White supremacists and counter protesters clash in Charlottesville

[Anomalocaris]

I hope future politicians will take note of how bad things are going for Trump.....

More likely trump would have opened the eyes of future political opportunists to how long it is possible to get away with ignoring all public decorum, pandering explicitly only to a core of lowlife supporters, and lie bluntly all the time, and marginalized all knowledge, experience and expertise.

[TaraJo]

I hope future politicians will take note of how bad things are going for Trump.....

More likely trump would have opened the eyes of future political opportunists to how long it is possible to get away with ignoring all public decorum, pandering explicitly only to a core of lowlife supporters, and lie bluntly all the time, and marginalized all knowledge, experience and expertise.

Unfortunately, you're probably right.  

And, of course, the left politicians are going to continue to try to appeal to the moderates while the right appeals to the fringe.  That's what's been happening for 20 years and I don't expect it to stop any time soon.  The result is that politics in general have gotten pushed to the right so much so that there is no real left anymore; there's a right wing party and a crazy, far-right, extremist party.

[Brian37]

I hope future politicians will take note of how bad things are going for Trump.....

More likely trump would have opened the eyes of future political opportunists to how long it is possible to get away with ignoring all public decorum, pandering explicitly only to a core of lowlife supporters, and lie bluntly all the time, and marginalized all knowledge, experience and expertise.

Since 45 started his campaign I have warned and others see it to, so it is not just me. This is a danger. Many of his supporters who may not be bigots do not see the long term danger. If more politicians see a cheap win with Jerry Springer WWE language, we most certainly could become a one party fascist state over time.

Our Constitution is still in tact sure, but the only way it stays that way is if those who understand his toxic rhetoric in politics raise their voices as much as possible. 

45 is not a private citizen anymore. He is not a shock jock on TV he is a national and world leader, and nothing our politicians should be. The good thing is that our nation leans left, and we still have the numbers to prevent our nation from backsliding into a very dark place.

[TaraJo]

Our Constitution is still in tact sure, but the only way it stays that way is if those who understand his toxic rhetoric in politics raise their voices as much as possible. 

The orange moron is going out of his way to attack freedom of speech, though.  Especially freedom of press.  And he's been completely supportive of people using violence against protesters as long as he's the one being protested.  Not to mention, he seems to be on board with repealing any laws regulating police violence.  Yeah, this is dangerous.  I'm kinda wondering if we're right now in the beginning of a new American civil war?  If the left starts arming themselves the way the right is, I could easily see it happening.

[Divinity]

I find it funny that the people who are so against Participation Trophies want to let the south keep the biggest fucking participation trophies there are.

[John V]

1. Towns can remove statues if they want. Personally I don't see why they had statues of losers in the first place.

2. It's easily foreseeable that people who support what those statues stand for will protest.

3. Dignifying their protest with a counter-protest is playing right into their hand.

[Brian37]

Our Constitution is still in tact sure, but the only way it stays that way is if those who understand his toxic rhetoric in politics raise their voices as much as possible. 

The orange moron is going out of his way to attack freedom of speech, though.  Especially freedom of press.  And he's been completely supportive of people using violence against protesters as long as he's the one being protested.  Not to mention, he seems to be on board with repealing any laws regulating police violence.  Yeah, this is dangerous.  I'm kinda wondering if we're right now in the beginning of a new American civil war?  If the left starts arming themselves the way the right is, I could easily see it happening.

Agreed. He has convinced the far right that he is simply "talking tough", and unfortunately even the middle on the right have fallen for it. 

I seriously hope not. 45 is not worth a civil war. I am hoping he jumps a shark so bad that not even the GOP can ignore it. Or, at a minimum, his polling stays so low that he loses in 2020. Never in my life of paying attention to politics have I seen such a toxic politician. 

Romney didn't talk like that, McCain did not talk like that, neither Bush Jr or Sr or Reagan ran such vile campaigns like 45 has. We have not seen this level of toxic political rhetoric since the 1960s.

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1. Towns can remove statues if they want. Personally I don't see why they had statues of losers in the first place.

2. It's easily foreseeable that people who support what those statues stand for will protest.

3. Dignifying their protest with a counter-protest is playing right into their hand.

It would be awesome if we could simply treat those assholes like some nutcase on a street corner shouting that their dog gave them the gift of prophecy, but the problem is they feel empowered now and no, considering their growing lack of shame and growing public displays they should not be ignored. 

Otherwise what happened to Heather this weekend will lead to more of this. 

[TaraJo]

I don't think Trump is woth a civil war, either, but seeing the way the media has become so extremely polarized over the past 30 years, after seeing how divided our country is, I can't help but wonder, how are we going to be able to unite the nation? We were briefly on the same page after 9/11 happened, but since then, we've been at each others throats constantly.

[Autumnlicious]

Many of the statues went up during Jim Crow.

Would anyone really argue that Jim Crow is part of the Southern identity? As opposed to a racist group hijacking it for their own nefarious ends?

Take those statues down, rename streets and buildings. Because the origins of those placements was pure and simple "Nyah nyah we can deny Blacks rights!"

Fact that escapes many of you is appalling - you act as if George Washington installed them, not a bunch of racist, angry Southern Democrats trying everything they could to suppress Blacks.

Not all monuments are created equal. If I recall, we demolished quite a few Nazi monuments. Shame we're better for the Germans than we are for ourselves.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't think Trump is woth a civil war, either, but seeing the way the media has become so extremely polarized over the past 30 years, after seeing how divided our country is, I can't help but wonder, how are we going to be able to unite the nation?  We were briefly on the same page after 9/11 happened, but since then, we've been at each others throats constantly.

Trump is not worth a civil war. But to stop and reverse the rot in the American political system characterized by marginalization of expertise, experience, and science, the demonization of public service and the pursuit of greater public good, the glorification of ruthless selfishness and self aggrandizement, cynical pandering to superstitions and self-destructive insecurities of those who decline to properly equip themselves for an evolving economy, and the encouragement of political polarization to serve the narrow interests of the already very well off, may well require something comparably drastic.