The media don’t call today’s white supremacists terrorists. Trump didn’t either in Charlottesville or anywhere else because he himself is a white supremacist bigot whom I call thing. He is a weak man who must attempt to boost himself up by putting others who are members of communities who are more vulnerable because they are fewer in number down. The rich white heterosexual president punches down on all who are not rich or white or heterosexual !
“We worked all night long starting immediately after the tragic death of Mrs. Bowell Liuzzo On a lonely road between Selma and Montgomery Alabama. Arrests were made a few minutes ago of four Ku Klux Klan members in Birmingham (Bombingham) Alabama charging them with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of the murdered woman. Mr J. Edgar Hoover our honored public servant who is standing here by me has been advised that the identities of the men charged with this heinous crime are as follows: Eugene Thomas age 43 of Besser, William Orville Eaton age 41 also of Besser, Gary Thomas Rowe age 31 of Birmingham, and Collie Leroy Wilkins Jr. age 21 of Fairfield Alabama. Mrs. Liuzzo went to Alabama to serve the struggles of justice. She was murdered by the enemies of justice who for decades have used the rope and the gun, the tar and the feathers to terrorize their neighbors ! They struck by night as they generally do ! For their purpose cannot stand the light of day ! My father fought them many long years ago in Texas and I have fought them all my life because I believe them to threaten the peace of every community where they exist. I shall continue to fight them because I know that their loyalty is not to the United States of America but instead to a hooded society of bigots! Men and women have stood against the Klan at times and at place where to do so required a continuous act of courage ! So if Klansmen hear my voice today, let it be both an appeal and a warning to get out of the Ku Klux Klan now and return to a decent society before it is too late ! I call upon every law enforcement officer in America to insist upon obedience to the law and to insist upon respect for justice ! No nation can long endure either in history’s judgment or in its own national conscience if hoodlums or bigots can defy the law and get away with it ! Justice must be done in the largest city as well as the smallest village on the dirt road and on the Interstate Highway ! We will not be intimidated by the terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan any more than we will be intimidated by the terrorists of North Viet Nam. We will reduce the numbers of those who suffer now in a society free of the Klan and those who support its vicious work . I am asking and directing Attorney General Kassenback to proceed at the earliest possible date to introduce legislation that will bring the activities of the Klan under effective control of the law and I am hopeful that that legislation can be submitted just as soon as we can get the present Voters Rights Legislation through the Congress and in connection with new legislation Congressional Committees may wish to investigate of such organizations as the Klan and the part that they play in instigating violence and I hope that if the Congressional Committees do decide to proceed forthwith they can be assured of the cooperation of all patriotic Americans and certainly we will make all resources of the federal government , the Justice Department and the FBI, available to them “
Forgive me, but this is a rich speech and I made a transcription of it. I am going to provide a brief exegesis of the text. President Lyndon Baines Johnson was speaking out after the arrests of four hooded bigots who were members of the Ku Klux Klan for murdering a person of color. He begins the speech with “We”. He knows that it will take all of us working together. There is no place for “I alone “ can do this or “I know” more than the generals. “Worked” This is not a game. It is not often pleasant. It is our responsibility. It requires great effort, but it gives greater reward. “All night long” We do not fight only when it is convenient. We do not give up when we are weary. We work all night long.
“Arrests” Those bigots were not merely rebuked. They were arrested. This is what must happen to all white supremacists including Thing no matter his office. If anything, his office makes it more important that he be arrested as an example to the others. This is what is meant by “high crimes” y the way. It is not a worse crime per se although bigotry and discrimination are the worst possible crimes upon humanity save child abuse perhaps High crimes means crimes committed by a person high up in power in the federal government. They are prominent and well known. Therefore, their bigotry and crimes become well known. If they remain out of jail, then they are an example of a person able to be a bigot and commit crimes and not be legally punished. Once an exception is made for one person to be allowed to commit crimes without consequence, then law is disrespected and others will believe that they also can break the law without consequence. Their violation of the civil rights of the victim brought legal consequences. This applied to all who committed the crime. We shall return to this idea later. They engaged in a “Conspiracy” . All who are part of this conspiracy shall be brought to justice. Next we note that President LBJ specifically identified the criminals and where they lived to shame them and bring reproach upon them in the cities in which they resided before jail. He did it just like President Obama named Osama Bin Laden when SEALS killed him.
The bigots are “enemies of justice”. All bigots are enemies of justice. This applies to all bigots without exception, even the president of the United States.
I notice here that President LBJ refers to the victims as our “neighbor” which reminds me of Senator Harris and her exposition of the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 when she spoke at the Poor People’s Campaign with Reverend Barber and the passage itself. Our neighbor may not look like us and may have a different religion than us, but a vulnerable person in need near us is our neighbor. The people who are in power today are rich, white, heterosexual males. Those are the people who are most in a position of privilege. However, even poor white males have more privilege than rich African American males. White females who are not heterosexual have privilege over rich African American males. Ethnicity/Race first determines privilege, gender next determines privilege, then how a person self-identifies (are they a member of the LGBTQ community), then income and wealth (poor is less than wealthy). So a white male who is straight and rich has every privilege that exists. To be president is to have more power than anybody else in the federal government and anybody else in the country and to be considered (normally) the leader of the free world. This can only mean that President Donald Trump enjoys and has enjoyed every single privilege that exists. His lack of empathy combined with all of this privilege means that he cannot identify with or understand what the world looks like from the eyes of somebody who does not share that privilege. He cannot sympathize with anybody who is a member of a vulnerable community that is under attack. If you are vulnerable and he sees you, then he wants to attack you and exploit you. Nobody is the neighbor of Thing.
