For the past 36 hours I’ve tried to gather my thoughts about the Charlottesville riots and killing of 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Here goes, in no particular order.
Free Speech. The sight of neo-Nazis marching with torches was nauseating. But even Nazis are protected by the First Amendment. That’s why a federal judge declined to issue an injunction against their march. It’s why the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an injunction issued in 1977 seeking to prevent Nazis from marching in the mostly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie.
The concept that the Bill of Rights is not just for nice people seems to be beyond much of the social media and political reaction. Nazis and the Klan had a right to protest, just as Antifa had a right to counter protest. Neither side had a right to hit the other over the head with clubs, spray mace in each others’ faces, or drive cars into people. Those are crimes that should be prosecuted.
Hideous people and odious ideas are a threat to our Republic, but not nearly so much a threat as discarding the First Amendment. Preserving the right to peaceful protest is paramount. Numerous credible on-the-ground reports demonstrate that Antifa was as violent, if not more violent, than the Nazi/Klan protesters. Who “started it” may never be known, or may not be clear, but we’ve seen the Antifa breach of peace many times before. That is why President Trump absolutely was correct to condemn the violence “from many sides.”
Never Enough. Trump’s statements after the riots are being criticized for not explicitly condemning white nationalism and the racism of the Nazi/Klan protesters. I think he should have been more explicit, and named names ON BOTH SIDES. Antifa has a long history of violence not just against Nazi/Klan protesters, but against the police and mainstream Republicans. They all deserve to be called out for what they are.
But let’s not kid ourselves, nothing Trump could have said would have prevented withering criticism. It would have been a game of “how high” Trump should jump. Which leads to the next point.
It’s About #TheResistance. What a foul weekend on Twitter. I imagine Facebook was the same, though I’m not as much into Facebook as Twitter. There was overwhelming political exploitation, and not just by Democrats, liberals and leftists. #NeverTrump Republicans were out in full force and settling “I told you so” scores, as well.
For the left, the goal was to smear all conservatives and Republicans with the alt-right or Nazi taint. Not surprisingly, Marcos Moulistas from Daily Kos and Vox Media led the way, asserting that “NRA and American conservatives/Nazis are one and the same.” Moulitsas, you may recall, was also one of the instigators of the false claim that Sarah Palin’s electoral map was related to the shooting of Gabby Giffords in 2011. It never changes, the ghouls were out once again.
Taking down Trump is the overarching goal of so many of those attacking Trump over Charlottesville. Yes, I question their motives and the honesty of their reactions.
Honestly. The above notwithstanding, there were good faith and honest criticisms of Trump from some conservatives.
The Criminal Law Can Handle This. The killing of Heather Heyer is horrible, and deserves condemnation. But the criminal law can handle it.
The call for a Justice Department civil rights investigation, including by many conservative Republicans, is pandering at this point. If the driver of the vehicle who has been arrested, James Alex Fields, can be proven to have intentionally driven into the crowd, he probably is facing life in prison. If, as some early reports indicated, he panicked when surrounded by a hostile Antifa crowd, then his criminal culpability will be harder to judge, but there may be lesser offenses that would land him in prison for years. If there was no violation of the criminal law, then he will go free, which is the way our system is supposed to work.
A political investigation adds little to this other than a legally-sanctioned double jeopardy. It’s why I opposed such investigations in other cases where there had been no criminal liability, such as the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.
Where the Hell were the Cops? This all was predictable. We’ve seen this movie before. It’s a miracle no one was killed before Charlottesville. There does need to be an investigation as to why there were insufficient law enforcement forces on hand to keep the two sides apart, as beat-downs took place in many places with no police in sight.
Campus Speech At Risk. The semester is about to start, and long before Charlottesville there were concerns about free speech on campus for anyone right-of-center. Those concerns will grow as there will be intense pressure to bar “Nazis” from campus, with the definition of “Nazi” to include all Trump supporters, conservatives, practicing Christians, and anyone else who does not toe the liberal party line. The illusory concept of “hate speech” will be used to shut down debate, kick speakers off campus, and justify shout-downs with even more intensity. It will take brave university administrations to ensure this doesn’t happen, and “bravery” is not what university administrators are known for.
That’s it for now.
[Featured Image: Screencap CBS News Video]
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Comments
This is the message that people need to get – the 1st Amendment cannot be forsaken, even if we get Nazis marching down the street.
The lead up to this kind of stuff is playing all sides:
– BLM crazies make the right-wing more sympathetic to free speech restrictions
– KKK crazies make the left-wing more sympathetic to free speech restrictions
– The Government gets a pass on eviscerating the 1st Amendment
– God help whoever is on the “outs” with which ever particular government is in power
The “evil nazis” and “thug lives matter” narratives are simply meant to distract you while your freedoms are removed, one by one.
I know way too many otherwise reasonable people who are ready to give up freedom of speech because their afraid of a world where nazis can march peacefully through neighborhoods. Because nazis must be met with violence even if they themselves aren’t violent.
McAuliff and Michael Signer deserve more blame than they will ever see in the media for helping create this mess. If white nationalists want to march, give them a damned permit and don’t make a big deal out of it. In any event, don’t deny them while tweeting about how much you hate them. Then the courts get involved. Then it becomes a big stinking deal. And then after you’ve put out the call for counter protesters, don’t sit back and pretend you really didn’t mean it.
