Are we Americans not brave enough to say both sides are wrong? In the wake of the Charlottesville, VA violence, where Antifa and Alt-Right protesters clashed, and James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into his opponents, can’t we all simply admit that the neither side represents America?
This week we will suffer through further calls for Trump’s resignation, calls for congress to hold Trump to account for allowing the violence and not condemning the alt-right enough, calls for Republicans and Conservatives to own “Unite the Right,” and to accept James Alex Fields as its new poster boy.
This is the media’s standard operating procedure. It’s the hallmark if our grievance narrative, finding planks in the opposition’s eye while ignoring the planks in their own.
But the mainstream media doesn’t speak for America. And neither does Antifa and the Alt-Right. What America should be discovering it that all three are bad actors that should have their narrative parsed, clarified and brought back into line.
Yes, White Supremacy Is Wrong (duh)
Alt-right spokesman Richard Spencer rallied “Unite the Right” on a platform taken largely from Trump, concerns about national identity, national security, applying the rule of law, and immigration. These values resonate with the American right because they were things the Obama administration ignored, botched or ridiculed for eight years.
These are issues that need an open discussion.
The problem is, Richard Spencer and his ilk also come with unwanted baggage: white Aryan nationalism, antisemitism, and the belief in European Christendom but not Christianity. These are things that Conservatives, most of the American right, and Donald Trump utterly reject, but they’re exactly what the media will try to conflate with Trump’s agenda.
Yes, Antifa Is Also Wrong
While the media [bravely] rejects Aryan racism, they will ignore or refuse to reject the Antifa movment, which actually has more in common with Nazis than the neo-Nazis they’re fighting.
Antifa is also as varied as the Alt-Right. While their immediate and focused efforts are anti-Trump, their concerns are for economic fairness, and the equitable use of our public institutions. These values resonate with the American left, and they are what the mainstream media believe they are selling.
The problem is, Antifa has twin anarchist and socialist branches that also come with baggage: belief in globalism over national interests, the rejection of borders and immigration policy, rejection of free speech, and for America’s greed and historic racism, the rejection of capitalism and our Constitution. These are things the American left and the media should reject, but in the wake of Charlottesville, they won’t.
They won’t even talk about them. It’s easier to condemn white racism and the violence in general. That is the narrative.
The left is fond of the chant, “No justice; no peace.” What they don’t seem to realize it that without peace, there can be no justice. Peace must come first. But Antifa doesn’t want peace, or discussion, and neither does the liberal media.
So while both sides argue over James Alex Fields Jr. bringing a car to a club fight, consider how American public discourse might go forward.
Can we not agree that the Alt-Right and Antifa are both wrong on racial and cultural purity? America’s success is largely defined by cultural appropriation. Without it we wouldn’t have jazz, or pizza, or our unprecedented medical advancements.
Can we not agree that the Alt-Right and Antifa are both wrong on Christianity? In their own way, both reject the individual’s right to conscience and to freely exercise faith in public discourse. Both clearly reject Jesus’ call to treat our neighbors as ourselves.
Antifa Is Probably the Bigger Threat
And though we may – and should – debate the particulars of the below, I cannot help but notice a disturbing pattern:
- Does the United States deserve a national identity?
Alt-Right: Yes (albeit whites-only).
Antifa: No.
- Does the United States deserve borders, and immigration laws that are respected?
Alt-Right: Yes.
Antifa: No.
- Should the United States have the right to determine who becomes an American citizen?
Alt-Right: Yes.
Antifa: No.
- Should American citizens be allowed to assemble, speak, worship, and promote their beliefs in the public square?
Alt-Right: Yes, well, maybe. Depends.
Antifa: No.
- Should the US Constitution stand as the highest law of the land?
Alt-Right: Sure, I guess. I mean, with clarifications.
Antifa: No.
But the news this week won’t resound with these questions and probe to the depths each side’s egregious weaknesses. We will not hear how Trump inherited these divisions instituted by Obama. We will hear little of Soros-funded institutions who benefit from the chaos these protest rally and protests inspire.
We will be called to renounce white bigotry and hate Trump. Unfortunately, that leaves much of the argument unspoken.
