The Charlottesville Tragedy Demonstrates Everything that is wrong with American Politics

All that is wrong with American politics today was on display in the August 12, tragedy Charlottesville, Virginia. Every patriot who cares about our nation’s future should be scared to death of what happened there.

The terrible truths exposed on the streets of the Virginia college town are numerous but a few disturbing revelations standard out. The most sickening aspects of this tragedy are:

• Tens of thousands of people turned out to demonstrate, fight over and ultimately kill and die for something totally meaningless a statue. A statue of a man who died 147 years ago, and a general who fought in a war that ended over 152 years ago.

 

• The statue of Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park has absolutely no material impact on the lives of contemporary Americans – except for the tiny minority of professional protestors.

• Removing Lee’s statue will do absolutely nothing to help modern African-Americans. Tearing down the statue will not end discrimination, racism, income inequality, gang violence, poverty, police shootings, police repression, political disenfranchisement, lack of education, lack of opportunity, lack of healthcare, voter suppression, mass incarceration, the housing crisis, mass unemployment or any of the other catastrophes plaguing the black community.

 

• Allowing Lee’s statue to stand will do absolutely nothing to help working class whites. Leaving the statue in the park will not address the heroin crisis, income inequality, poverty, police repression, mass incarceration, political disenfranchisement, the housing crisis, police repression, civil forfeiture, mass unemployment, lack of education, lack of opportunity lack of healthcare, or any of the other problems facing the white working class.

• The monuments to the Confederacy do not represent history. Instead all they represent is past generations’ taste in public artwork.

 

• Despite the media’s histrionics Heather Heyer died; and 19 people were injured, for nothing but symbolism. Another young American, James Alex Fields Jr., murdered an innocent person; and destroyed his own future in the process to protect meaningless symbolism.

 

• The violence in Charlottesville represents young Americans’ frustration with the contemporary status quo – not a debate over the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement.

 

• Heather Heyer did not die because of the Civil War; or Slavery, or Robert E. Lee she died because of contemporary racism, income inequality and political disenfranchisement. If we do not solve those problems more people will die.

• The media, business and political elites’ growing obsession with Charlottesville is likely to make those frustrations far worse. Just put yourself in the place of a poor working class person with no job, no money, no health insurance, a stack of unpaid bills; and possibly an eviction notice, on the table, and a sick child that needs medical care. You turn on the TV and see your self-proclaimed leaders ranting and raving about something that happened over 150 years ago, rather than discussing the very real problems facing you. That sounds like a recipe for revolution to me.

 

• The political fallout from Charlottesville will harm Democrats and leftists as much or more than it harms Trump and Republicans.

 

• Angry voters that want something done about jobs, healthcare, education, Social Security and other problems will punish politicians from both major parties for their obsession with Confederate statues.

• President Donald J. Trump’s (R-New York) obsession with Charlottesville will destroy his political career – if he does not drop the subject immediately.

 

• Republican primary voters elected Trump because of his focus on meat and potatoes economic issues like trade – not cultural matters like race. If he keeps obsessing over race and statues – the Donald will lose their support.

 

• Trump had a great opportunity to change the national dialogue and defuse the crisis on 15 August, but he blew it completely, Guardian writer David Smith noted. The Donald was supposed to talk about his $1 trillion infrastructure scheme at Trump Tower. Instead he delivered an incoherent rant defending white supremacists.

 

• A proposal to fix our decrepit infrastructure would have been welcome news to the tens of millions of people who use America’s crumbling highways, and archaic public transit systems every day. Yet Trump abandoned it and engaged in imbecilic race baiting instead.

• The media knows how to manipulate Trump; and distract him from his agenda, by simply focusing on racial issues.

 

• Expect to see a vast amount of news coverage devoted to increasingly meaningless race-related cultural issues. All of which will be designed to bait Trump and get him to make stupid remarks designed to drive ratings and click rates at websites.

 

• The entire Trump agenda; America First, the trade policy, the Wall, immigration reform, increased defense spending, border security, Obamacare repeal, infrastructure and tax cuts is dead.

 

• Trump’s infrastructure plan is dead because extreme conservative Republicans in Congress; who oppose all public spending on infrastructure, now control the agenda.

• Continued Trump obsession with race will create an opening for Republican rivals; such as Governor John R. Kasich (R-Ohio) or U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) – if they avoid discussing the issue.

 

• The real winners from this debacle will be leftists like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, U.S. Senator Liz Warren (D-Massachusetts) and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) – if they play their cards right.

 

• All leftists have to do to win big in next year’s Democratic primaries and Congressional elections, is to ignore the Charlottesville mess and concentrate their talk on meat and potatoes economic issues.

 

• Voters do not want to hear about Robert E. Lee; they want to hear what politicians are planning to do about healthcare, education, infrastructure, student loans, jobs, raising the minimum wage and Social Security.

• It is a safe assumption that many political leaders and media executives are focusing on the mayhem in Charlottesville; and the silly debate over Confederate statues, to distract Americans from the very real problems facing their country.

 

• Disturbingly there are political leaders; on both sides of the aisle, who would rather see young Americans kill each other in the streets than change the status quo they profit some. For good examples of such brain dead behavior see House Minority Leader U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and U.S. Senator Marco (the robot) Rubio (R-Florida).

 

• Mass violence; possibly the burning of cities by rampaging mobs; or organized guerrilla warfare of some sort, is likely if our leaders keep failing to address the nation’s problems.

 

Those who think violence and political upheaval will end if we remove all the Confederate statues are sadly mistaken. Instead such removals will spark greater conflicts that will destroy many lives, careers and communities.