I have no love for the protesters OR for the counter protesters. If you were there and you were injured, well we know you weren’t there to hold hands and sing kumbaya. I really don’t care what happens to the alt right or the alt left. Let them beat each other senseless and each side can try to out victim the other. Neither side in this debacle holds the moral highground. They are equally vile.
There were a couple of 1st Amendment groups out there, who explicitly condemned the KKK, White Nationalists, etc, etc, but were willing to stand and fight for anyone’s right (including BLM, et. al.) to peacefully assemble.
Of course, since groups like that don’t fit the narrative, I’m sure all the focus will be on the klucks and krauts.
As odious as they are, the KKK and white nationalists have a right to assembly and a right to free speech. The left needs to understand they will no longer be allowed to use violence to prevent ANY citizens from exercising their constitutional rights. The ACLU understood it, Antifa and BLM didn’t get the message.
Re: Sanddog:
But the left WAS ALLOWED to limit speech AGAIN. Those who held the permit were told to leave because of “emergency” while the antifa was allowed to stay and march.
So, the only lesson the left got from this weekend is: We are first class citizens, those we oppose are 2nd class citizens; we provoked the permit-holders; the permit-holders got chased off, and to boot, the permit-holders are being roundly criticized because someone ran over people with a car.
This weekend just emboldens them more. McAuliffe saw to that.
At worst, the bullies lost at their own game. The government did not deny them free speech if their actions were incendiary and intended to cause a reaction.
This not Germany. People have learned to stand up the jack booted thugs. So now the jack booted thugs are crying. But the worst of the worst still couldn’t felt the need to kill someone.
You do realize that the “Antifa” ARE jack-booted thugs too, right?
@Paul Please, the neo-nazis were carry semi-automatic rifles. Most of the counter-protesters believe in non-violence.
I have as little sympathy for any violent Antifa’s, as I do for the white power clowns. But tarring the majority of the counter-protesters with that label is an attempt to discredit the entire left. I can’t stop you. But you are wrong.
There have been a dozen or more violent riots carried out by the Antifa over recent months. These have included the destruction of millions of dollars of property and violent beat-downs of many people. To say that the vast majority of Antifa are peaceful is wrong… they ARE the far-left equivalent of the Neo-Nazis. That you won’t denounce them speaks volumes.
No one is under any obligation to like any particular group or its philosophy. However, this nation enshrined, within its Constitution, the core philosophy that thoughts and desires can not be forcibly quelled. Physical force can only be used to meet unlawful physical force. And, our Constitution, as interpreted by the courts, place an irrevocable duty upon our government(s) to protect that right and ALL those lawfully exercising it. To do otherwise makes it a near certainty that NO ONE will be able exercise that right.
ROD DREHER: CHARLOTTESVILLE IS THE KIND OF AMERICA THAT IDENTITY POLITICS IS CALLING INTO BEING. It’s time for straight talk about that:
Finally, we on the Right have to start speaking out without fear against identity politics — and calling out people on the Left, especially those within institutions, for practicing it. The alt-right has correctly identified a hypocritical double standard in American culture. It’s one that allows liberals and their favored minority groups to practice toxic identity politics — on campus, in the media, in corporate America, on the streets — while denying the possibility to whites and males. By speaking out against left-wing identity politics, and by explaining, over and over, why identity politics are wrong and destructive, conservatives strengthen their position in chastising white nationalists on the Right.
But none of this will matter at all as long as the Left refuses to oppose identity politics in its own ranks. As I keep saying here, you cannot have an identity politics of the Left without calling up the same thing on the Right. Left-liberals who want conservatives to stigmatize and denounce white nationalism, but conservatives who do so will be sneered at by white nationalists as dupes and fools who advocate disarmament in the face of racist, sexist forces of the Left.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): David Marcus was warning of this over a year ago: How Anti-White Rhetoric Is Fueling White Nationalism: White people are being asked—or pushed—to take stock of their whiteness and identify with it more. This is a remarkably bad idea.
Related: We’ll have more Charlottesvilles. I’d rather have a culture in which people responded to ideas and groups they dislike with peaceful criticism, but we haven’t had that for a while.
—Ed Driscoll at InstaPundit
Oddly, some nutter called me a “leftist” for saying what the Prof. said.
I’ll bet money he won’t do that to the Prof.
I’m SO a conservative that I’ve been saying identity politics was a great evil for several decades.
Right again…
This was easy to see coming. The left thought Obama was a genius for his use of race baiting agitation. They apparently didn’t stop to consider that this country is still 65% white. Sooner or later the crackers are going to get tired of it.
It isn’t just the fringe that is impacted by identity politics. The non-racist, non-anti-Semitic white people are weary of it as well. That means that, over time, fewer and fewer whites will be sympathetic to those on the left who sow the wind.
I don’t like white supremacists, but I don’t like black supremacists or elitists either. I’d say let them all kill each other, but the problem with that is that they’ll kill a bunch of us and destroy a bunch of property in the process.
State Governors needs to learn to deploy the National Guard whenever an event becomes a draw to the Fascist Anti’s.
