Nazis are Bad

I watched videos of the event at Charlottesville over the weekend. Seeing a car plow through people, with bodies flying left and right and pedestrians running in terror. It was horrific. I’ve been trying to come up with an adequate response to it, and I’m just left speechless. How in the world is it difficult to say “I abhor white supremacy”?

On November 15, 2015, Trump Tweeted: “When will President Obama issue the words RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM? He can’t say it, and unless he will, the problem will not be solved!”

Well, if words are so important, when will President Trump issue the words WHITE SUPREMACY? He can’t say it, and unless he will, the problem will not be solved!

Though of course I realize that simply acknowledging the white supremacy movement is real and evil won’t magically make it go away. But I do wish I lived in a nation where the cockroaches of society felt the need to scurry to the shadows and hide, rather than one where they feel like they can make themselves comfortable and maybe check the fridge for tasty leftovers.

It continues to astound me that a man who prides himself on being brash and the antithesis of political correctness suddenly becomes this person who has to weigh his words oh-so-carefully and be sure to analyze all the sides of a complex problem as soon as someone asks him “Are white supremacists bad?”

There are many evils in the world. There are people who do awful, terrible things for all manner of reasons. Conservatives and liberals. But I’d always just sort of assumed we could all agree on some basic tenets. Tenets like “Nazis are bad” and “Hitler was not a good person.” And that we could agree on those tenets without feeling the need to throw in any qualifying statements.

I guess we’re not there yet. A guy can keep dreaming, though.

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