So now, with the tragedy of Charlottesville, Mr. Trump’s expert dissembling has come back to bite him on that most generous part of his anatomy. Ask not for whom the dogwhistle sounds: it sounds for you. Trump can run, but he can’t hide from identification with the bigoted wretches who form a nice thick chunk of his political base. I say: put them in the basket of Deplorables—yes, I said Deplorables—along with the twisted, repulsive “Christians” who voted for him solely to forward their political agenda, ignoring the inconvenient requirements of their religion– actual morality and ethics.
Now that every walleyed racist thug attending the “demonstration” has been outed by the colorful mixture of Confederate battle flags and Nazi banners, and by the very explicit white supremacist speech of its leaders, it needed only the final connect-the-dots of David Duke’s words to complete the repulsive picture.
“We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in, that’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”
Nothing too subtle there.
Of course this racist attack is receiving plenty of press attention, as it should. I would add only one important reminder. In its wake, Trump has offered the world only the most mealy-mouthed, anodyne solemnities, like: “We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation and…true affection for each other.” (Gag reflex activated and ready, sir.) And then we see him condemning “…in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides.”
Many sides? Really? How about ONE side? This ain’t no Rubik’s Cube, Mr. Trump. You only wish it were that complicated, so you had somewhere to hide.
He goes on to explain that all of this terrible violence has nothing to do with him, of course. It’s been going on a long time.
Well, if you are going to insist on your innocence in all of this, how about this, Mr. Trump? See if some of this sounds familiar:
“…knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.”
Or how about your famous words describing the “old days”? When you waxed fond and nostalgic about the days when hecklers would be carried out of political rallies on stretchers?
That is not ancient history. You said it all last year. So please, for God’s sake, stop squirming, trying to dodge the Faustian bargain you made with America’s knuckle-draggers. If you wiggle much more, you’re liable to lose some weight.