I’m not sure that posing as victims of anti-white rhetoric and policies is necessarily the best way to fight this. Lately I’ve seen more and more from our side adopt the same victimology that characterizes so much of the left. It’s not for me.
Nor me. But the point is…and the evidence shows…that you and I are not all there is. There are nuts out there who react very differently.
Aren’t there…???
That’s the point of the piece I referenced.
Re: Rdmdawg:
We’re not nuts for getting fed up with being trashed CONSTANTLY. CONSTANTLY, CONSTANTLY.
It’s annoying, then it’s tiresome, then it’s irritating, then it’s infuriating….
Annoying, tiresome, irritating, and even infuriating. Yes, it is all of those things. But it does not justify violence.
Son, we’ve been getting trashed ‘Constantly’ for a long, long time now, nothing is new. I remember back after graduating HS in ’88 getting my first real job and a newspaper sub, which I ended up cancelling after 3 weeks. I started wondering why just about every article subtly blamed me and my lifestyle for everything bad going on in the world. This was way before Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and intarweb blogs. All we had was National Review.
It’s the nature of the media to do this, and understanding their motives and their power to influence culture and politics isn’t infinite brings a certain peace of mind. Of course, never get complacent, always keep up the fight.
It would be historic revisionism to suggest that anything in your living memory that is pre-Trump is analogous to what is happening now. Even the worst of the Reagan and Bush hate wasn’t a patch on this.
[class] diversity vs color supremacy. The first is a case of selective-child, while the latter is a case of one-child. Hopefully, both will lose.
You did not do what the professor did. You did exactly as he spoke of “But let’s not kid ourselves, nothing Trump could have said would have prevented withering criticism. It would have been a game of “how high” Trump should jump. Which leads to the next point.”
“Taking down Trump is the overarching goal of so many of those attacking Trump over Charlottesville. Yes, I question their motives and the honesty of their reactions.”
That includes you. You are always on the side of the left.
Rags comment:
“Use your words, Der Donald.
You have no trouble whatsoever being very explicit about people or organizations you deplore.
Time to name names here. And, sure, name them all. All sides. Make it clear you don’t have any links whatsoever to any of them.
Because you’ve never done that.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/08/virginia-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-following-violent-clashes-at-unite-the-right-protest/#comment-773941
“You are always on the side of the left.”
That, of course, is an evil, stinking insane lie.
Post any link where I’m “on the side of the left”, and I’ll post a thousand that show what a POS liar you are.
Go ahead, post those 1000 lies. You are just a BSer, in addition to always being on the side of the progs.
You consistently stand with McCain, Graham, Rubio and the prog party. You are like a parrot, as soon as the progs make their latest anti trump declarations, you’re right there repeating them. So Prog you are.
Yo cannot find any lie I have ever told. You have been challenged to do so, and never do.
Which makes you the liar.
Oh, and for a link, try the one I put up above. Same cry as the progs. And Graham, and Rubio…
The Charlottesville story is very plain. There was a group of people that applied for and were issued a permit to assemble. Neither the group nor their cause is important; the group followed the law and assembled as their permit allowed.
There was a second group of people that assembled without a permit and were allowed by the City of Charlottesville and the various police on hand to riot and to interfere with the legally permitted group. Fearing an outbreak of violence, between the two groups, the city of Charlottesville ordered the permitted group to disperse.
The illegal group was allowed to continue to riot and interfere with and otherwise harass the permitted group as that group dispersed. There was an incident involving a car that resulted in a death and severe injuries to rioters. The car, for unexplained reasons drove through a group of rioters that was then attacked by the rioters with baseball bats. The car quickly reversed out of the area to avoid further damage and possible injury.
The City of Charlottesville and the attending police did not protect the lawfully assembled group from the unlawful rioters. Political views were given as the reason for this failure of the City Charlottesville and their police to perform their duties.
What? For unexplained reasons? 1 person – unexplained. A group – highly unlikely that the reason was other than malicious.
“The car quickly reversed out of the area to avoid further damage and possible injury” … and then went directly to the police and reported the incident? No, he didn’t.
So there is a presumption of guilty intent. It was stupid since he could be easily identified. But if you go further then necessary to avoid harm by the crowd, an implication can be drawn.
Seems pretty obvious that the guy in the car was a rotten person. So were the counter-protesters who were attacking people. My question is, are you more bothered by the impulse to violence on both sides, or by the fact that a guy not on your side brought a gun to a knife fight? I’d like to see everyone who used violence in other than self-defense in Charlottesville be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Would you?
I see no such reports and I looked before responding. Where are the injuries to the neo-nazis and those associated with them? One of them claims to have been hit in the head going to his car. That’s it/
The opposition were angry, but not violent. Many were rooted in the non-violence movement. In this case, if some had brought knives for defense, knowing the the neo-nazis were carrying semi-automatic weapons, they deserve medals for their courage. They stood up to jack booted thugs. If the same thing had happened in Germany, we might never of had WW II.
Absolutely!!
“I see no such reports and I looked before responding.”
Yellowbelly lies. Always. Yellowbelly supports violence perpetrated by the commie hordes.
The yellowbelly’s in this world murdered 100 million + in the last century. It’s what they do. Every single time they take power, murder. Murder by the millions.
I agree. At the very least, the police chief needs to be fired. And the mayor needs to be investigated. Neither the chief nor the mayor seem to abide in American system of free speech.
