Charlottesville, Bloody Charlottesville Part Three: The Truth

 

In the aftermath of the  torrent, what is there left to say?

It has been interesting, to say the least, to watch every pundit, politician and performer in the United States scramble to see who can yell the loudest racism is bad!  In fact, in the mad rush of all of them screaming it, in their wild desire to make sure everyone knows they’re not a racist (whether out of sincere and passionate views on the subject, or out of a desire to protect their brand / reputation, or a calculated desire to distance themselves from the morons with the torches), several fundamental truths seem to have gotten lost.

One is this matter of “sides.”  I believe 90% of Americans would freely grant the KKK and its sister groups are a boil on the butt of humanity, a moral grotesquerie, the social equivalent of smallpox.  Those same 90% of Americans would grant opposing their odiferous beliefs is absolutely the moral choice.  No comparison:  one who actively champions hatred and bigotry is morally inferior to one who opposes it.

But on the matter of who’s responsible for the outbreak of violence, the truth is less clear.

I have spent the past two days examining actual footage and photographs of the rally itself.  The truth is that there were actors from the political Left who did bring weapons, spit and hurl things at the white nationalists, and engage in menacing behavior.  There weren’t many – the majority of people protesting the white nationalists were peaceful – but there were a few.   Thus I’m extremely disappointed – although not terribly surprised – by what I haven’t heard from alleged leaders on the Left.

Would it really be so difficult to say the following?

Unfortunately, some of those attempting to protest violence and hatred abandoned themselves to those very things.

 It is natural to experience some degree of terror and outrage at a movement that has historically embraced lynching, arson, maiming, and murder.  It’s understandable to feel horrified at a movement whose stated intent is to deny freedom and justice to millions of American citizens.  But even in the face of something so cruelly un-American, violence is not the answer.  We do not answer free expression – no matter how objectionable – with assault and menace.  We answer it with a peaceful but determined disavowal of injustice, barbarism, and bigotry, and a steadfast conviction that recognizing that all are created equal is and shall always be the most essential of American values.

 Sadly,  I have not heard such words from those who profess to be moral leaders.

What I have heard is a concatenation of voices determined to denounce racism, which is good, and any number of cynically calculated attempts to make political hay of the situation by blaming the President, which is both absurd and disingenuous.

I am not a Trump supporter; I did not vote for President Trump and I do not care for most of his policies.  Nonetheless, I am growing tired of watching the mainstream media attempt to imbue his every word and action with the most sinister interpretation possible, and even wearier of their replacing actually reporting the news with attempts to damage him politically.  Their motives are obvious and their methods are deplorable and I daily wish we could have Walter Cronkite back.

In this multi-day carnival of political racketeering I have also heard very little here about the right to free speech, which is central to this entire event.

Some years ago I checked The Turner Diaries out of the library; having heard so much about it I was curious to see what all fuss was about.  I found the actual novel quite boring and never got past the first two chapters.  What impressed me most was the foreword by the publisher, who explained that the First Amendment isn’t needed to protect a person’s right to say that babies are beautiful or publish a recipe for strawberry ice cream.  It exists almost exclusively to protect speech we find abhorrent, hateful, seditious, disgusting, alarming, or downright vile.

As unpleasant as it may be, this is the truth:  in the United States of America, under our Constitution, you have the right to think, believe, and say whatever you please.  You have the right to think racist thoughts, believe racist things, and speak racist words.  (And those who are squeamish about this would do well to consider the most controversial things they have to say, and to realize that absent the First Amendment their right to criticize our government, advocate for social policy, and condemn whatever they despise would disappear in a hurry.)

You have the right to think, believe, and say what you please.  You do not, however, have the right to harm the person or property of another.  You do not have the right to deny another person their political freedom or abridge their Constitutional rights.  You have the right to say they are wrong; you have the right to advocate for laws and policies that work for justice; you have the right to condemn everything you believe is bad.

Long story short:  no matter how appalling the beliefs of the torch-carrying miscreants are, they have a right to express them.  And you have the right to express your disapproval in every legal and non-violent way.  No less, no more.

Before I go I would like to talk just a little bit about fear.

There is nothing more normal or natural than to be frightened of a group of people who espouse ideas that have traditionally been the prelude to concentration camps, mass murder, wholesale arson, and the most despicable acts of violence.

