It is important to make two points at the beginning of this piece:
1) The White supremacist movement, presently gaining some ground in the USA is an indefensible, racist movement that continues the stench of the Nazi party who caused the loss of so many lives of all creeds and colours just over half a century ago.
2) All acts of violence at demonstrations should be condemned for two principal reasons. Firstly they substitute progress by democracy for progress by thuggery. Secondly, they place in danger the lives of people who have to be there to protect us from ourselves.
This point was clearly illustrated by the tragic loss of two police officers in the Charlottesville riots. The events that are the parent of this article.
I don't think I can be any plainer than that!
The rest of the truth
Having said the above there are other points that must be made, however unpleasant they may be to the equally violent left wing protesters. Not all of the facts have so far emerged about the numbskull who caused the car to crash into the crowd leaving at least one person dead. Most reports state that his father was a Republican and that he was too, but others claim he was a Democrat. It does not matter. His actions were psychopathic and no punishment will be too extreme. More importantly, the demonstration by the supremacists was a licensed, planned demonstration whereas the counter demonstration from Antifa was not (Oh, and it looked like at least one of the Antifa mob took a flamethrower along, just in case).
The Antifa group are as hateful and violent as the right wing brutes. The demonstration was about the removal of the statue of Robert E Lee the Confederate leader of the Civil War. He now upsets left wing sensibilities and a statue that has stood for years was to be removed. A legal and planned protest was held, as was the right of the supporters of Lee.
But Antifa was there as always, denying the right to protest because they disagreed and calling for loathsome violence to befall their opponents. Behaving in the exact, fascist way they claim to oppose. It is hardly surprising that violence and murder followed.
It is easy to predict the reaction many on the left will have to the above facts.
It's our right and duty to fight fascism in any way, wherever we find it. Doesn't matter who drove the car it was Trump's fault overall. It's all a conspiracy by billionaires. And so on. The left wing crusaders are so certain that they are correct that democracy, reason, including indisputable facts and accepting any hint of responsibility for anything, is beyond them.
When you reject democracy you open the door to Anarchy and Repression
The election of Trump, as well as in Europe, the decision to leave the EU have not been accepted, most of the opposition loudly trumpet that fact. The hate and rage they feel against Trump and Brexiteers transcend everything. They demand protests, they often welcome violent ones.
They pretend that lies have only been told by one side (the other side) and make up incredible fantasies relating to plots by billionaires, conveniently forgetting that the Democrats outspent Trump and that most UK billionaires were on the side of remain. They refuse to let the President carry out the policies he was democratically elected to implement. In Europe, there have been politicians like Blair, Clegg and Heseltine who all agitate to deny the will of the people, after spending the previous forty years denying them a vote.
In America, this refusal to accept democracy has even led to many prominent people siding with an evil lunatic, who has murdered (or had murdered) many of his own people and is now threatening nuclear destruction to Japan, South Korea and America, over their own duly elected Commander in Chief.
They would rather excuse a wicked, tinpot dictator and continue the appeasement that has allowed North Korea to become the world's most unstable nuclear power, than stand firmly behind the President and the free world and let Kim know that attempting to carry out the action he has threatened will lead to his immediate and complete destruction.
This hateful control of only accepting decisions you agree with and demanding everyone falls into line with your idealism has been tried many times. The old USSR were masters at it, but when the Berlin Wall came down everyone ran from East to West. Iran still continues this behaviour but that country is a poverty stricken throwback to the Dark Ages. Venezuela is the latest experiment of this stupidity to lead a previously prosperous country to poverty, violence and despair.
The future of the free world demands freedom of speech, the plurality of opinion and the right to review. It also demands the supporting of the democratically made decisions of your country, even if you don't agree with them and supporting the people who have the duty to put them in to practice.
