The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website, about Mr. Trump’s statement after the two days of racist demonstrations. “Refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.” OF COURSE Trump attacked these scumbags. He did not attack them EXCLUSIVELY. The New York Times would not buy one word of nazi propaganda under any other circumstances. But if what the daily stormer says can be used to create a BS connection to Trump, it is suddenly the oracle of delphi. Pathetic.
After the attack, and before he spoke, Mr. Trump reportedly consulted advisers. They told him to condemn the white nationalists who fomented the violence.
He did not. Instead, he spoke of an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence that’s on many sides. Liars. You edited out the rest of what he said.
Donald Trump’s exact words, verbatim, were:
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It’s been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America. What is vital now, is a swift restoration of law and order, and the protection of innocent lives…Above all, we must remember this truth, no matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first.”
Does the New York Times think White supremacists and nazis find solace in those words? In Trump specifically equating us all by “our color, creed, religion…”? Does that look like a statement meant to separate us?
Mr. Trump is alone in modern presidential history in his willingness to summon demons of bigotry and intolerance in service to himself. Based on WHAT? The BS I just debunked? When President Obama lamented that “if I had a son he would look like Trayvon”, was he separating us by color – putting people of his color ahead of others? When he never said a word against the blacklivesmatters haters who called for dead cops, was that warding off any demons?
He began his political career on a lie about President Barack Obama’s citizenship uh…believing Obama was lying is not equivalent to telling a lie and has failed to firmly condemn the words and deeds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan leaders and other bigots who rallied behind him. Yes he did. See above. A number of these people, including David Duke, the former Klan imperial wizard, and Richard Spencer, self-styled theorist of the alt-right, were part of the amen chorus of bigots in Charlottesville.
“We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump,” said Mr. Duke, whose support Mr. Trump has only reluctantly disavowed in the past. “That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”
Donald Trump has specifically, and often, disavowed david duke. And, as noted above, you would never buy into one word from a nazi like this sack of crap if it were about anything you couldn’t use against Donald Trump. Even the Trump-hating CNN admitted as much – (along with pointing out that he didn’t say it clearly enough the first time – the one part of your editorial that I agree with you on):
Donald Trump issued a crystal clear disavowal Thursday of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke after stumbling last weekend over a question about the hate group leader on CNN.
OK, that’s enough. You should get the idea by now. If you can’t see what is wrong with this editorial, nothing I show you from here on will make a difference.
Let me end by advising non-regular readers of the following (I assume most regular readers already know it):
I have exactly zero tolerance for people who hate by race, or religion, or sexual preference.
While I, personally, am White and Jewish, my family, and friends, and business colleagues include diversity within every one of those categories. Every one of them is irrelevant to me: I have never judged people on any basis other than who and what they are as individuals, and don’t intend to start now.
If I see/hear real examples of racism or anti-Semitism from Donald Trump and/or people around him, I will not hesitate for one second to say so , and to say what sacks of excrement I think they are.
But I have to see/hear real examples to do it. And what was in that Times editorial does not make the cut.