The thing about fear is this:  it drops the average IQ fifty points on contact.  It’s the mother of hysterical panic and every bad action that issues therefrom, and it’s the midwife of chaos and disorder.  It’s a paralytic and a hallucinogen at the same time.  It makes you see things that aren’t there and blinds you to what’s right in front of you.  And it’s a great thief, too:  it steals integrity and decency and civility and reason, and reduces you to a state of animal viciousness.  It seduces you into every kind of lie, fraud and mischief if you let it.

Fear is a pitiless master.

Lying directly or by omission, no matter how righteous your intentions are, is still lying.  Bullying and menacing are still bullying and menacing, no matter how despicable your adversary is.  If you would truly advocate the righteous you must be righteous in your actions.  If you would lead you must lead with honor, honesty, and integrity.

Those who purport to fight injustice would do well to let reason, conscience, and decency be their master, and to have the faith and courage to fight with grace.  Nothing is as corrosive to evil as truth, honor, and purity of conscience.  Let these be your weapons; you need nothing more.

May the right prevail.

The Problems of Identity Politics

 

Identity politics is the official term for splitting the electorate into groups and then pandering to them relentlessly.  It occurs overtly on the Left side of the aisle and more subtly on the Right side of the aisle, and it’s placed this country in terrible danger – because it denies us the ability to be, first and foremost, Americans.  It denies us any sense of unity and worse, destroys any ability we might have to think of the well-being of this nation as a whole.

Before we had the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation; they failed because they inadvertently created not one nation, but thirteen.  By 1787 James Madison said “If the present paroxysm of our affairs be totally neglected, our case may become desperate.”  I fear we have reached that place now.

We now live in a nation of the fiercest factions – a bizarre polyglot of groups dividing themselves along lines of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual affiliation, region, setting (urban / suburban / rural), etc.  Careerists in both parties are currently exploiting those factions at the speed of light, with gruesome results.

Of the two sides of the political aisle, both currently have a considerable investment in this insanity; but it’s the Left that has made of the whole idea a cult fetish, and attached to it the much-vaunted idea of protected classes.  Few on the Left seem to understand the dangers in this, and it’s high time they did, because it just cost them the election and will cost them more dearly in the future if they don’t understand the folly in this.

The biggest problem with that subset of identity politics called protected classes is that it doesn’t create equality or unity; it creates a nation where certain people have special rights and everyone else doesn’t.  And anyone who thinks that’s not going to cause epic resentment needs a short course in human nature.

Donald Trump got his greatest support from poor, rural whites.  This is unsurprising, for no one has more cause to resent identity politics and the concept of protected classes.  Allow me to explain why.

A poor rural white knows from the time he’s a toddler he’s considered a second-class citizen in this country.  He sees himself parodied on TV everyday as a moronic, beer-swilling backwards ape one step from being the caveman in the old Geico ads.  Every city slicker who passes through assumes he’s an inbred, sub-literate, violent savage who eats with his hands.  When he goes to town the well-educated stare at him then avert their gaze the way they do for homeless people.  They assume his religious beliefs are backwards and ignorant, his knowledge of culture ends with comic books, and his politics are uninformed.  When it’s hiring time it’s assumed he’s too primitive to do anything but menial work.  Eyes slide over him with contempt, scorn, and pity before he even opens his mouth.

He then sees that people of color are in a similar place – but Left Wing politicians fall all over themselves to help them.  My schools were crappy too, he says, and medical care is damn-near existent where I come from; the cops assume I’m a drunk or a meth addict because I look scruffy and don’t speak like the guy on the six o’clock news, and every person in power thinks I’m disposable, if not a joke.  Where’s my help?  Where’s someone to say this shouldn’t happen to you, either, and fix it?

This isn’t fair, and it’s not unreasonable to say so.

Of course, the Right’s key investment in identity politics consists exploiting that frustration, of covertly peddling the idea that White Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans are being disenfranchised by the protected classes.  This isn’t true – 80% of the electorate is currently being disenfranchised by a government that long ago sold out to crony capitalism, corporate predation and robber barons – but it serves its purpose as a dog whistle beautifully, the irony being that the same politicians exploiting that lower-to-middle-class WASP resentment then turn around and sell those who crowd their rallies out to the highest bidder.

The voice of reason gets drowned out in the splashing of the pissing contest over who’s been screwed worst, the coal miner or the immigrant son, the denizen of the trailer park or the inhabitant of the urban project, and in the foul-smelling mist no one can see that everyone’s getting screwed by more or less the same gang of thugs on the state and federal hill.