I’m a Virginian, and I lived in C’ville, so let me offer a comment from one who has been there.
This whole thing in Charlottesville was triggered by the decision to relocate the Robert E. Lee statue. The two primary forces on the city council who pushed for the desecration of the Lee statue are Kristin Szakos (not a native Virginian) and a black guy named Wes Bellamy.
Do yourself a favor and do a search on Wes Bellamy. He is not a very nice man. He’s a nasty, anti-white guy who joined forces with Szakos who is “is a writer and freelance editor and has co-written two books on community organizing.” Gee! Community organizer. Who else do we know who was a community organizer?
So, here’s the deal. What happened in Charlottesville was 100% avoidable. The rancor and emotions were fueled by an anti-white, Black Lives Matter dude and a radical left community organizer. Had they left the statue alone, none of this would have happened at this place at this time.
You’ll never see this in print anywhere else, but you’ll see it here: The blood spilled in Charlottesville is on their hands. I wonder if they feel any remorse today?
So, your thesis is that the Collectivists should have shut up and minded their manners.
Well, no. That isn’t reality, and they are not the people who conducted the violence.
Sure, they are WRONG. But the blood is not on their hands. Different things… You fight them with words and ideas.
And what will those words and ideas be worth as the antifa club hits your skull?
Remember this: you’re as much of a Nazi to the Left as David Duke. The crocodiles are always hungry.
You are again speaking of a homogeneous “left”.
There’s no such thing. Remember that American politics express a bell-curve. On the Collectivist fringe, I’m a nazi. In the middle, nothing of the kind.
I guess on the right fringe I’m “cuck”.
I like where and what I am. And I know how to dispatch alligators and prepare them for dinner.
Good to know, because there may well be alligators to dispatch in this mess. See my links in the other stories.
People are starting to connect the dots. In my opinion, those connections remain hypotheses at this point. But if they are correct, this Unite the Alt-Right did not even originate with anybody on the right.
There is currently a fight over what “alt-right” means, because people with very different philosophies adopted that term about the same time, and the Washington Post capitalized on the confusion by smearing everybody with the Nazi label.
There are several consistent trends that occur in each one of these dreadful events.
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1. Antifa and BLM show up together and a large proportion of them come wearing masks to hide their identity. This is both against the law in many locations and is a tactic used to hide their individuals’ identities. The obvious question is why come to an event such as this and purposely hide your identity if you are there to peacefully protest?
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2. Antifa and BLM routinely show up armed. Cement filled soda pop cans, knives, bricks, bags of excrement, and pepper spray, are commonly seen being used by them. Again, who shows up with these weapons that take time and effort to prepare if your intentions are peaceful?
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4. Events such as these appear to occur primarily in liberal communities led by liberal politicians and rarely occur in conservative locals. (I treat universities with their liberal leadership as a liberal locale even though they may be located in a conservative area. Why do these events happen so rarely and a host of other questions are raised by this observation.
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5. When these event occur, it has become routine to see the police either do nothing to protect the conservatives there or they disappear. Also, the police make an effort to ensure the conservatives are lawful and unarmed while ignoring Antifa and BLM and what they bring to the event and how they behave. In one case where DHS was present, Antifa and BLM were found to be armed to an extent that surprised many.
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6. The MSM lies routinely about these events. They paint the conservatives who have been beaten and are bloodied as being the aggressors while the untouched Antifa and BLM are painted as the victims. On those few and recent occasions when the Right has fought back, the MSM paints them as terribly violent and how this must end for the Antifa and BLM are just victims searching for justice.
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7. When I first read this story about what happened in VA, I was horrified and when those on the Right were described as neoNazis, white supremists, and so forth, I assumed that those on the right were normal conservatives protesting the removal of our history and culture. Only after watching videos of the event and reading many more reports did I come to understand that there were actually white supremists present along with neoNazis. This is the result of the continuous outright propaganda that passes for news these days where every protest, no matter how well behaved they are, the Right is always characterized as racists, bogots, neoNazis, white supremists, and so forth. My initial assumption as to what was reported and how I reacted with my initial thoughts is a condemnation of the MSM and the disservice they are performing to America.
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8. What happened in Charlottesville is horrific and reprehensible, buy is was also very predictable. When side A shows up to peacefully protest and side B routinely attacks them violently, when the press routinely vilified side a no matter how they heave, when side A is condemned for daring to defend themselves from the violence of sabe B, when the police are routinely removed from the streets allowing for side B to do whatever they want and side A is left either defenseless or forced to defend themselves thus resulting in their condemnation for daring to do such a thing, when side A is continually attacked in the media for being racist, bigoted or whatever while side B who exemplifies bigotry is praised for their social superiority, when the authorities allow side B to wear masks and carry weapons while searching side A for weapons and not allowing them to wear anything that would make their identification difficult, and so forth, then what should you expect? Clearly, all this behavior is feared for one outcome and the outcome is to vilify side A while protecting the violence and bigotry of side B. Clearly, the media and liberal leadership is creating the environment that will cause the nut cases on the right (they exist on both sides) to come and act out in ways we tragically saw in Charlottesville.
