President Trump is dividing the country

Trump’s sympathy for white supremacists stunned a ruling class that was already struggling to contain and steer him towards policies that capitalists of all stripes agree on, like a tax cut for business and the wealthy. Everyone except for Donald Trump, who praised the “fine people” within the ranks of the Nazis and Klan members and denounced violence on “many sides”. As Trump’s advisers steered him toward nativist themes, white nationalists glommed onto his candidacy, which they saw as an entry point into a two-party system that had previously ignored them completely.

“In the words of the late Heather Heyer, ‘If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention, ‘” a letter read from the Executive Board of Penn State’s College Democrats, referencing the 32-year-old woman who was killed when a vehicle plowed into a group of counter-protestors on Saturday. They began their protest August 11 by marching and chanting “Blood and Soil” – meaning if you don’t have white blood, you don’t belong on our soil – and “Jews will not replace us”.

One woman was killed when a vehicle driven by an avowed white supremacist plowed into a crowd of people after the rally turned violent, and numerous demonstrators were injured during the rallies on August 11 and 12. “There aren’t good people on the neo-Nazi side”.

A day later, however, Trump reversed course and again blamed “both sides”, criticizing liberal-leaning counterprotesters for acting “very, very violently” during a defiant news conference at Trump Tower in NY. “I place the blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the President”. It is in the declaration of secession of numerous southern states. In doing so, Trump equated founding fathers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson with Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

Three of President Trump’s most dogged supporters – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly – joined the chorus of criticism Monday over Trump’s erratic response to a violent hate rally in Virginia. Trump’s approval rating overall drops from 80 percent among Republicans to 34 percent among independents and 12 percent among Democrats; it’s 67-27-16 percent moving from conservatives to moderates to liberals. “I am excited”, he said, adding that most Trump supporters are not white supremacists like the mainstream media claim.

He has urged Trump to more closely follow a game plan.

Intensity is against Trump by 2-1: Forty-five percent of Americans strongly disapprove of his job performance, vs. 22 percent who strongly approve. It’s time to take a stand: for the ugly, divisive world of Donald Trump or for the United States of America. We were about 50 clergy people of many denominations, bearing witness and being a moral presence for love and justice.

The New York Times defines it as “a racist, far-right movement based on an ideology of white nationalism and anti-Semitism”, acknowledging, “many news organizations do not use the term, preferring terms like “white nationalism” and ‘far right'”.

Admitting that he approached Afghanistan with clear biases, Trump was candid, saying, “My original instinct was to pull out …”

The poll also asked participants, “Do you yourself think it’s acceptable or unacceptable to hold neo-Nazi or white supremacist views?”

Sixty percent of voters disapprove of Trump’s response to Charlottesville.

Beyond these groups, reactions to Trump’s rhetoric is far more negative. On the other hand, thirty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they had no opinion on the matter. What is new and even shocking is the intermingling of Republican politics with open white supremacy.

The SPLC cautions that the relatively new name for white supremacists – the “alt-right” – is intended especially to draw interest from white, male millennials. Some 10 percent of adults support the movement, including similar shares of Democrats and Republicans.

Even if you combined all the questionable actions of every one of those left-leaning groups in Charlottesville two weeks ago, they would be minuscule compared to the horrific violence done in this country by Klansman, neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the past 150 years.