The other problem with identity politics – and I’m not the first to say it – is that it re-imagines self-governance as a slot machine where you pull a lever to get what you want, with never a concern for your country as a whole.  Voting becomes a matter of your personal desires, not this nation’s future.  And politics based solely on personal gain without a thought of your fellow Americans is a huge part of what got us into the mess we’ve been falling into for decades; selfish voters invariably enable selfish politicians.

And in a way, identity politics further, not reduce, injustice.

Such politics create a situation in which the child who struggles because her parents are alcoholics gets no special help, while the child who struggles because his parents are blind does.  It creates a situation in which each particular member of each group screams where’s my lobbyist? – which explains a hell of a lot about how corruption has gotten as bad as it has.  But mostly it creates a situation in which everyone is fighting with everyone else over who gets justice, because identity politics presupposes that only some people can.

All people who are being mistreated deserve justice, not just some.  The presumption that it’s only possible to bring such justice to either white people or people of color who are suffering – not both – is idiotic at best and at worst, speaks of a misunderstanding of the essential problem here – which is the American dream being denied to people of every race, creed and type by the politics of greed and economic stupidity.  Everyone needs better schools and better medical care, not just white people and not just black people.  Everyone needs a job they can support their family on.  Neither people who are gay nor people who are straight should be treated unfairly; able-bodied people are not somehow immune from injustice in a way that the disabled aren’t.  The right goal is justice for everyone.

In my darkest flights of fancy I have sometimes wondered if identity politics isn’t simply a coy ruse to ensure that the current state of economic woe for most people continues to exist, because it creates that either/or:  we can either help people of color or poor white people – women or men – the college-educated or the high-school educated – Christians or Buddhists, whatever — but we can’t do both. 

 The most ubiquitous strategy in warfare is divide and conquer.  If  I woke up one morning and wanted a way to steal City Hall without anyone noticing, I’d pit faction against faction everywhere until they were so busy screaming at each other they paid no attention at all to my heist.  And as long as they were at each other’s throats, being told constantly it’s you or them (a staple slogan of both sides of the political aisle), I could pocket City Hall and the Grand Tetons too.

Think about it.

Two Nations, Under Chaos

The streets are frothing now with what’s been coming for five decades:  the eventual fracturing of this country into two halves.  This one’s a commie and this one’s a fascist; this one’s a bigot and this one’s an animal; this one’s a godless traitor and this one’s a judgmental inbred.  This has been coming for a long, long time.

It began in the ‘60’s as a simple difference of opinion between the traditional and the new, and exploded into a Civil War that has shredded the country for fifty years.

More than anything else, this is about how we have to come to fear and mistrust each other, to see each other as the basest of stereotypes.  This is about how we have managed to make our fellow citizens into monsters.

The following list of misperceptions might sound extreme, but as you consider them, ask yourself this question:  in the very bottom of my heart, have I or have I not at times feared these very things?

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants Protestant Christianity to be the only valid religion in this country and its official religion.  The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants every religion but Protestant Christianity to be considered valid.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants to turn this country into a socialist paradise, where the government takes everybody’s property away and hands it out to anyone who asks for it.  The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants to turn this country into Mussolini’s fascist paradise, where corporations run the country, not the citizens.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction is entirely composed of illiterate, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals wandering through trailers in wife-beater t-shirts, swilling down Schlitz and gearing up to beat their dogs.  The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction consists entirely of pretentious artsy-fartsy elitists drifting through million-dollar lofts in natural-fiber unisex chemises, sipping Chardonnay and gearing up to replace football with badminton on grounds that football is just not nice.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants to make it mandatory for kids to learn Swahili, Urdu or Mandarin Chinese in school; the Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants to make it a crime to speak any language but English.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants every woman in American to be required to wear an apron at all times, not vote unless their husband or father says it’s okay, and be required to compete in Beauty Pageants; the Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants it to be the law that all women must work outside the home, wear suits, and that lipstick should be outlawed.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants every gun in America melted down and cast into a gigantic statue of a dove for the National Mall; the Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants every baby born in America issued a handgun at birth.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants an America where white Anglo-Saxons Protestants have their rightful place as true Americans and everyone else exists in their proper place as a servant; the Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants an America where people of color finally get to rule over white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants to lock up everyone in America who kisses a woman without her permission; the Blue Faction believes the Red Faction thinks rape is just boys being boys.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction thinks every last tree in the country ought to be cut down and the skies filled with coal smoke if business wants it that way; the Red Faction believes the Blue Faction believes the Western Four-Toed Salamander ought to be spared extinction even if it means thousands of people starve to death.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction thinks all people of color are angels and saints; the Blue Faction believes the Red Faction believes they are all demons and monsters.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction is composed of backwards, ignorant, racist morons; the Red Faction believes the Blue Faction is composed of effete, over-educated, idealistic dreamers.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction hates America, with its ideals of liberty, individualism, and independence; the Blue Faction believes the Red Faction hates America, with its ideals of equality, justice, and unity.

