The only surprising thing about Donald Trump’s furious defense of Nazis is how unsurprising it is. After all, this is the guy who didn’t want blacks touching his money because they’re inherently lazy … and because that’s what Jews are for.
“The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.”
This is the guy who said Mexicans are rapists. They guy who maintained that a judge born in Indiana was still a Mexican who couldn’t be trusted—comments that Paul Ryan at the time called the “textbook definition” of racism. Donald Trump is a racist, a sexist, and a bigot. He hasn’t hidden that.
Those who have supported Trump to this point can maintain they’re not racist all they want. They can even believe it. But they can’t deny that in supporting Trump they are supporting racism.
When Donald Trump says …
“Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue, Robert E. Lee.“
When he maintains that some people were marching among the torches, the threats, and the racist chants and were still “very fine people,” he’s only telling Trump supporters exactly what they always believed—you can go along with racism and violence, but it won’t wear off on you. You can lie down with Nazis, and still call yourself a good person. That’s what Trump is selling. It’s what they want to believe.
Of all Trump’s lies, this one is the biggest. It’s not possible to ignore evil without being evil. Turning away from racism is condoning racism. Ignoring violence is encouraging violence.
Equating white supremacist extremists with those who fight them, is an abdication of moral standing. It’s an admissions of not just a lack of judgement, but a disregard for the whole concept of a moral good. A casting away of any sense of good or evil.
From the moment he stepped onto the national scene, Donald Trump made his position clear—what’s good for Trump he accepts. What displeases him is unacceptable. That’s the only distinction he makes in his petty, vengeful life.
It’s not possible to be a “very fine person” while marching with people waving torches as they chant hatred about Jews and blacks on their way to threaten students over a statue raised to a racist traitor. But Donald Trump thinks so … because some of them were chanting their support for him, and that’s all that counts. That makes them “very fine” for him.
Anyone who still supports Donald Trump is taking their position alongside those white supremacists with their Tiki torches. That’s the team they’ve chosen. They can no longer pretend that they can support Donald Trump and not be racist. Trump has set his marker, shown his hand. No one can feign ignorance.
It’s no longer possible for anyone in America to say they stand with Donald Trump, but stand against white nationalism and hate. Anyone who stays with him now, should just go ahead and pick up their torch. And leave your pretenses at the door, because you can’t support Donald Trump and be a “fine person.”