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The bottom line is inescapable. It is not only how the media and the Leftist political leadership created the conditions that made the death in Charlottesville predictable, but they are setting the country up for more of the same. A skin head nut job may have driven the car, but the Left is largely responsible and unless the Left starts to tone down their rhetoric and the police are allowed to do their job, we are going to see much more of this. The Left’s illegal and bigoted behavior is not tolerated in conservative locales and that is why we do not see tragic events such as this one taking place there.
Not to make excuses for neo-Nazis or white supremacists, but I do wonder how many young “white nationalists” have had to sit in classrooms or mandatory orientation sessions in which they’re told that “whiteness” is inherently culpable; that they must forever grovel in shame for having been born white.
The hatred of whites and left-wing shaming of whiteness have grown to insane proportions. The lies about a supposed epidemic of white violence against black people are hardly answered. A college professor can suggest that it would be good for white people to be massacred, and keep his job.
An honest leftist would wonder if maybe all the anti-white propaganda and indoctrination from the left have had the effect of feeding the white nationalist monster.
Im assuming Rags gave you the down vote.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. This COULD have been avoided if the left had just left well enough alone!
But the left can’t do that. The left HAS to spread its ideology everywhere regardless of the price others have to pay.
I mean ask yourself, was the womans life worth it for the left? The sad answer to that is simply yes. Yes her life was worth sacrificing for the greater good of spreading leftist liberal ideology and for the evidence of that all you have to do is watch any of the news channels to see them spinning this for the benefit of their leftist ideology.
As others have already mentioned, this is only going to get worse as the left spins its self in to even more of a frenzy!
Anybody who runs rent-a-rioters is taking an unacceptable risk of death to someone in the crowd. In my opinion, the tactics used by the various lefty groups (blocking highways, blocking streets, beating on cars, use of knives, bottles, flash-bangs, and masks, strongly suggest a cavalier lack of concern for the health and lives of the people involved.
Yes, avoidable, but these two hate groups deserved each other and got what they deserved….not going to shed a tear for either of them or even pretend that I’d like to give a damn. Neither have ever given a damn about me and what I stand for.
There is one thing that both the far right, led by white nationalists and the far left progressives, led by antifa have in common, hatred of Jews. Let’s hope they never realize this, otherwise things could get real ugly.
Thought experiment:
Single white nationalist, wearing a white hood, silently joins #BLM march with sign “White Lives Matter – but BLM has freedom of speech too”
Single black panther, wearing classic black beret, silently joins #KKK march with sign “Whitey Sucks – but KKK has freedom of speech too”
My guess is the white guy gets beaten to a pulp, and the black guy gets shrugged at, but that’s just one guy’s opinion.
The important thought is this though – if you want to find out which group is truly intolerant, see what they do to their non-violent ideological enemies in their midst.
People are missing the larger picture hear. This is all about power.
Since the mid-1960s, there has been an organized attempt to elevate minorities, most notably Blacks and Hispanics [which together account for only about 30 percent of the population], over the members of the white, non-Hispanic majority [ which comprises some 60+ percent of the population]. And, it has reached the point where a significant portion of that white majority believes that they are now second class citizens. Their government is unresponsive to their concerns. The Progressive leadership of our society is unresponsive to their concerns. And, for the last 8 years, especially, America has actively empowered the minorities over the majority. When you disenfranchise the majority of your citizens, especially when they are heavily armed, you are courting disaster.
What people have to realize is that there would have been no Civil Rights Act of 1964, if a majority of white Americans had not supported it or allowed it to occur. There would have been no civil rights movement, if those same people did not support it. There would have been no amnesty for illegal aliens, most of whom were Hispanic, in 1986. No affirmative action. No desegregation. Get the picture. White America acknowledged that it had allowed racial discrimination to occur in this country. And those same white Americans set out to guarantee equality for all, under the law.
Then the unthinkable happened. The Progressive leadership of this country elevated minorities above the majority. And, it got worse. Those same leaders, in both government and society, launched an unprecedented assault upon the majority. That assault led to such movements as the Tea Party Movement. It led to the election of DJ Trump. And, it has now led to the reemergence of White Supremacy groups. Why do you think that gun sales were through the roof during the Obama administrations? Why do you think the White Supremacist groups and right wing militias are growing? Because the white majority in this country perceives itself to be under attack by the leadership of its own government and society. Add to that the violent attacks upon the people and institutions of this country by the growing anarchist fringe and things are going to get really, really ugly.
Now, the remedy for this problem is simple. Treat everyone equally, under the law. A government has a duty to protect the rights of its citizens to speak publicly. When it abdicates that role and allows mob rule to dictate who can exercise an enumerated right, a serous problem exists. When a government chooses not to protect it citizens from violence to favor a particular group, there is a serious problem. When we allow mob rule to occur, the biggest mob usually wins. Guess who comprises the biggest mob.
This all about destroying the United States of America. And, if people do not wake up quickly, that goal will have been achieved.
I disagree with your reference to the Tea Party Movement as a result of certain people being elevated, etc. To me, the TPM was all about spending and the fear that it was going to get even more out of control and fast. The TPM did everything it could to slow it down. The TPM, in my humble estimation, had absolutely nothing to do with race.
While the TPM was directed at government spending, it was all about a government which was totally unresponsive to the needs and desires of mainly white, middle class Americans. Spending was out of control largely because of social programs and the bureaucracy necessary to administer them. The funding for these programs was not coming from those who benefited from the programs but from the working classes.
