Watching the fervid protests in Washington, D.C., this past weekend against the largely fictional rising tide of racism and fascism in our country made me truly sad, and deeply concerned for the fate of our nation.
Some 500-1,000 protesters turned up to counter the Unite the Right rally in Lafayette Square. Only a paltry 20-30 people turned up for the alt-right event, showing again that the support for this kind of open racism is anemic at best, and so small as to be meaningless.
Meanwhile, groups such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter turned out in force and ready to do battle, carrying rocks, glass, and other weapons that could be thrown or hurled with slingshots.
Most of the counter-protesters wore black handkerchiefs or masks over their faces, making me wonder why they felt the need to hide their identity. After all, if their cause is so noble, why hide themselves?
In fact, when reading the various signs of these groups, one saw a panoply of causes: anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-Trump, etc.
Of course, I am not arguing with their right to protest and say whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean I believe they are doing our country any good.
I understand Donald Trump is a polarizing figure and has incited the left to such levels of anger and vitriol not seen since the late 1960s. But let’s compare their rhetoric to the Tea Party protests in the early part of Obama’s presidency.
Obama also inspired a backlash due to his moves to the left and his stated desire to “fundamentally change the United States.” Tea Partiers, however, did not trash city streets and business, cover themselves in black masks, and engage in incendiary language and actions.
Their main cause was to return to the Constitutional order our country was based on in order to limit the actions of not just Obama, but any political party who would push unconstitutional reforms.
Yes, they were able to find a few idiotic racists in the mix of Tea Party protesters, but they were truly scarce in number and were used by the media and the left to tar the entire movement as racist.
And yet, the anti-Trump protesters of today regularly call our president a white supremacist and a fascist. Even a sitting senator, Elizabeth Warren, says that our criminal just system is racist front-to-back, and a significant block of Democrat politicians call for the abolishment of ICE for enforcing the laws that their colleagues voted for.
And then I see this banner in the group of protesters: A Bullet is the Best Way to Bash a Fash. Pay attention to this logic. They say our president is a fascist, then openly proclaim that a bullet is the best way to deal with fascists.
Is this not a call to assassinate Trump?
And yet they get away with it without a peep from the mainstream media, the same media who lost their minds when one Tea Party protester one time yelled a racial epithet. No Tea Partier called for violence or denounced the whole American system.
I simply do not believe the country is more racist now. We have had our problems in the past and will always have racists among us, but through the power of culture, the law, and basic human decency our country is the least racist it has ever been, and is probably the least racist place on earth.
And yet all we do is focus on the negatives, focus on the few outliers, whether they be a couple dozen alt-righters, a cop who makes a grave mistake, or an ICE officer who enforces the law as it is written and interpreted by the courts.
We are not at war with ourselves. Stop believing the hype. Trump is a grumpy old white guy, to be sure, but he is not a racist and not inspiring thousands or even hundreds of people to suddenly become racists as well. It is not happening, I tell you.
Instead of focusing on the negative, maybe we should teach our children and each other to appreciate all the good what we have in this country and the many, many gifts it has bestowed upon us.
We are richer than ever before, we are freer than ever before, we are more open to people of different colors, creeds, and sexual orientations than ever before. Do we need to still improve? Sure! But we won’t do it by condoning Antifa calls for violence and the nihilistic urge to tear it all down.
Here’s a sign I’d like to see at the next rally: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.
If we all did that, everything would be fine.
Trey Hoffman
Peachtree City, Ga.