The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants religious tyranny, a complete revocation of all rights for anyone who isn’t white and male, corporate fascism, and to blow off the planet any nation they don’t like; the Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants atheism, rights for minorities and women but no one else, rampant Marxism, and for the U.S. to roll over on its belly for all challengers in the interest of peace on earth.

The Red Faction believes the Blue Faction wants to destroy them, half of America.  The Blue Faction believes the Red Faction wants to destroy them, half of America.

All of this is ridiculous.  Instead of thinking for ourselves, we react from the blind fear we have of the stereotype we’ve made the other half into.  Our politics have become entirely about our apocalyptic fear of the other side’s bad intentions; each side believes the other side will take over and ruin the world.

We have come to see each other not as people, but cartoon heroes and villains.

Each side believes the other side is stupid, cruel, and downright dangerous, and moreover, doesn’t care about them.  And on that last matter I’m afraid both sides have a point.  We have come to see each other as enemies, people we hate, fear, and have no compassion for.

What’s happening now in the streets should surprise no one.  The Left really believes the Right intends to enslave women and minorities, make being gay illegal again, and basically destroy their lives.  I saw the same thing happen with the Right after President Obama was elected (although they didn’t take to the streets):  a fear that their personal property would be taken, their beliefs and values denied, and their lives destroyed.  They were terrified, and thus enraged (anger and fear are Siamese Twins).  And the Left was like this after the 2000 election too.

The only real question left is:  can you love America enough to find it in your heart to love and respect all of its citizens, even those who have very different ideas than you?

Can you love this country enough to understand that a house divided against itself cannot stand, can you love this country enough to realize that freedom of ideas, speech and religion mean just that, can you love this country enough to understand that it really, truly belongs to all of us?

Stop seeing the Baptist lady in Iowa as a bigoted, close-minded, pursed-lipped scold; see her as she prepares – with great love – a casserole for her neighbor who’s fighting cancer.  And don’t assume that neighbor is a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, either; you’d be amazed how far the kindness and charity of that community reaches, and how much love there is between neighbors there.

Stop seeing the avant-garde painter in SoHo as a pretentious, snobbish, cold-hearted trendoid; see her as she tutors kids in reading.  And don’t assume those kids are only people of color; there are plenty of poor white kids in the cities too.

Stop assuming the guy driving the pick-up truck hates gays and stop assuming that the guy driving the hybrid doesn’t love our veterans and stop assuming everyone, everywhere is one stereotype or another.  We’re so much more complex than that, so much more as a country!

And stop letting the media – right and left wing – tell you what your fellow Americans are like.  In this age of infotainment, news organizations will by definition pick the most extreme and dramatic of anything to show you.  It will by definition seek out and find the lurid and grotesque – even if it represents less than 1% of the whole – and say see?  Use your eyes and ears in your own community to see what’s real, and don’t see just what you want or expect to see.

Go out and find someone from the other side of the aisle.  Have coffee or a beer with them.  And don’t talk politics or religion.  Talk about life, and as you do, open your mind to this truth:  this is a human being.  This is a person, not a cartoon.  This is my fellow American.  Talk about the Cubs or your kids or movies or your dogs or what you’re doing for Thanksgiving.  Leave politics out of it, and simply begin with seeing people as people.

That’s the beginning.  If we begin to listen to each other as people – to understand the very real fears each of us has with compassion, to hear the plaintive cry of you’re not listening to me, you don’t care! and actually respond with caring, to understand we’re all concerned with where we’re going, for different reasons and in different ways, this country can be whole and be healed.

Love your country and your fellow Americans enough to do just that.