Thoughts on Charlottesville

Ever since a group of cowards flying Nazi flags killed someone in Charlottesville, I’ve been trying to write something. But then the President* goes and picks a fight with NFL players. And gets in an insult-trading contest with North Korea. And belittles the mayor of San Juan, while Puerto Rico continues to deal with the entire island being devastated. Something else terrible has probably happened in the time I've taken to write this. (Oh, look, I was right: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/08/us/richard-spencer-charlottesville.html)

What is it that gets the White House supporting people rocking the Confederate flag and chanting Nazi slogans, and then turn right around and demand that everyone has to jump up and put their hand over their heart every time they hear the Star Spangled Banner? (And, as comedian Trae Crowder points out better than anyone, the stars and bars may be the most inherently un-American symbol that exists.) Why is it that the Nazis who killed a woman in Charlottesville can be “very fine people,” but an athlete silently and respectfully trying to draw attention to violence and racism is a “son of a bitch”?

The common denominator is fear and cowardice. Punching down rather than punching up. Trump does nothing else. He began his run for the presidency by calling Mexicans rapists. He mocked people with physical disabilities during the campaign. He degrades and demeans women at every turn. His very entrance into politics was by leading the stupid and racist “birther” conspiracy.

Once in office, this behavior continued unabated, to the surprise of nobody who was even half conscious during the campaign. His foreign policy goes no deeper than juvenile name calling that I wouldn’t tolerate from my second graders. His domestic policy is the same, attacking everyone and everything but himself, while getting exactly nothing of substance accomplished. For a man holding the most powerful office in the world, Trump is remarkably thin skinned. It would be laughable, perhaps pitiable, if it weren’t so dangerous.

These Nazi douchebags in Charlottesville and elsewhere are the same way. The world white supremacists thought they were going to inherit didn’t turn out the way they expected. Change happens, and has always happened. But when faced with change — with the fact that the world was more complex and diverse and difficult than their fantasy 1950s America where the White Man was in charge of everything, women and blacks and gays knew their place, and All Was Right with the World — they lacked both the fortitude to adapt and the mental stamina to wrestle with facts that flew in the face of their pre-conceived notions. Instead, they lash out at everyone that doesn’t conform to their vision of the world. It would be laughable or pitiable if it wasn’t also dangerous.

White supremacists — note that I find this term completely interchangeable with “alt-right” — sell a vision where all problems are the fault of “the other”. The Jews control the money and the media, the blacks are causing all the crime, the Latinos are taking all the jobs, women demand that gender roles be challenged instead of keeping the house and children like they should be, and all of them together are bring about the downfall of civilization. They seem to have no ability whatsoever to either look inward or adapt to the actual world, or empathize with anyone who isn’t exactly like them. They revel in the past because they cannot bear the future. And they sell that vision to the gullible and the ignorant.

Introspection, or even just the ability to listen and attempt to understand someone else’s point of view, is apparently more effort than white supremacists are capable of mustering. So they retreat into their like-minded conclaves, where anyone with a slightly different skin tone can automatically be considered inferior, the burden of thought can be offloaded onto some charismatic leader who tells you what to think, and anything in society or culture that may break the illusion that they’ve cultivated is something to be dismissed or attacked. They continually steep and revel in their perceived victimhood.

Donald Trump may not be a card-carrying member of the Klan or alt-right, but he certainly seems to share their worldview. Everything revolves around him, and nothing is ever his fault. He campaigned by constantly blaming other people for society's ills, and won by duping enough people with his simplistic vision of the world. And, wittingly or not, he continues to enable and support the pathetic drivel coming out of these racist movements.

So, what do we do? How do we combat this level of ignorance and these vile ideas? As Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria pointed out at the Air Force Academy, you do it with a better idea. We do it by treating each other with dignity and respect.

The white supremacists continue to claim that diversity is the root of all of society's ills. They would have you believe that any attempt to wrestle with the uncomfortable past of the United States is an attack on history and heritage. (By the way, it's not.)They claim that in order for one group to win, all others must lose.

Well, I have a better idea. I claim that the diversity of the United States is our strength, and that while it has been a long, difficult struggle, we still move toward the ideal enshrined on the Great Seal of our country: e pluribus unum. We continue to have grave challenges to our nation: wealth inequality, systemic racism, fundamental changes in the global economy, climate change -- all of these, and more, threaten the foundations of our country. But when we find the courage to look at ourselves and the fortitude to change, these challenges -- and any others -- can be overcome.