During the last election, black and hispanic an asian and Indian support of DJT policies may well have carried DJT to victory. Did this all start with whites, or patriots of all stripes?
And you have determined that non-whites had a significant impact upon the election of DJT how?
While non-white voters certainly did support Trump, based upon the demographics of the counties that he won, it is much more likely that non-Hispanic, middle class whites were the base that launched his victory.
The racial backlash is not the making of the non-Hispanic straight Christian white population, in this country. It has been created by the Progressive Establishment leadership in the government(s) and social institutions. The vast majority of non-Hispanic whites, in this country, have nothing against Black, Hispanic or Asian Americans or against those who practice other religions or engage in alternate sexual lifestyles between consenting adults. What they are concerned about is THEIR loss of the same liberties and benefits granted to the minority populations, by the leadership of this country. Non-Hispanic, straight whites are under attack from their own institutions. Black only and LBGT “safe zones” in universities. Affirmative action. The coordinated assault upon LE during any interaction with a minority. Allowing people of recognized minorities to enter this country illegally and remain here. All “benefits” given to minorities in which the majority does not get to share. It is about equality which has been withheld by the Establishment. And, DJT was the ultimate anti-Establishment candidate.
Both of those scenarios would end up with the protesters being beaten. Both sides are equally intolerant. Both sides reside along the fringes of our society. The difference is how they are portrayed by the media.
The actual problem here is indeed a law-enforcement one. No new laws are obviously needed, no political investigations are warranted.
The noise on Twitter and FaceBook is just that, noise.
Anybody who whacked somebody else with a club, sprayed them with noxious chemicals, or ran into them with cars should be charged with the obvious crimes. Nothing else merits criminal charges.
As I’ve maintained elsewhere, anybody—even the most obnoxious—has the right of non-violent protest against disposal of historical statuary. And nobody else—no matter what the excuse—has the right to attack them physically for doing so. This is not a complex situation, and it merits no further analysis—who may have been “baiting” whom simply doesn’t matter.
I disagree with one small point about the notion that no investigations are warranted. The actions of the governor of Virginia and the town mayor to stand down the police and other intentional steps were taking to create an environment where violence was all but certain, given Antifa’s violent history. I pray that this is what will be investigated by the DoJ. Subpoena those emails from McCauliffe and Signer.
Good luck with that. IF it ever happens, I’ll apologize to the world, but I think I’m on firm ground in believing that it will be a cold day in Hades before McAuliff, et al, are investigated for holding the police back.
Some people claimed it would be a ‘cold day in hell’ before anyone like Trump was elected, someone who actually meant to do what he promised in his campaign.
Way back in 2008 when Barack Obama first played the race card on Bill Clinton I said this would not end well. We had eight years of identity politics. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Like it or not this is all on obama. He used divisive politics like an artist. He divided us into so many sub groups that we will never come together as one nation again. His legacy is one of division and because of that many groups have found their voices and it’s all about their group. There is no America any longer. It’s only “My group”. Of course, no one likes the thought of neo-Nazi’s parading down an American street but they have the guarantee of the 1st amendment and no other group has the right to prohibit their freedom of expression. But obama taught the left that “If they bring a knife, we bring a gun”. That says it all.
He and his used Chicago style politics ( community organizers ) on a national stage. Works, kinda, in Chicago. Walking around money gets paid… grievances petted.
Chicago is NOT 65% white. Shake down artists and political hackism works in big cities. It just doesn’t scale up too well. Obama and his didn’t care one wit. They despise the USA anyway… better to burn it down.
I’d say it’s going to take a long time to heal, but the Dems and theirs don’t want to heal at all. They want to ruin it all b/c they have hate in their hearts. They worship power for themselves and deem themselves the ones that will make amends for “history”… somehow, the USA is the only country on the planet that is guilty and must pay a price or something. How do you deal with folks that just want to burn it all down? Outlast ’em I guess.
Re “knife to a gun fight…”
The left brought hillary clinton to a Trump fight. Now they’re bringing back that dufus, obama.
Bring it on and lets get it over with so we can move on past this pathetic point in our history.
I found this quote from Dinesh D’Sousa this morning and it sums up my feeling on this matter.
“Interestingly today, the way that the progressive Democrats have constructed their multi-cultural totem pole, they encourage every form of ethnic nationalism except white nationalist,” he said. “Somehow the white guy is not welcome at the multicultural picnic.”
That is it in its most obvious form. Everyone is welcome to the trough but white people, especially white men. Can we not see how this would encourage white supremacists to object?
Every culture is deserving respect… except White folks… or more clearly… Western Civilization . Down deep… I don’t think it’s about race as much as koolaide drunk anti-western civ. How about that?
Given the recent news about a nuclear attack from North Korea, I find it hard to get overly excited about a ginned-up race-based drama staged for us by the American media. Once again, Professor Jacobson sums up the key points that people should know, showing that bloggers — once again — are doing the job the American press won’t do.
Aye, keeping perspective is very important.
The left and their useful idiots the GOPe threaten our way of life far more than north korea.
Excellent point, Ms. Eastman.
This is by far the best commentary on the incident that I have seen anywhere so far. Well done and thank you.