They struck “at night” because their deeds cannot stand to be exposed by the “light of day” . People often commit crimes or commit immoral or unethical acts at a time and place where they will not be known to have committed those acts. They know that the acts are either wrong or would be disapproved of by others or are illegal. This is why President Thing ordered the attorney who represents the Office of the President Don McGahn to not admit that he pressured him to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. When we read the Mueller report, we find that he constantly tried to Obstruct Justice. Thing did this because he wanted to prevent Robert Mueller from finding out what he had done that was wrong. This was why he was so mad at Jefferson Sessions for his recusal and why he said that this would be the end of his presidency.
President Johnson went on to say that he had “fought against them all his life.”We cannot take time off or a vacation from fighting bigotry and racism and misogyny and xenophobia. We can do no less than he. We must follow his example. We must fight against bigotry all our lives from the cradle to the grave.
“They threaten the peace of every community” . Anywhere that bigotry and misogyny and xenophobia exists, the peace of that community is threatened.
“Their loyalty is not to the United States of America but to a hooded society of bigots.” These people claim to be patriots, but they oppose the freedom and rights of others which are enshrined in the Constitution which is the highest law of the land. Trump Republicans claim to be patriots, but they oppose the rights of others which are enshrined in the US. Constitution. When they talk about opposing the deep state, they are talking about fighting the federal government of the country which affords them every good thing that they have in life. They don’t have to police themselves. They don’t have to educate their children They don’t have to take up arms to defend their land against another country.
We must warn the bigots that change is coming and that they must either get out of the way or be tied to a discriminatory world view that will be run over. All law enforcement officers are supposed to make sure that the law is obeyed and racism and discrimination are not allowed. Unfortunately, today, we see militarized policing and bigoted police (cf Philadelphia recently was investigated for this and the results were not pretty!)
He goes on to say No nation can long endure either in history’s judgment or in its own national conscience if hoodlums or bigots can defy the law and get away with it ! This is true. Diversity is our strength and it is what makes us successful as a country. Think about it: the more diverse backgrounds we have here the more different ideas will be presented at the marketplace of ideas and the more likely that a successful idea will prevail ! A lack of diversity and shutting out of diverse voices hurts our country in every way, economically and in the arts and socially !!! If we let bigots defy the law, then why couldn’t others defy it ? Of course they would ! It would mean a breakdown of society !
Racism must be opposed everywhere: in the largest city, the smallest village, on the dirt road, and the Interstate Highway ! If racism is permitted a foothold, it will grab more and more land like Hitler did ! There can be no peace with the bigots !! We cannot make an agreement with them ! For they have no character and violate their own conscience by treating others in ways that they would not want to be treated ! How and why would one trust the words of bigots who historically knew what they were doing was wrong and were ashamed of it !! If they were not, then why did they put the sheets over their heads ! To hide their identities because they knew their actions were vile and wrong !
We will not be intimidated by these terrorists and terrorists they are and terrorists they must be called !!! Those who will not call them terrorists are siding with the terrorists ! What else are they doing by inflicting terror upon others simply for being born different than them ! They even hate infants for no other reason than bigotry !
No delay is permissible for we need the earliest possible date to introduce legislation . We cannot wait to strengthen and support The Voting Rights Act and The Civil Rights Act !! We must strengthen them and support them now with all of our might !! Those were pieces of legislation can be submitted just as soon as we can get the present Voters Rights Legislation through the Congress he said. He dared not wait, but pressed for these to become law.
We know our Congressional Committees may wish to investigate the Bigot Thing and all of his bigoted soldiers in his administration and hold impeachment hearings without delay.
We know we ought to be assured of the cooperation of all patriotic Americans and that those who are impartial between the Devil and God and the bigots and those who rejoice in and support diversity are not any more patriotic than the bigots whose loyalty is not to the United States of America but to their groups of bigotry.
We know that we ought to have all resources of the federal government , the Justice Department and the FBI, available to them that are fighting bigotry. We must fight them nonviolently in every way we can: sit in, protests, boycotts, lawsuits, and we must vote every time we can cast a vote against them and for the only party that can defeat the powers of bigotry, the Democratic Party.
Below I refer to just a few evidences of Trump’s bigotry, misogyny, racism, and xenophobia off the top of my head:
of shithole countries Barack Obama born in Kenya gerrymandering weakening the voting rights act .. Illinois Hispanic American judge not American the policy of cages and separating families not sending us their best Census question prevent Transgender Americans from serving in the military mocking reporter with disability blood coming out of wherever
The White House Is Planning a Backdoor Travel Ban on Trump’s “S—thole Countries”
The Trump administration family separation policy is an aspect of US President Donald Trump's immigration policy. The policy was presented to the public as a "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation.[1][2][3][4]It was adopted across the entire US–Mexico border from April 2018 until June 2018,[5][6][7] however later investigations found that the practice of family separations had begun a year previous to the public announcement.[8] Under the policy, federal authorities separated children from parents or guardians with whom they had entered the US undocumented.[6][9][10] The adults were prosecuted and held in federal jails, and the children placed under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The Atlantic went through the last four decades of Trump’s bigotry. It’s ugly.