Confederate "Heritage" Month 2019, April 21: Trump as Jefferson Davis

Lucian Truscotto IV in Slow motion civil war Salon 11/17/2019 draws on Confederate symbolism and uses it as negative in today's context, not as favorable and not in the sense of glorifying the Confederacy.

He recalls Trump's response to the infamous demonstrations of "white supremacists, neo-nazis, neo-confederates, white nationalists, and neo-fascists" in Charlottesville August 2017 in which Heather Heyer was murdered by a radical white extremist:

Later the day she died, President Trump went before the cameras at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and said, "We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one!" Responding to a question, he went on to say, "we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides." He was roundly criticized that day and the next for blaming the violence that caused multiple injuries and the death of Heather Heyer on “many sides.”

Responding to the criticism three days later, Trump addressed the media at Trump Tower and repeated his claim that there was “blame on both sides.” Responding to another question, Trump asserted, "Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.” He went on to criticize the movement to take down Confederate statues as “an attempt to change history,” and criticized “the very, very violent alt-left.” He went on to defend the protest by the alt-right in Charlottesville by saying “there were very fine people on both sides.”
...
At a rally in Phoenix, Arizona a week later, Trump defended his statements at the Trump Tower press conference and again criticized the movement to take down Confederate statues. “They're trying to take away our culture, they're trying to take away our history,” Trump said. “And our weak leaders, they do it overnight.” ...

It was crystal clear who “our” refers to, crystal clear why Trump felt compelled to note that “not all” of the demonstrators in Charlottesville were “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacists.” He stood with those defending the celebration of the Confederacy with statues of Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. ”Our” people are white people. [my emphasis]

More particularly, white people who honor the images and symbols and the white supremacist cause of the Confederacy.

Truscotto goes on to describe some the acts of white supremacist violence in the US in the Age of Trump. and otes that Trump "he is their Jefferson Davis."

I have reservations about using "civil war" to describe our current level of far right terrorism, as Truscotto does. But he's right to understand it as very much in the spirit of the Confederate revolt of the 19th century.

The Times article on how the US government was blind in the right eye over domestic terrorism

If you're wondering how far-right terrorist attacks became as unsurprising a part of American life as mass murders at schools (despite violent crimes overall continuing to decline), this is a big part of the story: U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don’t Know How to Stop It. New York Times 11/03/2018.

The portion featuring former Homeland Security intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson is very revealing. The story he relates about how the Obama Administration backed off on investigating and enforcing the law against violent-focused far-right groups in 2009 under heavy pressure from Republicans isn't new. It was very publicly discussed at the time. You just had to make an effort to listen to journalists and researchers concerned about the problem. Because the mainstream press wasn't giving it more than a fraction of the coverage that they devoted to (often sloppy) reporting about the "Tea Party" antics that year.

By chance, during the neo-Nazi demonstrations in Charlestown in August of last year when the news came in that Heather Heyer had been murdered by one of them, I was in Atlanta listening to a presentation on far-right extremism moderated by David Neiwert of the SPLC that included Johnson and Rabiah Ahmed of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Johnson talked about his 2009 experience and the continuing problem.

With all the incidents since, it's worth recalling that the murderous Charlottesville Nazi crowd were described by the President of the United States as containing "very fine people." He won't be listening to Daryl Johnson's advice.