I would add that it seems to have been even worse than you mention here, eg there are many reports of police standing by while violence occurred in front of them, etc. And the state and local governments appear to be complicit in how it happened.
But very much appreciate this thoughtful and correctly focused take on this awful episode.
Excellent perspective and commentary Professor. ( good comments too )
Left vs Left. Hopefully, the Left will lose.
As for the abortion, it was either elective, in which case send the driver to Planned Parenthood, or it was self-defense where the Antifa mob set a trap (a la Reginald Denny, LaVoy Finicum), and the Antifa leaders should be prosecuted for creating a dangerous environment. The Democratic leaders in the government should be considered as accessories to forcing catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.
One word re police standing down: berkley.
I heard that the police were ORDERED to stand down. If true, then they fraudulently implied they would be there to protect the protesters (the police were on-scene in riot gear), and then just stepped aside.
Almost like they lured them into an ambush.
I’m highly disappointed more were not hurt on both sides.
In Vantage Wa today, a semi truck caught fire on the bridge over the Columbia River and backed up I-90 to Ellensburg. I feel sorry for that dude who was being a productive citizen, working on a Sunday along everyone who got stuck in traffic.
On the other hand everyone at this protest has wayyyy too much time on their hands and should really re-examine their priorities in life.
Anyone still capable of rubbing two or more brain cells together KNEW with absolutely certainty that the antifa thugs and their left liberal enablers would be there in force to enforce their new rule of law! THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAPPEN!
Yet apparently those in law enforcement in Charlottesville clearly don’t have two or more brain cells to rub together because they were so obvious in their lack of presence! These idiots should have come down on antifa like a ton of brick sh1t house bricks!
There is absolutely no way antifa and any of the other so called counter protesters should have been allowed within a country mile of the nazeeees exactly because of the violence that was unleashed!
The second part of this is that the death of the innocent by stander, while tragic, is breathlessly being used by the media against Trump and the Alt Right (remember EVERYONE not liberal is an Alt Right White Nationalist now)! I bet the media is bitterly disappointed the person killed wasn’t a black transgender lesbian gay person! What a tragedy for them that they couldn’t have used the black transgenders death for their own political gains!
So no, the white nationalists are not to blame for the weekends events. They followed the law, had the paper work to protest and should have been protected by the law so the could protest without the fear of violence from antifa and their enabling democrat propaganda machine called the meeeeja!
If there was coordination between State & Local govt or DNC, PACs & NGOs with ANTIFA & BLM this should be a major concern of the DOJ investigation. These orchestrated riots in the USA perpetrated by the left have been unchallenged throughout the Obama administrations to the present and must be stopped.
Im sure the sharp as a tack media will be all over this eeeeeeny second now.
You make a great point. I read this morning that the DoJ is going to investigate to see if the driver of the car that killed the young woman had “Help” or not. How could a guy who rams into a crowd have an accomplice? What do you want to bet that almost all of the planning was from the left and that is where the investigating should focus.
What better way to exploit an opportunity than to remove the police and ensure a crises?
Competent police officers know how many cops are needed to prevent violence at these events. They also know how to set up violence by simply under staffing. The opportunity for violence was set up deliberately by those at the top.
Thank you Prof for the excellent summary.
If this is a “Bernard Goetz” type of incident, what will we do?
Who among us would not run for their lives from a mob of masked people reeking mayhem?
OTOH
The ACLU, standing up for the rights of all Americans.
When anyone mentions that, I ask them “when has the ACLU ever stood up for right-wingers?” They always trot out that 1977 Nazi march through Skookie. So I point out that that was 40 years ago; what has the ACLU done for the right-wing since then? The response is either befuddled silence, or angry snark about racism not being a protected right. Or some such.
Truly, though, what has the ACLU done in the past 40 years that is notable for the right-wing?
I’m pretty sure that the ACLU went to court with Kessler and got the federal judge to enjoin the city and state from preventing them from using Emancipation Park. Of course, the next day, the city and state got around the judge’s order declaring a “state of emergency.” Sounds like a heckler’s veto to me.
Except the Nazis (National Socialists) are LEFT wing, not “right wing.”
True as to Nazis.
As to NEO-Nazie, I dunno. They could be as “rightist” as the “Alt-Right”. Which is anti-conservative.
Playin’ the word-games.
You want to rumble with me?
Do YOU know…of a certainly…what Neo-Nazis believe in? From what source?
I don’t play “word games”. I inquire, and I test bullshit statements like “these are all Leftists”. Because that’s simplistic crap that you know zip about.
That canard, again. The Nazis were fascists – whatever name they gave themselves.
Maybe you are on track. If you look at what Stalin did, rather than what he said – he was a right-wing fascist.
One does not see the Nazeeees turning up to every left wing protest to deny the left their rights BUT you do see ANTIFA turning up to crack heads and destroy property.
That to me says the nazeees are less of a problem than the antifa thugs.
You made an ignorant comment about the Nazis being left-wing; probably because they had socialist in their name. I answered that. If you want to argue that point, I will respond.
All the crap you & others wrote about the ANTIFA is not relevant. There is no evidence that in this particular incident the opposition committed any mayhem.
Fascism – another LEFT wing extremist movement.
