Trump Won't Directly Disavow Alt-Right and David Duke Types: Why Not

Charlottesville, VA (August 12) 

Basically a Growing Scene Across America

Trump angrily denounced the so-called alt-left at his Trump Tower news conference (August 15) claiming that the group attacked followers of the so-called alt-right at a white supremacist rally that exploded into deadly violence in Charlottesville, VA (on August 12).

Short clip from that Trump-Press encounter in this short 2-minute segment on this exact subject:

The full press conference (25-minutes) is here:

He said in part – time and time again: “What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at the, as you say, the ‘alt-right’? Do they have any semblance of guilt? There was blame on both sides. I have no doubt about it.”

(My Note: Trump cannot and still has not directly disavowed David Duke’s support statement – why we must wonder – why no indeed).

Reporters then were like a dog with a bone – they countered him and he loved it. 

Trump went so far as to blast, insult, and name-call others, including Sen. John McCain for his “no” vote (that took about good health care away from everyone) – which basically killed Trump’s dream and signature issue: The “repeal and replacement the ACA (Obama-care).”

So, a lot of terms are tossed about lightly for impact and nastiness, like these for simple clarification (extracted from this fine NY Times article and also with more details; however, I simply wanted to highlight these three words in particular as the ones we hear almost daily):

Alt-Right: The “alt-right” is a racist, far-right movement based on an ideology of white nationalism and anti-Semitism. Many news organizations do not use the term, preferring terms like “white nationalism” and “far right.”

The movement’s self-professed goal is the creation of a white state and the destruction of “leftism,” which it calls “an ideology of death.” Richard B. Spencer, a leader in the movement, has described the movement as “identity politics for white people.”

It is also anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, and opposed to homosexuality and gay and transgender rights. It is highly decentralized but has a wide online presence, where its ideology is spread via racist or sexist memes with a satirical edge.

It believes that higher education is “only appropriate for a cognitive elite” and that most citizens should be educated in trade schools or apprenticeships.

Alt-Left: A lot of researchers who study extremist groups in the United States say there is no such thing as the “alt-left.”

Mark Pitcavage, an analyst at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), says the word had been made up to create a false equivalence between the far right and “anything vaguely left-seeming that they didn’t like. It did not arise organically, and it refers to no actual group or movement or network. It’s just a made-up epithet, similar to certain people calling any news they don’t like as “fake news” (the #1 favorite word used by Trump practically daily in everything he talks about).

Antifa: This word is a contraction of the word “anti-fascist.”

It was coined in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s by a network of groups that spread across Europe to confront right-wing extremists, according to ADL’s Pitcavage.

A similar movement emerged in the 1980s in the United States and has grown as the “alt-right” has risen to prominence. 

For some so-called antifa members, their goal is to physically confront white supremacists or as Pitcavage says: “If they can get at them, to assault them and engage in street fighting.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group “an old left-wing extremist movement” and alt-right members broadly portray protesters who oppose them as “antifa,” or the “alt-left,” and say they bear some responsibility for any violence that ensues — precise claim Trump made during his Trump Tower face-to-face with the press.

With all we have seen over the past 12 or so years as depicted by the photo above and remarks from Trump and the most-recent violence in Charlottesville, VA.

I ask the high court: Is this what the Supreme Court wants for America?

In all honesty it is hard for me to fathom that they expected to see this and for any rational logical answer – none fit.

My Conclusion: Armed groups on our streets looking a segment from some SWAT movie or latest 24-hour TV show or worse, ISIS types roaming the streets looking for what, pray tell?

This is not the country I served for over 40 years, the country I fought for and bled for, and not the one I want for future generations.

Our rights and freedoms are critical, for sure, but armed militia by any name they self-label themselves taking to the streets the way they do now – and: 

I simply ask: Why??

Thanks for stopping by.