It would be unfair to lay at the feet of Donald Trump responsibility for the deadly clash that occurred Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The racial tensions that boiled up in what is normally a beautiful and peaceful college town have been around since before the Civil War.
Nor did Trump create white resentment, which is at its ugliest among neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and other white supremacist groups.
He did, however, capitalize on that resentment during his successful presidential election, and many of these hate groups feel a kinship to both his politics and his abrasive style.
Thus, the president must repudiate white supremacists with a force that he has not shown as of yet. He also must personally tone down the rhetoric that is contributing to a national explosion in incivility — a malady that, as Charlottesville demonstrated, can cross the line into violence.
The president initially fell short in this obligation. On Saturday, hours after a 20-year-old white nationalist allegedly used his car to create a chain reaction that killed one counter-demonstrator and wounded numerous others, Trump seemed to be hedging his political bets by condemning the hatred, bigotry and violence coming from “many sides.” It was if he didn’t want to point fingers — an attitude that provided solace to the white nationalists who had assembled in Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
It is true that, when the clashes began Friday night, punches were being thrown from both camps. Only one side, however, had someone act in a way that did mortal violence on the other. A fistfight is not the same as intentionally using an automobile as a lethal weapon, and the president should have been clearer in assigning the blame for Saturday’s fatality. (Two state troopers responding to the protests were also killed in a helicopter crash, but it’s unclear whether this was anything more than a tragically coincidental mechanical failure.) The white nationalists who organized the protest in Charlottesville, a place known for its liberal tendencies, may not have had homicide on their agenda. They did, though, intentionally create the atmosphere from which that homicide ensued.
As with a lot of tense and sensitive situations with which the president has dealt so far, the more appropriate responses came from his underlings. Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised to launch a civil rights investigation into the car crash. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said he considered it an act of domestic terrorism. Both Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s daughter and aide, Ivanka, denounced the white supremacists.
Although their comments are reassuring, the American people need to hear the same from the president, assuming he addresses the matter today, as anticipated. He needs to look straight into the homes and hearts of the American people, unequivocally disassociate himself from racist groups, and tell this country he will do his best not to enable them. He needs to not just call for greater civility but lead by example.
The president, regardless of political differences with his opponents or what he perceives as unfair treatment by the news media, must rise to this occasion. If not, there could be more Charlottesvilles on his watch.