Pity you’re so ignorant of history. Or, perhaps, your name is Winston Smith, and you work for Minitrue?
I can see why you would want to deny your heritage. It is truly disgusting.
Let’s see who is ignorant. You keep repeating the same piece of BS. I brought up 3 points and you answered with an ad hominem attack. Can you actually make a case for nazis being left wing? I don’t think so. Do you even know how to formulate an argument? I don’t think so. Do you think your silly writing is fooling anyone? Probably not. Can you define fascism? If you can’t, why don’t you just STFU.
Besides, it really doesn’t matter where you put the nazis in the political spectrum. They failed miserably and even Trump just disavowed them. The current incarnation is weak sheet.
Prince? I was sitting on your thrown earlier today.
That is so much BS. The Nazis did not claim to follow Marx & Engels. They followed Hitler. The Nazis did not speak of the proletariat or collectivization. They did not speak of the people owning the means of production.
I would go on, but you think simply because the had the word Socialist in their name, that thy were communists. B.S.
No, that’s because…while definitely SOCIALIST…fascist economics uses the clever dodge that the capital of the private-sector stays in the hands of its owners.
It had (and kinda has still) three legs; BIG BUSINESS, BIG LABOR, and BIG GOVERNMENT. While its owners nominally retained their property, it was really controlled by the state.
You need to brush up on your history. You are dead wrong.
McMasters was implying that the DOJ investigation will look into terrorism – whether the driver was trying to inhibit the civil rights of the anti-protest protesters for protesting the official protesters. No questions about whether baseball bats coke cans filled with cement or bicycle locks used by anti-pro qualify as tools of terrorists.
The Presisdent calls for calm and rational discourse. The Never Trump Resistance screams back “Over your dead body, Donald Trump”
Charlottesville
The Seventh Angel poured forth the contents of his bowl into the air and a loud voice from the throne inside the Temple called out “There it is done!”
Professor Jacobson’s posts are always among the sanest on the web, and they are in this case, as well. The MSM is, of course, heavily promoting the claim that the Antifa’s were peaceful in Charlottesville, and excoriating Trump. I will not be at all surprised if Session’s civil rights investigation finds that the only group that had their rights violated were the white nationalists. Of course, we’ll never know because the MSM won’t report it. Charlottesville knew these people were coming, granted them a permit, and then not only didn’t protect them but managed to defy a federal judge in the process.
Maybe this post-protest analysis needs to compare the apologies and condemnations made by the talking heads and politicians with their motivation to assign blame. State and city leaders are frightened that a boycott of their locations will be organized if they don’t always choose the low-hanging fruit as the scapegoat. This sort of boycott is almost always shot-lived, but they know that their reputations must always be protected from the “R” word. It looks to me like a political “follow the money” incident.
As the author stated, the criminal investigation of the muscle car’s driver should be dealt with in the courts. The law enforcement officers that appear to have been instructed to eliminate the legal organizer’s right to assembly should be investigated. But as we saw in Baltimore, nothing will ever become of that investigation into the organized anti-first amendment chaos we saw in Charlottesville.
Rest in Peace Heather Heyer.
So, why did the Police cancel the permit holder right to assemble, because of a fear of a counter protest, and not give them safe passage?
An earlier comment by Cleetus (Aug 14 6:44am) poses an interesting issue:
” Antifa and BLM show up together and a large proportion of them come wearing masks to hide their identity. This is both against the law in many locations and is a tactic used to hide their individuals’ identities. The obvious question is why come to an event such as this and purposely hide your identity if you are there to peacefully protest?”
So it would seen that a possible solution going forward would involve a couple steps:
1. Have the police support both the news media and independents to film the events (from a reasonable distance?) with proper protections from protestor threats and violence) in order to provide a record of “what happened?” in the event violent actions take place. Certain media may elect to edit the films, but other films would serve to counter that editing.
2. Can masks and facial coverups be restricted by the police from getting near the event? Not sure of the legality, but it would allow better identification of those involved in violence. I suppose, it would also allow identification of “regulars” who attend various events which may show the same folk potentially inciting violence.
Seems Point #1 is an easy implementation. Point #2 is not, but with some thought, planning, and some court legal rulings, might be possible.
Very simple question : did the P O S Mayor tell the cops to stand down because he wanted/expected PEACE ????
This is the blatant program by the left/progs to HAVE AS MUCH VIOLENCE AS POSSIBLE (and then blame it on everyone else) !
Says to me that we now have evidence of a Palestinian contribution to Western civilization: car-ramming.
Campus Speech At Risk
This is the one I’m most concerned about.
The anti white rhetoric on college campuses will be turned up to 11 now. Any group/club/organization that has more than three white kids will now be targeted as a “hate group” by the leftists..
Couple of points.
All those supposed semi automatic weapons and nobody got shot. No shots fired. Huh.
So either that’s a lie, or there’s nothing to worry about when armed citizens are around.
Fields’ defense is either mental incompetence or I- didn’t-want-to-be-the-next-Reginald-Denny line. Interesting if evidence supports that
I’ve been reading allegations that the march’s organizer is a long-time Democrat operative who “switched” just after Trump got elected, and that it was he who invited the KKK and neo-Nazi elements of the march. If true, this entire event was a false-flag operation designed to smear the right.