 |
| These are not "fine folks" as claimed by Trump |
A very thoughtful article by the reliable Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic pondering Trump's failure to name white supremacists in his condemnation of the violence in Charlottesville.
But the issue here is substantially larger than mere hypocrisy. Obama carefully measured his rhetoric in the war against Islamist terrorism because he hoped to avoid inserting the U.S. into the middle of an internecine struggle consuming another civilisation.
But the struggle in Charlottesville is a struggle within our own civilization, within Trump's own civilization. It is precisely at moments like this that an American president should speak up directly on behalf of the American creed, on behalf of Americans who reject tribalism and seek pluralism, on behalf of the idea that blood-and-soil nationalism is antithetical to the American idea itself. Trump's refusal to call out radical white terrorism for what it is, at precisely the moment America needs its leadership to take a unified stand against hatred, marks what might be the lowest moment of his presidency to date.
