Playing to Base Desires, One More Time 0
Alfred Doblin savages Donald Trump’s response to events in Charlottesville, Virginia, noting that he demonstrated that he values his rabid, bigoted base more than his country. Here’s a bit:
No mention of white supremacists. Later, during a press conference held at his golf club in Bedminster, the president said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides.”
Many sides? There aren’t many sides to hatred, bigotry and violence, only one side: the wrong one.
Afterthought:
It appears that the resurgent racist right is receiving a reaction that it did not expect.
They are certainly not gaining new followers, and I suspect the push-back has taken them aback. If not for them, Confederate monuments that have been or are being removed in many cities the past week would likely still be standing and still be relatively uncontroversial, by which I mean, images in the background of day-to-day life, not issues in the foreground.
This is in no way to downplay racist right’s danger to the polity. Stupid, hate-full, angry men (and it’s mostly men) with guns (and nuclear codes) are inherently dangerous. Rather, it is to point out a tiny little ray of sunshine peeking through the thunderclouds.
Whether the clouds will break is a whole nother issue. So long as the Southern Strategy Republican Party maintains dominance via voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other dirty tricks, optimism escapes me.
